When waking up in a local health center after being admitted for serious intoxication, a University of Denver (DU) freshman discovered he was paralyzed.
According to KUSA-TV, the family of the unnamed 18-year-old male student first raised concern over the student's condition upon waking up. Neither the students' family nor Denver Health commented on the matter publicly.
The family of the student only told KUSA-TV they are still waiting for more details regarding his condition.
Will Jones, a spokesperson for DU, told the news station the school's security department was dispatched to the student's room around 2 a.m. Sunday morning. Seemingly inebriated, Denver Health sent a detox vehicle to pick up the student to take him to their facility for further treatment.
Jones indicated the student left his room able to stand and walk on his own, but how he came to wake up paralyzed is not clear.
"They got this student on his feet. They walked him out to the vehicle and they left the campus," Jones told KUSA-TV. "This student's parents reached out to the University of Denver wanting to know what had happened, because their son is now paralyzed.
"We don't know what happened between the time he left campus and where he is now."
The student apparently experienced paralysis when he woke up, but it is unclear how long he was unconscious, as family members reported the condition to DU on Tuesday.
On its website, Denver Health says its "Denver CARES" clinic is "a treatment facility whose mission to provide a safe detoxification for public inebriates, and to provide assessment, education, motivational counseling, and residential treatment" that operates "24/7."
While the school has not said this is the clinic the student was taken to, the website also details an "emergency service patrol [that] responds to police requests [and] community calls."
