In the week-and-a-half since 10 people were killed and hundreds more were injured at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas, more than a hundred lawsuits have been filed against the Rodeo rapper and other festival organizers, including Live Nation. Scott, Live Nation and both festival security and the festival’s medical staff have come under great scrutiny for their roles in the tragic events that took place on November 5. Reports of incompetence on multiple ends have surfaced, and with both Scott and Live Nation’s reputations for unsafe concert and festival environments, all eyes have been glued on anything having to do with the details of what actually happened at Astroworld.
Monday (November 15), the CEO of ParaDocs, the medic company hired by Astroworld, spoke to reporters and tried to “set the record straight” about the 70 people he said were trying to save lives across Houston’s NRG Park.
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Explaining that his team was faced with the “impossible feat” of treating 11 simultaneous cases of cardiac arrest, Alex Pollak said that medics kept rushing back into the crowd to try to save concertgoers, and that the real challenge was getting people in need of medical attention out of harm’s way. Pollak said that his team, which includes former Army combat medics, was properly prepared to save lives, but surging crowds prevented them from transporting patients to safety.
“We never came close to running out of equipment and supplies. We could have treated at least double the amount of patients,” Pollak told reporters. “We never expected in our lives to encounter a situation like that. It was absolutely horrific.”
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Pollak also added that he believes Scott’s Astroworld set should have been stopped sooner, but acknowledged that an abrupt halt could have sparked riots, and a potentially worse situation.
Stay updated the aftermath of the 2021 Astroworld Festival here.