22-year-old Texas A&M student suffered multiple heart attacks and isn't showing brain activity after the deadly Astroworld concert, her family says

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22-year-old Texas A&M student suffered multiple heart attacks and isn't showing brain activity after the deadly Astroworld concert, her family says
Festival goers are seen exiting NRG Park on day one of the Astroworld Music Festival on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021, in Houston. Amy Harris/Invision/AP
  • Bharti Shahani, who attended Astroworld on Friday, is not showing brain activity, her family says.
  • The crowd surge caused her to lose oxygen for minutes at a time, her family told KTRK.
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A 22-year-old is in critical condition and not showing brain activity after having several heart attacks during the deadly crowd surge at the Astroworld festival in Houston on Friday, her family told the local ABC affiliate KTRK on Tuesday.

Bharti Shahani, who was in her final year studying electronic-systems engineering at Texas A&M University, attended the festival with her sister, Namrata Shahani, and her cousin, Mohit Bellani.

They lost each other and their phones when the crowd compressed. Namrata told KTRK that they didn't see Bharti again until she was hospitalized at Houston Methodist Hospital.

The crowd surge, which killed at least eight people and injured hundreds of others, caused Bharti to have several heart attacks, her family told KTRK. They said she was still connected to a ventilator to help her breathe.

"Once one person fell, people started toppling like dominos. It was like a sinkhole. People were falling on top of each other," Bellani told KTRK. "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."

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The family's legal team did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Bellani also told KTRK that Bharti had lost oxygen for 10 minutes and then seven minutes, leading to swelling in her brain.

"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," Bharti's father, Sunny Shahani, told KTRK. "I request all of Houston to pray for her. Maybe the prayers might work as a miracle for her."

Sunny added that Bharti had just secured an internship for the summer after her graduation next spring and that she had planned to take over the family's company one day.

The family created a GoFundMe and is asking for donations and prayers.

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The Houston Police Department and the festival organizers Scoremore Shows and Live Nation did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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