The student sustained significant and permanent brain injury and is unable to walk, speak or respond to commands. The 19-year-old man spent several months in a rehabilitation hospital where therapists and his parents worked to make progress to restore any of his lost skills. The student’s parents claim in a lawsuit that their son was reportedly forced to drink a bottle of vodka and drink through a beer bong at a party. When he was left unresponsive and suffered cardiac arrest, nobody called 911. Instead, the fraternity members drove him to the hospital. The hospital personnel performed CPR and restarted Santulli’s heart.
The family of 19-year-old Danny Santulli says the student has a massive brain damage. He’s blind. He’s unable to walk or communicate, the family said. According to CDT, the brain damage resulted from alcohol poisoning the student experienced at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house on the University of Missouri campus in October. The 19-year-old man spent several months in a rehabilitation hospital in Colorado where therapists and his parents work to make progress to restore any of his lost skills. Now, the student is back in his parents’ home in Minnesota.
Now, his parents are seeking criminal charges against some of those involved and are asking the county prosecutors why hazing is not one of the criminal charges against the active fraternity members. According to the family’s attorney, the 19-year-old student was reportedly force-fed beer through a tube and told to down an entire bottle of vodka by his “fraternity fathers”. Unfortunately, when Santulli passed out and went into cardiac arrest, they reportedly drove him to a hospital, CDT reports.
His family says the 19-year-old student is unlikely to walk, talk or see again. The family’s attorney also said that Santulli’s family previously sued the fraternity and 22 people over the incident but no one has ever been criminally charged. Now, the family is launching legal action against two of the boys involved – Samuel Gandhi and Alec Wetzler, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that both defendants reportedly wanted to make the night one the pledges wouldn’t forget, so they filled the house with drugs and alcohol. According to the lawsuit, both students were under caution from the school for a previous hazing incident at the time.
The family’s attorney, David Bianchi, told Daily Mail that Santulli’s family wants Wetzler and others to be charged with hazing. The ‘fraternity brothers’ reportedly Santulli a family-sized handle of Tito’s vodka and told him to finish it throughout the night. According to the lawsuit, the 19-year-old student was sleep deprived, was having to buy things for the fraternity brothers with his own money and was repeatedly ordered to clean the brothers’ rooms and bring food and alcohol to them at all hours of the night.
The family’s attorney also said that the 19-year-old student cried to his sister that he’d had enough. His parents and sister reportedly told him that he should quit the fraternity. But, unfortunately, he said he didn’t want to because he ‘wasn’t a quitter.’ On the fatal night, one of the defendants reportedly forced Santulli to drink a beer via a tube, then made him return to his family-sized bottle of Tito’s. Wetzler reportedly put a tube into Santulli’s mouth and poured beer down his throat, coercing him to drink an excessive amount of alcohol, the lawsuits states.
Right after midnight, Santulli ended up with his face on the floor and remained there until someone passing through the room saw him and put him back on the couch. Unfortunately, no one called an ambulance, even after they saw that his skin was pale and his lips were blue. The fraternity brothers reportedly drove him to the hospital. His blood-alcohol content was .468 — more than five times the legal limit to drive. Now, charges have been filed against Wetzler for misdemeanor counts of supplying alcohol to a minor and possession of alcohol by a minor, the Daily Mail reports.