Story highlights
- Nurse Stephen Segatore gave bombing victim CPR, but "wounds were too great"
- Later Segatore realized the woman was Krystle Campbell, one of 3 fatalities
- He would like to speak with Campbell's parents about her last moments
The nurse who tended to Boston Marathon bombing victim Krystle Campbell near the finish line during her final moments of life would like to meet her parents in the hopes he could give them some solace in their grief.
Stephen Segatore would like to tell Campbell's parents that she didn't die alone, and she didn't suffer for long.
When EMTs carried a woman into the medical tent where Segatore was volunteering, he was struck by her beauty, her youth and her bright blue eye shadow.
The freckles on her face and the shape of her eyes reminded him of his oldest daughter, who is not much younger than the woman who lay on the stretcher before him with multiple wounds, not breathing and unconscious.
Even though he knew she probably wouldn't understand a word he said, Segatore told the woman he was a nurse and would take good care of her.
Remembering Krystle Campbell 02:09
Boston remembers the bombing victims 02:28
Second bombing victim named 02:14
For the next 10 minutes, Segatore, who works in the intensive care unit at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, an EMT and a physician gave her CPR. But a cardiac monitor showed her heart wasn't pumping blood.
"The physician called (her death)," Segatore said. "The three of us who were working on her let out an expletive, a scream."
The next day he saw a picture of Campbell and realized she was the woman he had tried to save. He knew immediately from the bright blue eye shadow in the photo.
It was his only death Monday afternoon, and it has haunted him. Now Segatore would like to speak with the Campbells to tell them about their daughter's final moments.
"I want them to know she was not alone when she died," he said. "We did everything we could to save her, but her wounds were too great."
While he was giving Campbell CPR, he noticed black marks on her face, which he thinks might have been gunpowder, indicating she was very close to the blast.
"I don't think she lingered. I don't think she suffered," he said. "If it were my daughter, I would want to know that."
