COURAGE: Just six weeks after Sydney Corcoran nearly died at the Boston Marathon bombing (above), she lit up her high-school prom with boyfriend Tyler Veiga (inset). (AP)
The prom queen dazzled with a jeweled tiara — and decorated crutches.
Six weeks after nearly bleeding to death in the Boston Marathon bombing, 18-year-old Sydney Corcoran was reunited with her Lowell, Mass., classmates, who voted her prom queen.
“I keep feeling like I’m going to cry ’cause I’m just happy to be back,” Corcoran told NBC’s “Today” show. “It’s just really good to see everyone.”
Sydney and her family were at the Boston Marathon on April 15, loudly cheering on her aunt, when two explosions ripped through crowds of spectators near the finish line. The first blast separated Sydney from her mother and father. Sydney’s parents survived, but her mother’s legs were amputated.
Shrapnel from the homemade bomb severed a major blood vessel in Sydney’s right thigh. A good Samaritan applied steady pressure to her leg, which kept her from bleeding to death on the sidewalk.
Doctors were able to save Sydney’s leg. The pressure-cooker bomb also blew a hole through her right foot, where she lost bone and ligaments.
Sydney and mom Celeste recovered in the same Boston hospital room where, weeks later, Celeste helped her primp for the prom.
“She still wanted to help out, and she was determined to, so she made sure that she did my toes,” Sydney said.
Sydney’s preparations included an emotional return to the hair salon where her mother worked and a trip through Boston that brought painful reminders of the horrific incident of domestic terrorism, which killed two other young women and a little boy.
“Each time I go in, it’s scary,” Sydney said. “The first time, the entire car ride, I just had, like, flashbacks.”
Sydney celebrated the prom at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium on the arm of her boyfriend, Tyler Veiga. Before the prom, the happy couple took pictures in her parents’ driveway. Sydney wore a corsage around her wrist, and her crutches were decorated with flowers.
Classmates lined up to take pictures with her.
Her only disappointment was that she didn’t get to dance.
“I can’t put any weight on my right foot, so that would be difficult,” she told Boston’s Fox 25.
If Sydney seems emotional now, wait until her graduation next week. She wants to walk across the stage and get her diploma — without the crutches.
Sydney said she plans to attend Merrimack College in the fall and major in psychology.