Panter was packed sardine-like
DR. J. ALLAN PANTER AND WIFE TERESA
next to other spectators, about 30 feet from the finish line, in midafternoon on April 15. He couldn’t spot his wife yet, but he would learn in retrospect that she was just about to turn onto Boylston Street— the home stretch—when the first deafening explosion hit at 2:49 p.m.
“The thing was so loud and
right next to me, so I thought ‘bomb’ immediately,” Panter says. “The second one didn’t feel like 10 seconds later; it felt almost immediate. At that point, I definitely thought ‘bomb.’”
Panter (’81), Medical Director of
Harris Regional Hospital in Sylva, N.C., has worked in emergency medicine throughout his career. He loves the pace and intensity—“the ability to switch gears and do different things,” he says. Those decades of trauma experience would prove to be invaluable. “I looked behind me and saw people going down,” he says, his voice preternaturally calm. “All the people between me and the bomb took it. The fact that we were all packed in is what kind of protected me.”
His extensive skills, along with
experience gleaned in numerous disaster drills, kicked in immediately. ME DIC AL COL LE GE o f GE OR GIA
“I turned to the left and pulled a man out from under a lady. His legs were gone. I put tourniquets on the guy,
pressure ventilation to someone
then gave CPR to the lady on top of
struggling to breathe). I started
him.”
bagging the lady while a guy pounded
on my chest begging for help. I threw
His laser-like focus couldn’t drown
out the cacophony of screams or the
the lady onto a stretcher and ran her
sea of chaos. But he had work to do.
to a medical tent. But by the time we
“I don’t like being caught without my
got there, she had no pulse.”
tools, and out of nowhere, somebody
handed me an AMBU bag (a
Krystal Campbell, one of three fatally
handheld device to provide positive
injured victims.
The woman was 29-year-old
PHOTO: WINGATE DOWNS
‘I Thought Bomb Immediately.’