Teen recovering after being trampled in mosh pit during Houston Open Air Festival

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A teenager is recovering after being trampled in a mosh pit during the Houston Open Air Festival. Hilliary Phelps, 18, had to have surgery, a plate and screws put into her left kneecap to repair where part of her leg was crushed Saturday.

She remained hospitalized Tuesday.

Phelps has been to many concerts with her mother and she was excited to see the band Slayer play. While making her way toward the stage, she was dragged into the mosh pit, even though she was trying to avoid it. She was trampled and started to panic.

"Even though you're surrounded, people don't really care," she said. "I knew that if I kept going down in the pit, I knew that someone could step on my head and really hurt me."

She was unable to walk because of her injured leg, but eventually someone pulled her out of the pit and a stranger carried her to safety and the medics.

She'd now like to find him and thank him.

"He may have saved my life for all I know," Phelps said.

Her mom joked that the kind stranger has a standing invitation to every Thanksgiving from now on.

Phelps questions if security could have done more to prevent people like her from being dragged into the pit.

"Security wasn't doing anything about it, but whenever people would bring out beach balls to toss among the crowd, they would pop them," she said.

Eyewitness News was told Tuesday that the concert promoter was not available for comment.