Sophia Santana was elated after passing the difficult licensing examination to become a registered nurse.
And to celebrate Santana’s achievement, a friend purchased tickets for the annual Astroworld Festival at NRG Park in Houston, Texas.
The popular music extravaganza, which began in 2018, was founded and hosted by rapper Travis Scott and, over the years, featured star performers such as Lil Baby, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Wayne and Drake.
“It was to do something beautiful and fun and memorable for me,” Santana said.
As it turned out, the Nov. 5, 2021, concert was indeed memorable for Santana and thousands of others, but not in a way anyone could have possibly envisioned.
By the end of the day, eight people were dead — two more died in the hospital in the days following — dozens were transported to the hospital and thousands sustained injuries.
The 10 deaths were caused by compression asphyxiation, the result of massive crowd crush of concert goers breaking through barriers and scaling walls attempting to get a spot near the stage. The youngest victim was a 9-year-old boy.
Santana was so impacted by the experience that she enrolled in the master’s degree program in nursing at CSUF in order to qualify for a wider range of career options in the field.
“I want to continue to help in more different ways than just one,” said Santana. who has completed the master’s program and will walk with her graduating class after the spring 2026 semester. “Cal State Fullerton has the best program in California for nursing.”
Putting training into action
There were numerous lawsuits after the incident. A grand jury failed to indict the organizers. There were questions raised about security, emergency planning and the safety of the venue design as some of the contributing factors.
“That was one of the only times in my life that I ever felt panic,” Santana said. “There was one person who was squished on one side of my ribs, another person on the other side, one in the front and one in the back. I remember going, ‘I can’t breathe.’ ”
Santana, who was 22 at the time, was knocked to the ground but managed to get back to her feet when adrenaline kicked in, and she shifted into rescue mode, looking for anyone who could be helped.
“I genuinely don’t know what it is in me, but I just knew I had to go and do something that mattered,” Santana said.
She noticed a young man on the ground being tended to by another concertgoer.
The man on the ground was Arturo Sanchez, who had made the three-plus-hour drive from his home in Dallas with friends to Houston for the festival.
Amid the chaos, Sanchez, who was 23 at the time, ended up on the bottom of a pile of people and was barely breathing.
Looking back on the moments, he resigned himself to his fate.
“In those moments … I was going to die,” Sanchez said. “This is where my story ends. I can’t do anything because I literally couldn’t move.”
Meanwhile, Santana was still trembling. Her hands were shaking.
“I’m still not OK,” she said. “And then that’s when I saw Arturo on the floor. And there was this guy at his head, and I had thought that that was one of his friends trying to wake him up. I had thought he had passed out.”
Drawing on her training, Santana performed lifesaving measures, including elevating legs to improve blood flow to the heart.
“And I just, I remember thinking like, I really hope this works,” Santana said. “I really, really hope it works for this guy.”
It was later determined that he went into cardiac arrest.
Sanchez was taken by medics to the hospital, but Santana kept his phone, both to prevent theft and communicate with his friends and family.
Later on, she learned Sanchez was hospitalized and had survived, thanks in large part to intervention.
Santana and Sanchez eventually met in person and they maintain a close friendship.
They stay connected through social media, and Santana has even made a few trips to Houston to meet up with Sanchez.
A lasting impact
The Astroworld tragedy attracted massive media attention at the national level, and in June 2025, the disaster was the subject of a Netflix documentary series titled “Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy.”
The documentary featured first-person accounts from Sanchez and Santana, along with other survivors, and interviews with family members of deceased victims.
More than four years later, Sanchez still battles the emotional fallout.
“I had to go see a neurologist because of my concussion,” Sanchez said. “I had to see a cardiologist because of my heart attack. I needed medication because, obviously, I was suffering from PTSD, depression and anxiety.”
Reflecting on the tragedy, Sanchez is determined to live fully and help others understand the importance of safety and compassion.
“I definitely say that I value life,” he said. “After that festival, I started doing stuff for me. … I started traveling more, seeing the world, you know, experiencing new things.”
In the immediate aftermath, upon learning Santana saved his life, Sanchez said he was still so shaken that he couldn’t yet grasp the magnitude of her actions.
As time goes on, he gets it.
“Obviously, all my friends love her,” Sanchez said. “My family loves her. Because, you know, without her, I wouldn’t be here.”