HOUSTON, Texas — Texas A&M senior Bharti Shahani, who was injured during last week’s Astroworld Festival, remains in critical condition.
Shahani’s family told ABC-13 Houston that as of today, the 22-year-old A&M student has been experiencing no brain activity, after spending days on a ventilator in hospital.
She is one of many people injured in the mass casualty event that took place at a Travis Scott performance last Friday. Crushed among thousands of bodies, the young woman lies incubated at Houston Methodist Hospital.
Family, such as her father and cousin, express their concern for their beloved Bharti.
"We keep saying let us pray, and request everyone pray for her," father Sunny Shahani said.
"We want people to understand what we experienced, and make sure nothing like this ever, ever happens again," commented cousin Mohit Bellani, who had been at the concert as well.
Texas-based Personal Injury Attorney Jim Adler represents multiple people who attended the concert and were also injured and traumatized. He said the damage done goes beyond even just those who were on-site at the festival.
“There’s all kinds of emotional distress that family members go through," Adler explained. "It's what they call 'bystander liability,' if they see a family member hurt, or if there's damage to the family.”
Early Tuesday afternoon, Bharti Shahani’s sister Namrata created a GoFundMe campaign requesting help with the family’s expenses as the young Aggie remains in hospital.
Within two hours of its creation, the campaign received more than $10,000 in donations.
Jim Adler said that festival-goers should never have been put in a situation like this, blaming not only the companies involved in promoting the event, but the musicians Travis Scott and Drake.
“When [people] see their loved ones laying in the hospital, see everything they lived for and raised their child for more-or-less destroyed, that’s the real tragedy," Adler stated. "And in this post-COVID-19 age, who would have ever thought they’d see their loved one on a ventilator after a concert?”
A spokesperson from Texas A&M informed KRHD that the university has been in contact with the Shahani family.
The family told ABC-13 that they are trying to decide what to do next, and they’re still asking for public prayers.
To donate to the GoFundMe, click here.
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