HOUSTON: Tragedy struck earlier this week at the Astroworld festival by Travis Scott, famed hip hop artist, when a tidal wave of fans crushed victims near the stage but an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurse, who got close to being trampled to death herself, ended up helping other victims after she was pulled to safety.
“I was going to ask my partner to tell my son that I loved him because, at one point, there didn’t seem to be an end. I was going to die. I truly believed my trachea was going to get crushed by the stampede,” said Madeline Eskins, a registered nurse who worked at a hospital in Houston and was attending the concert when all hell broke loose.
At least eight individuals succumbed to their injuries from the concert. Travis himself is now facing outrage and looming lawsuits over the incident.
Ms Eskins had been to the Astroworld festival in 2018 and 2019, though she said the surge had never been this congested before, explaining how she could barely turn to her partner and talk. She fainted at first, but her partner was able to rescue her. When she woke up, she realized what had happened.
“People were being carried out from the think of the situation, but one guy looked messed up. I asked the security guard if he had been medically assessed, and he said no. His eyes were rolled back; I couldn’t detect a pulse, his pupils wouldn’t react when I shined my flashlight in there. I told the guard he needed to be taken to a medical tent.” Ms Eskins recalled.
Another guard overheard Ms Eskins being an ICU nurse and asked her for help, bringing her to more victims that needed medical assistance. Even though the RN said she’s accustomed to “seeing people die every week” in the ICU, what she saw next left her horrified.
“It was chaos. So many victims were on the ground. Three people were getting CPR from a mix of medics and civilians. I asked if supplies such as an automated external defibrillator (AED) or epinephrine were available, and they had one AED. But it was being used on another victim.” she detailed.
While she was compressing a victim, someone brought over more supplies to administer CPR to more victims as security brought over more bodies; Ms Eskins told the local news.
“Compressions were being done without a pulse check, there weren’t enough people to continue compressions on individuals that were pulseless, and the medics weren’t provided tools for a situation like this.” Ms Eskins wrote in a post on Instagram.
“I pray that someone I helped made it, just at least one. There was a man there, completely blue, pulseless for at least 15 minutes.” Ms Eskins hoped, adding that she worked on the victims for about 45 minutes until the ambulances arrived. She didn’t know if any would survive.
Sadly, she later learned that Jacob Jurinek, one of the people she aided, had died from the injuries sustained at the doomed concert.
“I’m so sorry we couldn’t save you. I’m so sorry you went to a concert to have fun, and this is what happened to you.” she wrote.