Benjamin Brennan: SDSU student on 'difficult road to recovery' after surviving near fatal hazing
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA: A San Diego State University student is on a 'difficult road to recovery' as he sues Kappa Sigma fraternity and nine former members after he was allegedly 'almost killed' during a hazing ritual in 2021. Benjamin Brennan, who was a 19-year-old freshman at the time, was left in a coma after he was forced to drink 750ml of rum in 30 minutes as part of a pledge in April of that year.
The complaint file states that Benjamin's body was then left in a car in a hospital parking lot by frat members and they drove off without even admitting him. A hospital staff, fortunately, discovered him, put him on life support, and was handed a one percent chance of survival, according to the lawsuit.
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Now two years later, at the age of 21, Benjamin miraculously survived and remains on a 'difficult road to recovery'. He is now demanding an unspecified amount in damages from the fraternity, which was suspended from the school in 2020 after separate reports of hazing and forced consumption of alcohol. The chapter was debarred altogether last year.
What did Benjamin's lawyer say?
The national Kappa Sigma fraternity, its defunct San Diego State University chapter, as well as several of its suspended members are named in the complaint. "He can't work, and we don't know if he'll be able to. He can't go back to school now. All those types of damages, and all the emotional distress damages he's going to suffer," his lawyer James Frantz told ABC7. "There was a 750ml bottle of Captain Morgan rum. He was instructed, he was commanded to drink it all. And, they provided tobacco and marijuana, and he was supposed to consume that as well," he added.
"Despite doctors' giving Brennan less than a one percent chance of surviving, Brennan miraculously survived and is on a very long and difficult road to recovery," reads the lawsuit. "Pre-incident, Ben was everyone's favorite guy. He lit up a room," his sister, Kaitlin Brennan, told ABC7. "Now, it feels like we're getting to know a new Ben."
Benjamin vowed to join the Kappa Sigma fraternity
Benjamin was pledging to join the Kappa Sigma fraternity on April 16, 2021. In the suit, it is claimed that his cell phone and car keys were taken from him on arriving at the frat house. He was also prevented from leaving the house or documenting what was going to happen to him that evening. According to the lawsuit he was ordered to smoke potent tobacco which was "much stronger than that found in normal cigarettes" in addition to drinking rum.
He lost consciousness around an hour and a half later and was put in a vehicle and transported to a hospital, where he was allegedly left. Frat members failed "to provide any information whatsoever that could have assisted the hospital's efforts to treat him."
"Brennan was dumped from the car... in the entryway of the emergency department of the hospital", the lawsuit states according to Daily Mail. "Defendants drove away... without facilitating [his] admission into the hospital in any manner whatsoever, or without facilitating any medical care or medical attention to [him]."
The frat members also allegedly conspired and tried to cover up what had happened by telling investigators they had nothing to do with it. Benjamin was eventually found vomiting in his car and "not protecting his airway". He was placed on life support immediately and given a one percent chance of survival due to a blood alcohol level of 0.489.
"These boys just abandoned their brother and left him for dead. That's not brotherhood," his mother, Lindsay Gibson, told ABC7. In a statement, San Diego State University told FOX 5 San Diego that it "does not have a comment on the lawsuit, in which it is not named".
"However, the university can speak to its ongoing approach to educate students in an effort to mitigate behavioral and other issues within our SDSU community," it said. "Kappa Sigma was suspended from SDSU in 2020 and expelled in 2022. The chapter appealed the university's decision earlier this year, and the university has upheld the expulsion. The chapter is not an approved, recognized student organization (RSO), and has not been since May 2020."