Castleton Kmart bombing victim surprises Carmel firefighter who saved her in 1989

CARMEL, Ind. — Firefighter John Moriarty had a big hug for all of the 100 or so people at his retirement party, which comes as no surprise to anyone who knows him.

Whether it's because he donned the suit as the department's mascot Sparky for 35 years or it's the way his Irish Catholic mother raised him, a handshake just won't do.

But his biggest hug was one he thought he may never give.

Twenty-eight years ago, Moriarty was shopping at the Kmart in Castleton when he heard an explosion and cries for help. Someone had fashioned a bomb inside a toothpaste container and placed it on a shelf. It exploded when a 5-year-old girl grabbed it, blowing off her left hand and eye.

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As men and women stampeded out of the store, Moriarty recalls, he dodged and muscled through them like a running back. He, along with a medical student, used store supplies to save the girl's life before paramedics arrived.

Moriarty's one wish for his retirement party was to see that little girl for the first time since that fateful night in April 1989. His friends played coy, saying nothing about arranging for Erin Bower Patterson, now 34, her husband Nate Patterson and her parents Kevin and Maureen Bower to attend as a surprise.

They were sitting just behind Moriarty when Fire Chief David Haboush introduced them Thursday during a ceremony the fire headquarters on Civic Square.

Moriarty, shocked, stood up, turned around, lunged forward and gave Erin and her family big hugs. Tears flowed from all five.

Moriarty said saving Erin was the biggest moment in his life, to think someone is alive today because he was there to help.

"When I realized that was her, that made everything the greatest of all time," he said. "There is nothing better than that, because she's a human being, a beautiful human being ... to see how she's grown up and everything, and her husband, that's wonderful. That is so cool."

Erin said she was filled with gratitude, thankful that someone was willing to run toward the danger all those years ago. When the call came, she said attending the ceremony was an easy decision.

"I don't remember the accident," she said, "but my parents sure do, and he was a key piece in saving my life and getting me to where I am today."

Her husband, a lawyer with Simon Property Group, was overwhelmed at the sight of the two hugging.

"It's crazy to think about what he did to save her life," Patterson said. "To think, Erin wouldn't be here and certainly our kids wouldn't be here, life would be different without him for sure."

Why hadn't the two ever connected?

Moriarty's fellow firefighters, after all, describe him as a man who regularly checks up on folks after medical runs. A man who once lifted an 80-year old woman into the front seat of a fire engine so she could follow her husband in an ambulance to the hospital. A sentimental man, he pulled out an unopened bag of Hershey Kisses at the retirement party that his wife had given him the first time they met. He had, unknown to her, stashed them in his locker for 35 years.

Moriarty did go to the hospital the day after the bombing with some dresses he bought as gifts for Erin and her sister, but police, still piecing together what had happened, wouldn't let him in. As time went by, he says he often thought of picking up the phone, but he was afraid Erin would relive the trauma if she saw him.

"There were times I wanted to, I truly wanted to," Moriarty said. "But I guess my biggest fear was how would that affect her if I introduced myself and started talking about it?"

He followed her life, though, through word of mouth and the news stories written about her recovery. Her knew she graduated from Cathedral High School, lived in Carmel and started a career as a pediatric physical therapist at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. She directs the pediatric rehabilitation department now.

Erin went through extensive physical therapy after the explosion. It was only natural, she said, that she turned toward that as a career. Showing what a small world this can be, the medical student who also helped her, Louis Profeta, is a trauma doctor at St. Vincent.

"I knew I wanted to help children," she said, "and I wanted to be in healthcare."

How beautiful is that, Moriarty asked?

"For something like that to happen to a child like that and look at Erin helping people today," he said. "When I think about the outcome of all that, my God, how beautiful life is to think that I helped a girl who is alive today who is helping other people."

Moriarty remembers the bombing vividly. He ran toward the sound of Erin's mother calling for help. He found her father clutching the child in his arms. Her mother was bleeding from shrapnel wounds. He shook Kevin Bower's shoulders, because he was in shock, gently laid the girl down on the ground, and went to work to stop the bleeding.

They were in the middle of an active crime scene. He recalls a Marion County Sheriff's Deputy rounding a corner on them with gun drawn. He slowly pulled out his firefighter badge, and the deputy went deeper into the store, looking for suspects.

He recalls how he and Profeta used what they found around them to save Erin, fashioning sandwich bags into gloves, grabbing a turkey baster to remove fluid from her airway and using linens to stem the bleeding. All the while, they were worried they'd grab another make-shift bomb.

Paramedics and a helicopter arrived to take the girl to the hospital. After they got her outside, Morairty recalls that Erin's mother, still bleeding from her own wounds, collapsed in the parking lot. Moriarty went back into the store, back past the police still looking for suspects, to grab a pillow for her.

Police interviewed him and Profeta for hours that night, he said. Police later determined a 19-year-old from Noblesville set the bomb. He killed himself two days later.

Kevin Bower is an executive with the Indiana Pacers. He gave Moriarty a jersey with his name and his years of service, 1981-2018. Kevin said he had no idea the incident had made such an impact on Moriarty's life. But he wanted to meet and thank the man who saved his daughter. Kevin said he had no idea Moriarty had tried to visit Erin in the hospital all those years ago.

"Erin has done so well since the accident that we haven't thought about it at all," Kevin Bower said. "When we got the invitation to come here today a lot of memories came flooding back. It was really an honor to see him. As soon as I saw him I remembered him from 28 years ago, and it's hard to believe that much time has gone by."

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Call IndyStar reporter Chris Sikich at (317) 444-6036. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisSikich and at facebook.com/chris.sikich.