A young woman from upstate New York is paralyzed, able only to move her arms and communicate via text, after a singer tried to crowd surf at the concert she attended and ended up on top of her.
Bird Piché, 24, fell to the ground when singer John Floreani, of Australian punk rock band Trophy Eyes, jumped into the mosh pit during their performance in Buffalo.
Footage shared online shows the moment Floreani jumped into the crowd – a stunt he often performs during concerts.
Although Piché is not seen in the footage, she was restrained by Floreani during the stunt within minutes of the first song of the set that began at Buffalo’s Mohawk Place.
The show was immediately stopped and Floreani accompanied Piché in the ambulance to the hospital.
Bird Piché, 24, is paralyzed and can only move her arms and communicate via text message after a singer tried to crowd surf and landed on her during the concert she attended
Piché, 24, was hit by the singer, John Floreani of the band Trophy Eyes when he tried to crowd surf
The show was immediately stopped and Floreani, seen on the far left, joined Piché in the ambulance
“The video is wild because unless you knew someone was hurt in the video, you would never expect that. As if it were just an average stage dive. The video I saw on Facebook and then another angle on a Reddit thread, they both seem quite innocent,” family friend Wolter Tejera told WGRZ.
But the dive was devastating and Piché suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury and she was forced to undergo extensive surgery.
‘She has a long recovery ahead of her and will need all the help she can get. It’s too early to know what her prognosis is, but after she leaves the hospital she will need to go to a rehabilitation center. She will obviously not be able to work during this time.’ GoFundMe page explained, which has raised $53,000 to date.
The fundraiser’s organizer, a close family friend, said the woman has already undergone “extensive surgery.”
‘It’s too early to know what her prognosis is, but after she leaves hospital she will need to go to a rehabilitation centre. She will obviously not be able to work during this time.’
Her friend Tejera is still trying to understand how Piché was so seriously injured.
John Floreani is seen surfing the crowd during a performance in Buffalo, New York
Piché fell to the ground when singer John Floreani of the Australian punk rock band Trophy Eyes punched her. She can now only move her arms
Floreani’s dive was devastating and Piché suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury
The band said in a statement that they were “truly heartbroken” by the incident but have decided to continue their US tour in 2024 and make a $5,000 donation towards Piché’s medical expenses.
‘He dived into the crowd on stage, and there probably weren’t enough people to catch him or they wouldn’t know he was going to jump. And that was pretty much it from then on,” Tejera explained.
‘A few people They said they thought she had fainted, so they went to get her a cold cloth. And when they came back, they realized she was on the ground. She didn’t get up and John, the singer, was with her, so to speak. So yeah, they immediately took her to the hospital for emergency trauma surgery, and then she was admitted.”
The band said in a statement that they were “truly heartbroken” by the incident but have decided to continue their US tour in 2024 and make a $5,000 donation towards Piché’s medical expenses.
“This situation has shaken us all to our core, and we ask for patience as we work to help Bird get through this difficult time. Please keep Bird in your thoughts,” the statement read.
A commentator who claimed to be standing behind Piché when Floreani dived from the stage said the singer was “obviously devastated” after realizing he had hurt her.
‘My partner and I sat right next to her. As soon as we heard her say she was scared and couldn’t move, we knew it wasn’t good. John was clearly devastated,” they wrote.
“Yes, once the crowd quieted and I heard her say, ‘I’m scared,’ I immediately knew what just happened wasn’t good,” another added.