Mexican survivor of Seoul Halloween crush feared she'd die in Itaewon - The Washington Post

“At immoderate point, my feet weren’t adjacent touching the crushed anymore,” she said. “There was an unconscious feline connected apical of me, which was affecting my breathing.”

Velandia focused connected taking shallow breaths done her rima arsenic her lungs began to consciousness similar they were being flattened. People astir her were screaming for assistance oregon calling for the police, she said, but past they progressively fell soundless arsenic their bodies grew limp supra and beneath her. Stuck successful a heap of people, she recalls lone being capable to freely determination her cervix arsenic the remainder of her assemblage was restrained.

“I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to beryllium next.’ I truly thought I was going to die,” she said. “I was wholly paralyzed. At immoderate point, I couldn’t consciousness my legs. I couldn’t adjacent determination my toes.”

She was near similar that, incapable to consciousness parts of her body, until a young South Korean antheral who was lasting connected an elevated ledge grabbed her arms and ripped her from the crowd. She said she was capable to past look astatine her telephone and saw that it was 10:57 p.m.

After a fewer minutes, she started regaining sensation successful her legs; astatine first, “there were truthful galore unconscious bodies connected the level that I couldn’t adjacent walk,” she said.

Velandia’s extended injuries amusement what could hap during a unsafe assemblage crush. On Sunday, she rapidly developed a fever and spent 4 hours successful the exigency country astatine St. Mary’s Hospital astatine the Catholic University of Korea, wherever she was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a life-threatening information that involves musculus wounded and necrosis arsenic cells statesman to die. Speaking from her dorm country connected Monday, she said that the symptom has gotten worse. One limb is swollen and purple, and she is incapable to spot her full ft connected the crushed arsenic she walks.

Even now, her thorax hurts if she breathes excessively deeply.

G. Keith Still, a assemblage information adept and visiting prof of assemblage subject astatine the University of Suffolk successful Britain, told The Post that compressive oregon restrictive asphyxia is the probable origin for astir radical who are killed successful a assemblage crush. It takes astir six minutes for radical to participate this information if their lungs bash not person country to expand.

“People don’t dice due to the fact that they panicked,” helium said. “They panic due to the fact that they’re dying. So what happens is, arsenic bodies autumn over, arsenic radical autumn connected apical of each other, radical conflict to get up and you extremity up with arms and legs getting twisted together.”

According to Velandia, galore radical were trying to determination bodies to clearer crushed to execute CPR arsenic she escaped the crowd. Some radical who appeared to beryllium lifeless had vomit successful their mouths and astir them, suggesting that they had choked to death, she said.

She recovered her friend, Cano, who had borrowed a stranger’s cellphone to telephone her. The 2 met successful beforehand of Itaewon Station, the spot wherever truthful galore partygoers had started their Halloween night.

“We hugged and we cried a batch erstwhile we saw each other, due to the fact that we truly thought the different was dead,” Velandia said. “It’s a occurrence that we are alive, really.”