Student forced to drink own urine after DEA forgot he was in cell and left him for FIVE DAYS gets $4million payout

Daniel Chong, 24, was arrested on April 21 in a drug bust and taken to county jail for questioning

He held in a holding cell and forgotten for five days, during which he consumed his own urine



Mr Chong's lawyer announced Tuesday that he had settled out of court for $4.1million

The college student forgotten in a holding cell for five days without food or water, took a $4.1 million settlement from the Justice Department his lawyer announced Tuesday.



24-year-old University of California, San Diego student Daniel Chong was arrested on April 21, 2012 as part of a major drug bust.



He was taken to county jail and subsequently forgotten in a cell for five days - starving and hallucinating.



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Payout: The college student who was taken to county jail and subsequently forgotten for five days, settled with the Department of Justice Tuesday for $4.1 million last July

Torture: Mr Chong endured five days forgotten in the cell, drinking his own urine and hallucinating

“It was an accident,” Mr Chong said in a news conference on Tuesday attended by KPBS , “a really bad, horrible accident.”



Mr Chong's attorney Eugene Iredale said that the Justice Department is still trying to figure out how Mr Chong slipped from their notice, but the inspector general still has no answers.



The DEA did not have a system in place at the time on how to treat detainees, but has since installed camera in each of the cells and holds daily inspections.



“What happened to Daniel should never happen to any human being on the face of the planet,' Mr Ireland said in the press conference.



'The government has recognized the profound suffering that Daniel underwent,' he said.



Mr Iredale said that no one has been disciplined for the drug bust, and that no criminal charges will be filed.



The student originally planned to sue for $20million.



Mr Chong said he is in good health back UC San Diego studying engineering.



The engineering student was swept up as one of nine suspects in an April 21 drug raid that netted 18,000 ecstasy pills, other drugs and weapons.

Left alone: Mr Chong was arrested in April 2012 as part of a drug bust, but was told he was going to be released

Seven suspects were taken to county jail, and another was released, but Mr Chong was somehow left behind, said Amy Roderick, a spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

'Each suspect was interviewed in separate interview rooms, and frequently moved around between rooms and cells,' Ms Roderick said.



'The individual in question was accidentally left in one of the cells.'

Mr Chong said federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents told him he would be let go. One agent even promised to drive him home from the DEA field office in Kearny Mesa, he said.

Instead, he was returned to a holding cell to await release.

Mr Chong said he could hear the muffled voices of agents outside his five-by-10-foot windowless cell and the door of the next cell being opened and closed.



The DEA said Chong's case prompted new nationwide policies for handling detainees that largely mirror the inspector general's recommendations

He kicked and screamed as loud as he could, but apparently, his cries for help went unheard.



'I had to recycle my own urine,' he said. 'I had to do what I had to do to survive.'

During the ordeal, he lost 15 pounds, according to NBC.

He said at one point, the lights shut off and he was left in the dark inside the five-by-10-foot windowless cell. He began to hallucinate.

'I was completely insane,' he said. 'It’s impossible to describe hallucinations like these.'



Mr Chong also said that he bit into his glasses to break them and tried to use a shard to scratch 'Sorry Mom' into his arm, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune .

When he was found on April 25, he was taken to a hospital and treated for cramps, dehydration and a perforated lung - the result of ingesting the broken glass.

'When they opened the door, one of them said `Here's the water you've been asking for,' Mr Chong said. 'But I was pretty out of it at the time.'



Mr Chong also ingested a white powder DEA agents said was left in the cell accidentally and later identified as methamphetamine.