2 brothers each lose a leg in Boston bombings

Two brothers each lost a leg while watching a friend compete in the Boston Marathon.

The men, both roofers recently laid off from their jobs, had gone to the race on Monday to cheer on a friend. Instead, they became victims of the bomb blasts near the finish line at the Boston event, according to a story in the Boston Globe.

The 31- and 33- year old brothers were separated in the confusion and were raced to different hospitals. Their mother, Liz Norden, told the paper that she was grocery shopping when she received a call from her younger son, who was being taken by ambulance to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

He'd said, "Ma, I’m hurt real bad," Norden, who has five children, told the Globe. He also told her that he had severe burns on his legs.

It took two hours for Norden to locate her other son, who had been taken to Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He, too, had lost a leg in the blast. Both losses were from the knee down.

Sitting outside the emergency room at Deaconess, she told the Globe, “I’d never imagined in my wildest dreams this would ever happen.”

She added, “I feel sick. I think I could pass out.” She didn’t want her sons’ names released without first talking to them.

The two brothers are among over 170 injured in the blasts at the Boston Marathon, 10 of whom lost limbs, according to CNN.