Your World By Ashley Petry


TONY CAMPBELL / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM When tragedy struck August 13, 2011, at the Indiana State Fair, many volunteers came to the aid of injured concertgoers immediately after the stage collapse. Indiana State fair lifesavers: For 3-year-old Maggie Mullin, the Aug. 13


Sugarland concert at the Indiana State Fair was a chance to see her favorite band and wear a fancy new pink tutu. Instead, bad weather turned the family


outing into a nightmare.When the stage collapsed into the VIP area, dubbed the Sugar Pit, Maggie and her mother, Laura Magdziarz, were injured. While some concertgoers fled the scene


in panic, many others rushed to the pit to help. Many worked to free people trapped by the rigging, and those with medical training — including nurses, doctors and EMTs — came to the aid the injured. Maggie alone encountered a care chain of nearly a dozen volunteers, including a doctor and several nurses.


Instinct takes over The first to reach her was Natalie Prater,


RN, a nurse with Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health. Prater had been standing about five people away from the stage, but when the weather worsened, her husband suggested that they leave. “We started walking away, and that’s when


we heard the snaps and pops and [the stage] started coming down,” Prater said.“We ran, and the stage collapsed about 5 feet from us. We were covered in dust, and the wind about


Nurses rushed to help injured concertgoers


blew us over, but I thank my husband for saving my life.” Without hesitation, Prater and her


husband dashed back into the fray to help. After climbing over rigging, Prater encountered Maggie, who was sitting on the lap of her injured mother. “Her mom was yelling


‘Help us!’” Prater said. “I saw the little girl’s arm was badly broken and bleeding profusely, and I thought she might have a severed artery.” Prater used someone’s


shirt as a tourniquet to stabilize Maggie’s arm, but she knew immediate medical attention was required. She told Magdziarz, “You have to trust me,” and then passed Maggie to open arms on the other side of the rigging. The little girl, her tutu now


hoped I would,” Prater said. “Instinct just took over, but everything I’ve been taught really helped me.” In the end, seven people died as a result


“ I never knew how I would really react in the moment, but I reacted how I would have hoped I would. Instinct just took over, but everything I’ve been taught really helped me.”


smeared with blood, passed through several sets of arms before being loaded into an ambulance and rushed to Riley. Meanwhile, Prater turned her attention to


Magdziarz and others in need. “I never knew how I would really react in the moment, but I reacted how I would have


22 Indiana Nursing Quarterly • indystar.com/nursing • Fall 2011


of the freak accident, and dozens more were injured. Maggie was one of the lucky ones. She has made a full recovery, and gained new friends along the way — several even delivered new pink tutus to her hospital room.


Everyone can help — if they will While Prater and other


— Natalie Prater, RN Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health


nurses worked amongst the wreckage, others set up a makeshift triage area under the bleachers. One was OB nurse Doreen Norris-Stojak, RN, MS, director of women and children services for Methodist Hospitals in Gary and Merrillville. The concert tickets were


a Mother’s Day present, and Norris-Stojak been looked


forward to reliving childhood traditions at the Indiana State Fair. She and her husband were sitting in the third row of the bleachers when the stage collapsed. In the aftermath, the couple asked a police officer how they could help, and he


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