Marathon bombing victim returns home after rehab

KATY, Texas – A woman injured in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing who had several surgeries before having part of her leg amputated recently was discharged from a rehab facility Saturday and has vowed to run the race next year.

Rebekah DiMartino said she looks forward to getting her stitches out in early December and being fitted for a prosthetic left leg.

“The prognosis is great. I chopped off what was holding me back,” DiMartino said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press as she packed up to leave. “The prognosis is you’ll see me running the Boston Marathon next year.”

DiMartino had more than a dozen operations but still dealt with lingering pain. She had surgery Nov. 10 to remove her left leg below the knee. She entered rehab Nov. 14 and was going home Saturday to nearby Richmond.

Rebekah Gregory was watching last year’s Boston Marathon when bombs exploded. Her son, now 7, and her then-boyfriend, Peter DiMartino, were also hurt. The couple wed last spring in Asheville, North Carolina.

She does not expect her loss of a limb to adversely affect the rest of her life.

“This is about to be Rebekah unleashed. They haven’t seen anything yet. This is the good part of the story,” DiMartino said. “Not only am I moving on, I am trying to do my part in changing the world while doing it.”

A suspect charged in the bombing, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, awaits trial. His older brother, Tamerlan, was killed in a shootout with police after the bombing.