Doctor Aids Victims After Sugarland Stage Collapse

When Dean Silas, M.D., was waiting for the start of the Sugarland concert at the Indiana State Fair Saturday, he had no idea he'd soon be volunteering his medical skills to help in a catastrophe.

The stage collapsed after a sudden freakish storm, and five people were killed and dozens injured. 

Silas, of Deerfield, spoke to reporters Monday afternoon at a press conference at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where he specializes in gastroenterology. He detailed how the storm looked as it came up, how he made his way to the injured and how he tried to help in the middle of the chaotic scene, according to nbcchicago.com.

"It kept getting darker and darker... Everyone was anticipating a storm," he said, describing the scene as he sat with his wife and daughter, who lives in Indianapolis. 

It had been hot, with almost no air movement, before the storm, and people were expecting it to rain, he said. About four minutes before the storm hit, someone from the state fair announced they were hopeful the concert would continue, but did not order an evacuation, he said.

"There was darkness coming up from the infield," he said, explaining he thought it was rain but it turned out to be dust.

"From the time it was seen to the time the stage collapsed was about 10 to 15 seconds...this gust came out of absolutely nowhere."

Wanting to help treat the injured, Silas made his way to the area near the stage, which took four to five minutes.

The scene was chaotic, with spectators trying to lift fallen equipment and extricate people. Silas observed a mass of metal, and said that by the time he got there, some concert-goers were trying to administer first aid to the injured. A couple of people had already been determined to be fatally injured, he said.

There were also "a couple of people with leg injuries, a young woman with muscular contusions on her back, another woman with injuries that I couldn't ascertain," he said. "Another woman we were doing CPR on."

"I helped triage a couple people," he said. Spectators were using folding tables and wooden boards as makeshift pallets.  

When Emergency Medical Services personnel arrived, he said,the number of injured made it hard for them to reach all of those who needed help right away. 

"It was pure chaos and pandemonium," he recalled.