Adrianne Haslet never lost consciousness after the bombs exploded. That meant, of course, that she was aware of all the horrible details of April 15, 2013.
Adrianne Haslet will celebrate the integral roles nurses play in the ED during Emergency Nursing 2026’s Sun-Rise & Reflect Session.
The day had started with such promise.
Haslet, a ballroom dancer, was relaxing on a rare day off when she happened upon the finish of an iconic race: the Boston Marathon. It was minutes before two bombs exploded, killing three people and injuring about 500, including Haslet.
The second bomb exploded near her, leaving half her left leg on the sidewalk. At the hospital, there was so much blood on the floor in her room that nurses were slipping. Haslet wasn’t expected to live.
What happened to Haslet that day — how nurses kept her alive, comforted her and inspired her recovery — will be the focus of her speech at Emergency Nursing 2026’s Closing Session. Haslet has often spoke of the Boston Medical Center surgeon who saved her life. Now she’s looking forward to putting the spotlight on the ED nurses who cared for her.
“I feel like I haven’t sung nurses’ praises enough,” Haslet said. “To be able to do that this time feels amazing.”
Heroic Measures
Haslet will share how nurses took care of her needs beyond medical. For instance, before she went into surgery, a nurse told Haslet she should call someone to say goodbye.
After losing her leg in the Boston Marathon bombing, Haslet speaks across the country about the importance of perseverance.
However, Haslet was so weak that she was having trouble remembering how to call her dad. The nurse helped find the number in her phone and found a way to muffle the background noise so her parents could hear her.
And when Haslet asked the nurse to give her parents directions because they were “just around the corner” — they were in Seattle — the nurse assured her she would help. Then she held Haslet’s hand.
“She knew they weren’t close. She knew I was lying to myself,” Haslet said. “She didn’t need to do that. For her to have the bandwidth in that chaos, it moved me.”
None of those actions saved Haslet’s life, but they filled her soul. The nurse cared about more than just a patient in front of her. She ensured two parents across the country would hear their daughter’s voice.
“She cared for people who weren’t in the room,” Haslet said. “It’s so beautiful and loving.”
Haslet lived, but she lost her leg. So, she made a commitment: The ballroom dancer who didn’t like running a mile decided to run the Boston Marathon.
It took her 10 hours and 44 minutes, but she completed the race in 2016. Then she set her sights on doing it again, only faster. And she became an advocate for para-athletes — one the major reasons the Boston Marathon added a para division.
But she wasn’t done with hospitals.
Adrianne Haslet worked with the organizers of the Boston Marathon to create a new category for runners with amputations.
Incredibly, she saw some of the same emergency nurses when she was hit by a car while training for the 2019 marathon.
Again, she was lucky to survive. But being “fortunate” twice meant she already knew how hard recovery would be. She started to spiral in the ED, irrationally refusing to let staff x-ray her.
A nurse held Haslet’s hand, reassured her, told she would go with to the x-ray room.
“She turned into this motherly figure at that moment which is absolutely what I needed,” Haslet said. “To be able to be calm when the other person is completely losing their mind is a really incredible quality, and it has shaped who I am now.”