Receiving Improper Medical Care at the Astroworld Festival

The proper giving of first aid at a live concert event, will ensure that anyone who was in attendance at the event who was injured would be cared for properly. It appears that the crowd managers and event planners responsible for the crowd at the Astroworld Festival did not perform their job properly. That is the reason so many people were hurt or killed at the live concert event.

The owners and operators at the Astroworld Festival needed to follow all safety fire and life safety codes, building and stage performance codes, as well as crowd management control ordinances. Contingency plans needed to have been in place to anticipate a crowd that would get completely out of hand and rush a stage – it has been done before, maybe even in the last few years of live concerts after the pandemic.

This also meant that the crowd management team and owners of the venue needed to have a plan to care for injured victims, that included:

• Monitored crowd ingress
• Monitored crowd egress
• Contingency plans for injured victims
• Emergency vehicle arrival spots
• Emergency procedures set into place to safeguard the public

Improper First Aid Can Kill a Victim

Crowd managers and event planners need to have emergency personnel on staff, to manage a person’s care before EMTs are able to arrive at a live concert. Anyone who is tasked with being a first responder to a live concert event, needs to understand the updated and current protocols for managing care to people who are injured. If there are injuries to anyone in the crowd, there needs to be a field assessment to the person’s injuries, and a protocol in place to manage the injuries right away.

Our Recent Verdicts and Settlements

What Types of Injuries Did Victims Get at the Astroworld Festival?

People who were injured at the Astroworld Festival were injured in a number of ways. These injuries included:

• Bleeding
• Bruising
• Not being able to breathe
• Exhaustion
• Exposure to the elements
• Being stuck with needles
• Falling down
• Compartment syndrome
• Tissue damage
• Lacerations and bruises
• Nerve injury
• Infection from bacteria
• Crushing injuries
• Slipping on debris and breaking bones
• Breaking a hip
• Breaking ribs

The Anatomy of a Deadly Crushing Injuries

A crushing injury is an injury that occurs when there is pressure from a heavy object that crushes down onto the person’s body. During a crush injury, the victim’s body has a severe and deadly reaction. On the impact of being crushed, the victim of a crush injury will sustain damage to muscle groups where swelling and bleeding will begin.

Damaged muscle tissue releases deadly toxins into the muscles and into the victim’s body, including:

• Histamine
• Lactic acid
• Nitric oxide
• Potassium
• Thromboplastin

Once released, the toxins can cause damaging and deadly effects to the victim’s body, including:

1. Acid metabolic acidosis
2. Cardiac dysrhythmias
3. Vasodilation
4. Hypovolemic shock
5. Hyperkalemia
6. Disseminated intravascular coagulation

The symptoms of a crushing injury can be:

• Pulses that may not be detectable or present
• Swelling on the person’s body
• Pain that is severe at the crushing injury site
• Other organs starting to shut down after toxins are released into the bloodstream

The treatment for a crush injury needs to be administered on a case-by-case basis, but may include:

• Airway and C-spine
• Assisted breathing with high oxygen flow
• Stopping the bleeding
• Starting an IV
• Splinting of limbs
• Cardiac monitor
• Start fluid replacement therapy
• Start pain control therapy
• Protection for the kidneys

It is critical to monitor a person with a crush injury after the crushing force is released. It can result in:

1. Acute hypovolemia
2. Metabolic derangements
3. Risk for renal failure

Major Problems for the Victim Will Occur, If the Crushing Injury Is Not Managed Properly

All of the above scenarios are occurring to the crush victim’s body, and this is noted as happening immediately as the crushing injury is experienced, and just afterwards. Unfortunately, these crushing injuries are deadly and often fatal, because the effects of the crushing injury keep going until proper and consistent medical attention is achieved. A person can be in a crushing injury, and will not stabilize until that individual reaches the hospital, in most cases. Therefore, a victim crushed at the Astroworld Festival will not have a chance to properly recover, if the first aid given at the scene in the field is performed properly.

Crushing injuries will release deadly toxins to the person’s body. The muscles of the body can only withstand up to 4 hours without a proper blood flow before major cell death will occur in that person’s body. The toxins released from crushed tissue can lead into the body for up to 60 hours after a crushing injury. This means that even if the person is released to a hospital quickly, that individual may still have an issue with the crush injury, and can die several days later as a result of this type of crushing experience.

Event Managers Need to Be Specially Trained to Deal with Crush Injuries

People who are in charge of managing live concert events such as at the Astroworld Festival need to be specially trained to manage crush injuries and crush syndrome on concert attendees. For example, a tourniquet is NEVER used for the first aid management of a victim with a crush injury. People with crush injuries often go into cardiac arrest, and need to be cared for properly to preserve their lives. It is the responsibility of the people who own, run, and produce the show at the Astroworld Festival to know how to train emergency staff, employees and venue personnel responsible for crowd management, on the proper protocols to save the life of a victim of a crush injury.

Crush Injuries at Live Event Concerts Are Not Unusual in the Least!

It is not unusual at all that a person at a live concert event will be crushed, if the crowd gets out of hand at any time and rushes the stage. There always needs to be emergency exits near the front of a stage, that are kept clear during the entirety of the concert. This will allow any rushing of the stage to push people forward, that will allow people to then spread out to the right and left sides of the stage during crushing and rushing in that area. The sides of a stage cannot be blocked, specifically to handle a crowd rushing the stage. People will always be injured in a crush injury, and people at a live concert event will always have the opportunity to rush forward up to the stage. These events need to be constantly monitored, to prevent deadly crushing injuries from happening. If they are not monitored, then there will be serious injuries and deaths at events such as at the Astroworld Festival, that will occur as a result of the negligence of crowd management for that concert.

Emergency Services at the Astroworld Festival and Emergency Protocols

The employees at the Astroworld Festival who were tasked with helping manage the crowd needed to know how to be first responders to anyone injured at the event. There needed to be in place several safety equipment to help people who were injured, including:

• Emergency first aid kits
• First aid attendants
• Personal protective equipment
• Surgical gloves and masks
• Respirators
• Eye protection
• First aid kits
• Defibrillators
• Emergency care kits
• Emergency splints and braces

The people running the show and responsible for crowd management at the Astroworld Festival were tasked with checking for adequate safety procedures to be in place, to manage any emergency injuries at the event. If these tasks were not in place, then it would be difficult to properly manage anyone who was injured at the event. First aid that is poorly performed can actually do more harm than good.

Call for a Free Consultation

If you have any questions regarding your claim for having received improper medical care at the Astroworld Festival, then you need to give us a call for a free consultation. We are here to discuss and review your case and losses, especially related to your medical care, improperly received medical care, and any resulting injuries from the crowd, the venue or from the care of the medical personnel who assisted you.

We are here with compassionate understanding that this may be a confusing and difficult time of healing for you, as you recover from your injuries related to the tragedy at the Astroworld Festival. Just give us a call today, we are here for you. We can answer any questions that you may have regarding any personal injuries that you sustained at the Astroworld Festival.

Other Pages on Our Website Related to This Topic
Hurt at the Astroworld Festival In A Slip and Fall Accident