The story of the Astroworld tragedy keeps getting worse, with medical examiners in Texas releasing a horrific explanation of how the stampede at the deadly concert claimed the lives of some victims. Houston’s medical examiner’s office says every victim died of “compression asphyxia;” in other words, they were smothered by the crowd.
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According to a medical expert, what probably happened was that the pressure from the large crowd at the event was so great that it quickly squeezed all the air from the lungs of the 10 victims, causing them to pass out within a minute or so and die because critical organs, such as the heart and brain, were depleted of oxygen.
Dr. George W. Williams, a critical care anesthesiologist with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, said the hundreds and possibly thousands of pounds of pressure the victims likely felt on their chests was “like being crushed by a car.”
“Seconds really do count to allow for that person to recover and to be rescued from that terrible event. ... The organs like the brain and the heart start getting injury, and, after three to four minutes, that injury becomes so severe to where you can’t bring that person back,” said Williams, who also works at Harris Health LBJ, one of the health science center’s teaching hospitals.
Just awful.
The LAT story goes on to say that in addition to the 10 deaths, more than 300 people in all were hurt at the Nov. 5 concert headlined by Travis Scott, who was on stage at the time of the deadly crowd surge. Tragically, a 9-year-old boy, Ezra Blount, was among the fatalities.Blount’s family rejected Scott’s offer to pay for the boy’s funeral. Scott has also been dropped from the 2022 Coachella bill.Scott, who now faces multiple lawsuits from victims’ families, announced on Wednesday that he was spearheading a new initiative working with government and music industry leaders to make concerts safer.
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