A woman is now partially paralyzed after Trophy Eyes frontman John Floreani crushed her during his stage dive.
According to WGRZ, Bird Piché suffered a “catastrophic spinal cord injury” during the Trophy Eyes performance at the Mohawk Place in Buffalo, NY on April 30.
During the performance, John Floreani did a stage dive into the crowd. Among those he landed on was Piché. Leo Wolter Tejera, a friend of Piché’s family, shared details about the incident. “The video is wild because unless you knew that someone was hurt in the video, you’d never expect that. Like it’s just an average stage dive. The video that I saw on Facebook and then another angle surfaced on a Reddit thread, both of them just seem fairly innocuous.”
Wolter Tejera said Floreani did the stage dive during the first song. “[He] stage dove into the crowd, and there must just not have been enough people around there to catch them,” Wolter Tejera explained. “Or they weren’t aware that he was going to jump. And that was kind of it from then.”
Wolter Tejera also said a couple of the concertgoers shared on Reddit that they originally thought Piché had fainted. They went to grab her a cold rag. Upon returning, they noticed Piché was on the ground and wasn’t getting up.
John Floreani notably was beside Piché and even went to the hospital with her. Wolter Tejera shared that Piché is now breathing on her own and can use her arm. She is communicating by text.
Wolters Tejera, along with another family friend Stephanie Brown, have launched a GoFundMe to raise money for Piché’s recovery and rehabilitation.
John Floreani’s Band Trophy Eyes Donate to Bird Piché’s GoFundMe Campaign
Not long after the GoFundMe campaign for Bird Piché was launched, John Floreani and his Trophy Eyes bandmates donated $5,000.
According to the GoFundMe’s description, Piché underwent extensive surgery following the concert incident. It was noted that she has a long recovery ahead and will need all the help she can get.
“It is still too early to know what her prognosis is,” the description reads. “But after leaving the hospital she will need to go to a rehab facility. She will obviously not be able to work during this time.”
Wolter Tejera also told WGRZ that Piché is an activist and an advocate, as well as an artist at heart. “She’s kind of just embodying those things. Stepping out into the world and being this person that she was raised to be and being very fully vibrant. She is a good person in this world who’s doing good things.”
The GoFundMe funds will be used for medical bills and anything she will need to function in life. Now seeking $100,000, the GoFundMe has raised more than $61,000 through over 1,300 donations.