A DOCTOR told an inquest in Dublin yesterday how he treated a young girl behind the stage for a cardiac arrest at a Smashing Pumpkins concert in Dublin last May.
Dr Niall Joyce, who was on duty at the Point Depot on May 11th, said that he saw some of the audience collapse and young people being pulled to safety in front of the stage by security men. The security men continued to have problems as the crowd continued to surge forward.
Dr Joyce was giving evidence at the inquest into the death of Bernadette O'Brien (16), of Ballymaloe, Midleton, Co Cork.
He said he was called to an emergency behind the stage area and treated a girl who had suffered from a cardiac arrest. He and a colleague detected no pulse nor was she breathing. The medical staff continued with cardiac pulmonary resuscitation. A pulse did return, but she continued to breathe artificially. The cardiac ambulance arrived from the Mater Hospital.
Earlier the jury was shown a video of the concert. On the video people could be seen "crowd surfing", or being carried along over the heads of the crowd.
Not long after the Pumpkins started to play, the lead singer, Billy Corgan, appealed to the crowd to move back, saying that people at the front were being crushed.
The band would stop playing if the pushing did not stop, he said, adding "We have a really dangerous situation up here.
"We will play every song we know, but you must behave. No moshing or crowd surfing. You have to police yourself. We are all intelligent people."
The concert stopped when the band was told that a young girl was dangerously ill.
A security guard, Mr David Burke of Newbridge, Co Kildare, said that as the band came on stage the crowd moved forward.
The pit security men were busy taking people out and funnelling them out of the pit in front of the stage. After three songs the band asked people to move back.
He saw a girl collapsed on the floor. He could not reach her and shouted to two boys to lift her. He could hardly get a grip on her. She was limp and motionless. "I thought she was a goner." He could hardly hold her as she was covered in sweat "as if she was doused in water". He passed her to Mr James Connolly.
Mr Connolly, the head of Eventguard Ltd. said he was in the pit when a girl was passed back to him. She was wearing black cycling shorts and a dark top. He knew there was something very different about this girl, that she was suffering from more than fainting.
He brought her back stage, as it was quicker than carrying her to the first aid posts at either side of the stage.
He gave her mouth to mouth resuscitation. Both doctors were called. Someone said that she had a cardiac arrest. Mr Connolly called the cardiac ambulance.
As the band came on some of the crowd started body surfing, which he said, was "part of the ritual". His men started to pull people out of the crowd. One of his men informed the band's security officer of the situation and the band stopped playing and started to appeal for calm.
Ms Patricia McCabe (17), from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, said she went to the concert with her sister, a student at Dublin City University, and her sister's friends. As she moved into the crowd she lost contact with her sister.
She started to feel the pressure and her chest being crushed. The atmosphere was "high" and as the band came on the crowd "went mad". She had difficulty breathing and was trying to keep her balance. She saw a hand reach up from the ground. She reached towards the hand to help the person up and lost her balance. She fell to the ground. She said she glimpsed the person on the ground. She was dressed in dark clothes.
As she lay on the ground people were standing on her. A foot was on her neck and she could not breathe. She tried to yell and kick her legs, but could not. She became unconscious and when she woke up she was being attended to by first aid people. She was taken to the Mater Hospital and released the following day.
Asked by Ms Sarah Moorehead BL, for the O'Brien family, if she was fearful, Ms McCabe said: "I thought I was going to die."
The inquest continues today.