Astroworld Tragedy: Indian-Origin Student Declared Brain Dead

New Delhi: A 22-year-old Indian-origin student, Bharti Shahani, who was injured in the Astroworld Festival crowd surge in Houston last weekend has been declared brain dead.

The crowd crush at the Travis Scott concert left eight people dead.

Bharti, a Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University student, her sister Namrata and cousin Mohit Bellani attended the concert together, but got separated in the surge. Namrata and Mohit lost their cellphones and couldn’t contact Bharti.

Bharti was taken to the Houston Methodist Hospital by ambulance. “The doctors, they say the chances of survival are nothing, which I have not even spoken to my wife until now. We keep saying we’ll pray. I request all of Houston to pray for her. Maybe the prayers might work as a miracle for her,” her father Sunny Shahani said.

Mohit told ABC Houston, “Once one person fell, people started toppling like dominos. It was like a sinkhole. People were falling on top of each other. There were like layers of bodies on the ground, like two people thick. We were fighting to come up to the top and breathe to stay alive.”

Bharti is studying electronics systems engineering. Her family has set up a GoFundMe for her.