Huffington Post: Jeff Bauman, Iconic Photo

By Eleanor Goldberg, Huffington Post

07-08-2013

Jeff Bauman, the Boston bombing victim who’s become the face of resilience since the attacks, recently took his first steps toward independence.

In its extensive profile, The New York Times painted the painstaking efforts Bauman, who lost both legs in the bombings, has made in order to heal and learn to live with his injuries. The 27-year-old is perhaps one of the most well known survivors — in large part because of a gruesome photo that went viral, showing him being wheeled away from the finish line with a peace activist in a cowboy hat pinching his artery closed.

Now, nearly two months after the bombings and a number of surgeries, Bauman manages his pain with a baggie of prescribed pills and works with a physical therapist to strengthen his body and learn to walk again with his prosthetics.

“I just want to get to the places I can’t get in the wheelchair, you know? I want to stand up,” Bauman told his prosthetist’s assistant, according to the Times.

With his mom and girlfriend by his side, Bauman recently took his first few steps.

To get to this point, Bauman has gotten help from an incredible amount of supporters. His Facebook page has more than 95,000 fans and his personal fundraising campaign has accrued nearly $800,000.

He’s getting help paying for his prosthetics, which cost about $100,000 each, from theWiggle Your Toes Foundation — a nonprofit that supports amputees.

Within hours of the bombings, the foundation already connected with four victims, according to myfoxtwincities.

“You’re completely lost. You have no idea what happened, why it happened,” Aaron Holm an amputee and founder of Wiggle Your Toes, told the news outlet. “Then, you start thinking forward, trying to figure out what the rest of your life is going to look like.”

Bauman certainly has started to get an idea of what the rest of his vibrant life may look like.

He expressed concern about not being able to do all of the activities he once loved, but Bauman has already been pretty active during his recovery.

He threw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game in May and showed the world on his Facebook page pictures of him swimming with his girlfriend and driving a boat.

It’s the kind of perseverance he’s upheld since he was critically injured.

“You only look forward,” Bauman told WEEI back in April. “I had a lot to live for before, and I’ve got a lot to live for now.”

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