Indian American student dies after being trampled at music concert
Darpan News Desk IANS, 12 Nov, 2021 11:40 AM
New York, Nov 12 (IANS) An Indian American student has died after being trampled at a rap music concert in Houston, Texas, when the crowd estimated at 50,000 jostled.
Bharti Shahani, 22, died on Wednesday from injuries she suffered in the incident on Saturday, her family said at a news conference on Thursday.
She was the ninth person to die from injuries at the concert. A nine-year-old boy was fighting for his life on a ventilator on Friday.
"Nightmare, horror, barbarity and catastrophe. And that's what happened that night," said her cousin Mohit Bellani, who had been to the concert with her and her sister.
She was the ninth victim in the incident that took place during a performance by rapper Travis Scott at the Astroworld Festival at a stadium.
Doctors had placed her on a ventilator after a chaotic evacuation from the stadium in a bid to save her, but she died on the fifth day.
Her family said that they were donating her organs.
"Bharti is love," her mother Karishma Shahani said.
Breaking down at the news conference she said amid tears, "What happened to my blessing now? I want my baby back."
This was the first time that Bharti Shahani, who is a final year electronics engineering undergraduate student, had gone to a concert.
ABC network's KHOU TV station in Houston said that according to the Shahani family's lawyer, she had been dropped from a gurney while being evacuated.
The lawyer, James Lassiter, has filed a $20 million case against the organisers and various people involved.
The Houston Chronicle reported delays in reacting to that the tragedy.
It was reported at 9:11 and police declared it a mass casualty event at 9:38 p.m., but Travis Scott continued playing for at least 25 more minutes, the Chronicle said.
While the benefits of the vaccine still outweigh the risks, that assessment is “more finely balanced" among younger people who are less likely to become seriously ill with COVID-19
The two vaccines available since December — Pfizer and Moderna — were 90% effective after two doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday. In testing, the vaccines were about 95% effective in preventing COVID-19.
It is not clear, however, whether any of the passports under development will be accepted broadly around the world, and the result could be confusion among travellers and disappointment for the travel industry.
As details emerge, many members of the Asian American community see the Georgia killings as a haunting reminder of harassment and assaults that have been occurring from coast to coast.
Norway, Iceland, Bulgaria, Thailand, and Congo soon followed suit. On Saturday, Norwegian authorities reported that four people under age 50 who had gotten the AstraZeneca vaccine had an unusually low number of blood platelets.
