A concertgoer suffered a “catastrophic” spinal cord injury after a frontman stage dived into the crowd at a show in the US.
Bird Piché, 24, was attending a gig by Australian punk rock band Trophy Eyes at the Mohawk Place club in Buffalo, New York, on 30 April when the incident took place.
Discussing the “tragic accident” in a post on X, the group said: “We elected to immediately shut down the show as John [Floreani, singer] accompanied them to the hospital with their family.
“Out of respect for the family, we have refrained from speaking about this publicly so far, but with the blessing of their family we are now able to say how truly heartbroken we are to be here now.
“Our friend, Bird, is now in recovery, but still has a long road ahead for them. This situation has shaken us all to our care and we ask for patience while we look to help Bird navigate this difficult time.”
Piché has undergone extensive surgery for her injuries, and Trophy Eyes have donated $5,000 to a GoFundMe page set up to help with her medical bills. More than US$65,000 has already been raised towards its $100,000 target.
“Our policy and practiced procedure is a full show stop for any stage diving which was put into place for this incident”
“She has a long recovery ahead and will need all the help she can get,” reads the page, which was set up by friends Stephanie Brown and Leo Wolters Tejera. “It is still too early to know what her prognosis is but after leaving the hospital she will need to go to a rehab facility. She will obviously not be able to work during this time.
“The funds will be used for medical bills and anything she may need to function in life because of the accident.”
Tejera tells WGRZ that footage was captured on camera.
“The video is wild because unless you knew that someone was hurt in the video, you’d never expect that,” he says. “Like it’s just an average stage dive. The video that I saw on Facebook and then another angle surfaced on a Reddit thread, both of them just seem fairly innocuous.”
Mohawk Place manager Mike Thor says the venue has rules in place around moshing and stage diving.
“There are signs posted everywhere in the venue and notice was included in the emails for this show with the show’s promoter and the band themselves,” says Thor, as per Heavy Consequence. “Our policy and practiced procedure is a full show stop for any stage diving which was put into place for this incident. Currently we are working to put together a charity show to help the injured party with their GoFundMe.”
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