Jessica Kensky and her husband, Patrick, had been married for half of a year when they decided to cheer on the back-of-the-pack runners participating in the 2013 Boston Marathon. She had no idea that in an instant, the scene would be transformed into what she described as a war zone.
Kensky was the first witness called by the prosecution to testify in the trial of alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsnaraev. Though her testimony was at times just as intense and grave as those who took the stand before her, Kensky’s strength and unconditional love for her husband was most apparent.
When asked to identify her dearly beloved in a photo by drawing a circle around him using an interactive digital screen, she opted to draw a heart instead.
Between the two of them, at least 30 surgeries were performed due to the extent of their injuries. Together they had managed their way through the swelling crowd close to the finish line and spectated for about 10 to 15 minutes.
“I remember being happy, I remember feeling sunlight on my face, I remember feeling really free,” said Kensky. She and Patrick were holding each other, laughing and cheering and clapping with all the rest when suddenly, something abnormal happened.
“I didn’t see anything, I didn’t hear anything, I just felt like I was on a rocket,” added Kensky.
Initially she thought that something had backfired or, like the father of 8-year old Martin Richard considered the possibility that it was an underground sewage combustion.
The blast, though, was the first of two pressure cooking bombs to explode that day. Packed full of explosive powder, metal BBs and pieces of shrapnel, it tore through her and Patrick’s legs.
She would have her left leg amputated upon being brought to Massachusetts General Hospital. In January 2015, she had her right leg amputated. Kensky estimates, too, that she has as many as 40 BBs still lodged in her skin. Patrick’s left leg was also amputated below the knee.
“These are war wounds and really military doctors are the ones most qualified to make these decisions,” said Kensky. “To lose the second leg was a gut wrenching, devastating decision. It’s incredibly unnatural to have to make a decision to remove a body part, and to do that you might improve your quality of life.”
The two were separated in the confusion and chaos in the aftermath of the bombing when Kensky was taken to MGH. But they were reunited at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Center in Charlestown where they resolved not to let their injuries dictate their lives.
In court Monday was their “first born” child, a service dog aptly named Rescue. He joined the Kensky family in December 2013 and has since provided them with love and delight both in and out of the courtroom.
