Here is an article featured in the Liberty University Journal. As an alum of the college, they reached out to me to see if I would allow them to include my story in the Fall edition of the magazine.
Graduate injured in Boston Marathon bombing finds hope in midst of tragedy
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| DiMartino shares time with friends as she recovers in a Boston hospital. |
What began as a fun family trip quickly became a life-changing experience for alumna Gina DiMartino (’07, M.B.A.). DiMartino, of Rochester, N.Y., and several members of her family traveled to Boston to watch her mother run in the Boston Marathon on April 15.
As DiMartino eagerly tracked her mother’s progress via a smart phone app, she and three other loved ones were caught in one of two blasts that claimed the lives of three and wounded at least 264 near the finish line.
DiMartino was only 10-15 feet away when the bomb went off, sending her and the other spectators flying through the air. The trauma caused her to teeter in and out of consciousness, so she only remembers the event in pieces: the sound of the explosion, being lifted off the ground, her sister binding a sweatshirt around her bleeding leg, being ushered into an ambulance, and waking up in the hospital a day later.
Her injuries included a large gash near her right knee, resulting in severe nerve damage that caused her to lose feeling from the knee down. Thankfully, she is expected to fully regain feeling in her leg and foot, but the process may take up to 400 days. Her brother, Peter, his girlfriend, and her son were also injured but are all expected to recover sooner.
DiMartino was released from the hospital on May 9, after three weeks in a hospital room and another stint at a rehab center. Now she is living on the first floor of her parents’ Rochester home as she recovers. She has limited mobility and goes to physical therapy three days a week.
Through this experience, DiMartino has found strength and encouragement in the Lord. She clings to the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “God’s power is made perfect in weakness” (paraphrase).
“Laying in the hospital bed, I could feel God’s strength,” she said. “I knew that I had absolutely no strength to get through all the surgeries and everything that was going on, and dealing with it. I could feel God’s strength, and I could feel He was with me.”
She said even in her darkest moments, God never fails to bring encouragement, often in the form of a text or email. In addition to tremendous support from family, friends, and her church, she has also received encouragement from a number of people she has never met, many of them fellow believers.
“It is an amazing feeling to be so surrounded and protected by God and prayer and just feeling His promises fulfilled in you,” she said. “There have been so many people who have been so encouraging to me, many that I don’t even know.”
Written by Andrew Menard
Gina DiMartino 