Temple Podiatry Students Get Unexpected Training At Finish Line of Boston Marathon
By John Ostapkovich
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A group of Temple Univeristy podiatry students, stationed near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, found their job description changed in an instant that afternoon.
Dr. Howard Palamarchuk of Temple's School of Podiatry says his crew of students were getting ready for their busiest time, when marathoners would stagger in with blisters, arch problems, and stress fractures.
But the bombings changed everything. First responders and trauma personnel rushed to the scene, evacuating the most seriously wounded to hospitals, while Dr. Palamarchuk and his team became part of a finely-tuned machine.
"I think it was a good learning experience, definitely, to come away with that, and the respect for the teamwork," he said afterward. "It's absolute teamwork. You know, once the word was 'go,' everybody moved and did what they had to do. No job was too small. It was equipment, bandages, whatever you could do. I feel it made a big difference."
He says for many this took the term sharpnel wound from textbook to reality.
