Marathon bomb victims to share $60.9 million

$2.2M to go to double amputees, families of deceased

Boston Marathon bombing survivor Roseann Sdoia, of Boston, talks with physical therapist Dara Casparian.

BOSTON — The charity fund established after the Boston Marathon bombings will award $60.9 million to victims of the attacks, including maximum payments of nearly $2.2 million each to two double amputees and the families of the four people who died.

Fourteen people who lost single limbs will receive nearly $1.2 million each.

In all, 232 will receive payments, said Camille Biros, deputy administrator of the One Fund Boston, which has been collecting donations.

The statistics that accompany the payments provide the best accounting to date of the human impact of the April 15 attack, though some of the people injured might not have applied for funds.

Authorities have said that more than 260 people were injured in the blasts.

Sixty-nine people who were hospitalized for at least one night will receive six-figure payouts that range from $125,000 for the 18 people who spent one or two nights in a medical facility to $948,000 for the 10 victims who spent 32 nights or more. Some members of that group are still in rehab hospitals.

Another 143 people who were treated at hospitals but did not require admission will receive $8,000 each, Ms. Biros said.

The size of the awards was determined by attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who has decided compensation after other disasters, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

In this case, the lump-sum, tax-free payments were awarded regardless of individual income or medical costs, and recipients did not have to relinquish their right to sue.

The fund is to help victims, some of whom face a lifetime of medical costs, with their immediate needs.

“It was always our intention to get them a million dollars,” Ms. Biros said of the double amputees, the three people killed in the attack, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer killed during the manhunt for two suspects. “And as the funds kept coming in, we were able to push that up.”

The $2.195 million maximum awards are similar to the $2.082 million average award given to the families of each person killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, she said.

The two bombs that went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed 29-year-old Krystle Campbell of Medford, Mass., 8-year-old Martin Richard of Dorchester, and Lingzi Lu, 23, a Chinese citizen and graduate student at Boston University.

The MIT police officer, Sean Collier, was shot and killed when the two suspects in the bombing, brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, allegedly tried to rob him of his gun later that week.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a subsequent shootout with police. His 19-year-old brother is in custody and was indicted Thursday on 30 counts connected to the violence including the four deaths.

Ms. Biros said 26 people were denied compensation for a variety of reasons, mostly because they claimed psychological trauma, which the fund does not cover. One victim’s file contains insufficient information, but that person may later qualify, Ms. Biros said.

The decision to give everyone who did not require hospitalization the same award was made in the interest of distributing the money quickly, she said.

The severity of their injuries “was not something we considered,” she said. “... It would have been an entirely different protocol” that could have taken six months to decide.

Disbursement of any additional money that comes into the One Fund will be determined by the charity’s directors. Victims also are eligible to receive money from other funds.