(NECN: Josh Brogadir) - Doctors and nurses in Boston say it's hard not to look back on April 15, 2013, especially if they were in the middle of an emergency room dealing with critically injured victims of the attack.
"I came around the corner and heard our disaster radio go off, and it was not a normal tone," said Debra Trocchi, clinical leader of the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Emergency Room.
"We had prepared many times beforehand for how we treat patients in our emergency room," said chief ER medical resident Dr. Aaron Remenschneider, an ENT.
Even so, it's a day you are never quite prepared for, as the magnitude of the marathon tragedy unfolded in front of these three medical professionals inside the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Emergency Room.
"We do get into action and we do the right thing, but emotionally yes, it's real," said ER nurse manager Maureen Martinez.
As part of an event for the 2014 Boston Marathon Team Eye and Ear, Martinez, Trocchi and Remenschneider spoke at the New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord to let the community know about their critical roles on that day.
Dr. Remenschneider is running this year on Team Eye and Ear, and so is Jack Savage, who was on the team two years ago after he lost his brother-in-law to ocular melanoma; Jack was near the finish line last year.
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"It's been a tough winter for everybody, but every time I start to feel sorry for myself, I think about somebody who has lost a leg or had some other issue as a result of the bombings and I think, I've got it so easy," Savage said.
So as their daily lives at the hospital return to what they know as normal, they also know there are victims whose normal is not the same anymore.
"We saw burns, we saw ear drum perforations, we saw a lot of hearing loss. Ringing in the ears were quite common. We continue to see those patients and follow up at Mass Eye & Ear Infirmary," Dr. Remenschneider said.
The Massachusetts Eye and Ear team is one of many raising money in the lead up to the race on April 21.
Click here for Dr. Remenschneider's donor page, and click here for Savage's donor page.
