Victim Of Falling Rocks At Red Rocks Slowly Getting Better

DENVER (CBS4) - A victim hurt as rocks rained down on a weekend STS9 concert at Red Rocks told her cousin she wanted to go home after the first act. She's now dealing with a brain injury.

Jennifer Ackerman, 34, is in intensive care with staples holding together a gash in her head.

"She has an orbital fracture, a sinus fracture and then a skull fracture and then bleeding on the brain caused by the skull fracture," Ackerman's cousin Jancy Polzkill said.

Polzkill was next to Ackerman, a mother of two, when the rock knocked her out. She said Ackerman was ready to leave after the first act, but ended up staying for the entire show. That's when the rock hit her and some other people at the concert.

"I literally looked, and looked down and she was out," Polzkill said. "I thought she passed out but I didn't even put together that that sound was a rock."

Realizing Ackerman was unconscious and bleeding, Polzkill said panic set in. Then she heard her cousin wasn't the only victim.

"People were shouting all around me saying someone at the top a few rows up got hit too," Polzkill said.

Polzkill said Ackerman could be out of the intensive care unit soon depending on the results of several MRI scans she went through Monday.

"It's been an emotional time for the whole family, but she's holding up and she's feisty and she's hanging in there," Polzkill said.

Polzkill said she's heard theories the rocks were knocked lose by people climbing up above.

"I think it's a shame. There's a reason there are gates and fencing up, there are signs that say you're not supposed to."

Denver police say they don't believe anything criminal happened. A spokesperson for the Denver Arts and Venues said more security officers will be at the venue for the rest of the year monitoring the rocks.