Details emerge in Penguins game tragedy and how quickly it all happened

It happened in an instant. A fan at Monday night’s game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues was taken to a hospital after falling from the upper concourse at PPG Paints Arena. Within seconds, what began as a simple misstep turned into a life-threatening fall.

The incident happened early in the first period as emergency personnel rushed to treat the fan, a man who was not identified, before taking him to Mercy Hospital, located a few blocks from the arena.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, we now know that the fan stumbled down several stairs before tumbling headfirst over the glass. As he tumbled down, he struck a person who was in the suite level below before continuing to fall to the lower bowl of the arena. He had been watching the game from the 200 level before he tripped in the stairway and crashed into the glass, and then fell down to the lower concourse, lying there unconscious.

He was then loaded onto a stretcher and taken to the nearest hospital. As for the other fan who was struck by the man during the fall, he was evaluated by paramedics and declined further treatment.

As of now, the information revealed on his status is that he has sustained life-threatening injuries, and no other update has been provided on his condition.

We can only wish him the best, and as captain Sidney Crosby mentioned after the Penguins’ win over the Blues on Monday night, our thoughts and prayers are with the fan, his family and loved ones during this difficult time.

“So obviously our thoughts and prayers are with that person and their family and hopefully that they’re OK,” Crosby commented postgame.

This marks the second serious fan fall at a Pittsburgh sports event this year. It’s also the third fall that happened at a Pittsburgh sports venue this year.