How Much Blood Did Jeff Bauman Lose at Boston Bombing?

For those unfamiliar with the Boston Bombing one of the victims was a man by the name Jeff Bauman, who lost both legs below the knee, and is seen in several iconic images of the events. Bauman made an amazing recovery, and was involved in photo shoots giving gifts to other victims, as well as being a special flag waver at the Boston Bruins hockey game. Bauman was rescued by a cowboy hat wearing Carlos Arrendondo.

This article, using some rough estimates, will attempt to show how much blood Jeff Bauman lost at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.


Question 1: How long was Bauman on the ground?
Using this video as reference we can see that the explosion took place at 0:06. The last time we see Carlos in the video is at 2:31, which we will consider the end of the video since Carlos was said to hold the arteries shut with his hand. This means that Bauman was on the ground for 2 minutes, 25 seconds.

 

Question 2: How much blood is pumped through the femoral artery?
The cardiac output (CO) for a male is 5.6 L/min. Using this PubMed article we can see that at rest the average LBF (Leg Blood Flow) for a male is 400ml/min. Since Bauman had both legs severed this would be doubled to 800ml/min. An average male has about 5L of blood, shock sets in around 40% blood loss, unconsciousness would happen at 50%.

Bauman was on the ground for 2 minutes 25 seconds. He was losing .8 L/min of blood.

(2 + (25/60)) * .8 = 1.933L

1.93/5 = .38 = 38%

Jeff Bauman lost 38% of his blood in between the time the bomb exploded, and Carlos got to the scene. Some time must have passed between the 2:31 mark in the video, and this image which is of Bauman being wheeled down the street in a wheelchair by Carlos.

I haven't yet calculated the total time of this event, but I think it's beyond the scope. It's already established that Bauman should have been in shock, or unconscious after 2:25 of blood flowing out of his dual severed femoral arteries, which left him with only 62% of his blood remaining.

By all accounts clearly a miracle he survived, and made such a speedy recovery.