Ellisha Stone, 15, pauses while recalling being trapped under a crowd while trying to purchase a video game at Walmart SuperCenter, 1879 E. Sherman, around 10 p.m. Thursday.

The last thing Ellisha Stone thought she would be grateful for on Thanksgiving was that she actually survived the day.

The 15-year-old Muskegon teen wouldn't have dreamed that she'd almost lose her life in a Black Friday rush for a Dance Central 2 video game. She couldn't have imagined that a crowd of shoppers would actually toss their regard for human life aside in their race for a $15 video game.

But that's what happened to the petite Orchard View 10th-grader on a night dedicated for saying thanks and expressing gratitude. She ended up being knocked down and trampled by manic shoppers at the Walmart SuperCenter on Sherman Boulevard.

“I was trying to catch my breath but I couldn't,” Ellisha said. “I couldn't get out. There were people on top of me.

Ellisha started the evening early at Walmart, arriving with her sister five hours before the store's Black Friday sales were to start at 10 p.m. Joined by her mother at 7 p.m., the two were second and third in line for the video games that retail at $60 but were priced that night at $15.

They chatted with shoppers who also were waiting, but 15 minutes before the sale was to start, the mood turn nasty when a large group of other shoppers joined them, said Rhoda Stone, Ellisha's mother.

Pinned among 50 or so people, some of whom became agitated to learn there were only eight of the video games available, Stone and Ellisha said they had no way to escape. With threats of physical violence being aimed at another shopper, Stone said she asked an employee to call security.

Instead, the employee sliced open the plastic that was covering a shelving rack containing the video games, and the crowd surged, Ellisha said.

"Everybody went full force into the rack," Ellisha said. "I was caught between the rack and the crowd... It was so claustrophobic I couldn't even breathe.

"Everybody was coming on top of me. They kept coming and coming, stepping on my knee. I got kicked," she said. “People were stepping on my ribs. People were grabbing me, grabbing my hands trying to rip the games out of my hands.

"I just started praying 'Please get me out of this.'"

Stone said she frantically tried to stop the surging masses that swallowed up her daughter, but no one seemed to pay attention.

"It was a nightmare," she said. “I never expected what happened. I remember screaming 'My daughter! My daughter!' And they wouldn't stop for anything.

"It was a pile — a hill of people on top of her."

Finally, a man who the mother and daughter had chatted with in line heard Stone's cries, caught sight of Ellisha's bright green sweatshirt and fought through the crowd to grab her. He carried the 105-pound girl away from the mob, her boot and sock missing.

Shaking uncontrollably, Ellisha was still clutching the video games. Another woman held Ellisha as she started to have a seizure and go into shock while Stone searched out security and someone to call for an ambulance.

"I was a panicked mom,” she said. “I was so scared."

Teenager trampled at Wal-Mart on Black Friday 6 Gallery: Teenager trampled at Wal-Mart on Black Friday

Ellisha remembers paramedics placing her on a backboard, before passing out. She regained consciousness at Hackley Hospital, where she underwent X-rays and later was released.

Stone said she believes the store was irresponsible in how it handled the sale. While vouchers were handed out to those, including her older daughter, waiting in line for more expensive electronics, there were no such vouchers for the limited video games. And rather than keeping people in the line that initially formed near the video game area, employees let it turn into an unorganized crowd, she said.

"It's gotten out of hand," Stone said. "I'm scared for the teenagers and the elderly who are just trying to get things for their families."

On Monday, she contacted two attorneys.

"I don't want anybody else to get hurt like that," Ellisha said. "Someone could lose their life over it.

"It's not worth it. It's not worth losing a life over a game."

Email Lynn Moore at lmoore@muskegonchronicle.com