Warrnambool's Rhianna McLeod is shocked no-one died in the festival crush that left her unconscious with two broken bones.
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The 19-year-old is in the Geelong Hospital after the Falls Festival stampede that injured more than 60 people over the weekend.
Miss McLeod was pulled out by other festival-goers with a broken right tibia and fibula. She had surgery on Saturday night where a metal rod was inserted from her knee to her ankle.
“I really feel so lucky because it could have been so much worse,” she said “I’m really surprised no-one died in there. There was just people stacked up 10 to 15 people high. It was crazy.”
Miss McLeod and her three friends were leaving the DMA’s set when people in front “started tripping and falling on each other” when she fell too.
“All I remember is I had my head up against the wall and I had people laying on top of me. It felt like I was drowning in people. I remember thinking ‘oh my god I can’t breathe’. My neck was being pushed up against the fence, so my friend pulled my arm so my neck didn’t get snapped against the fence.
“I passed out and that’s when I snapped my leg. When I woke up I was being carried to the grass. I was covered in spew,” she said.
Her friend Kadi Nowell, from Warrnambool, also lost consciousness, but escaped with a bruised and swollen right leg. Miss McLeod hopes to be discharged mid-week and expects her recovery to take at least six weeks.
