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Clarkson student in coma after being seriously injured in fall at fraternity house in Potsdam

Posted 1/29/16

By CRAIG FREILICH POTSDAM -- A 19-year-old Clarkson student was in a coma at last report after he fell at a fraternity house early last Saturday. Ryan Anderson of Rensselaer was walking down the …

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Clarkson student in coma after being seriously injured in fall at fraternity house in Potsdam

Posted

By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- A 19-year-old Clarkson student was in a coma at last report after he fell at a fraternity house early last Saturday.

Ryan Anderson of Rensselaer was walking down the steps into the basement at the Omicron Pi Omicron fraternity house at 14 Leroy St. during a social function, when he slipped and fell, his head and neck impacting the wall and floor “sustaining serious injury,” said Potsdam Police Chief Kevin Bates.

Witnesses said Anderson was three or four steps from the bottom when he fell.

Others at the party immediately called 911, Bates said, at 1:47 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 23.

Potsdam police arrived first, followed quickly by Potsdam Rescue Squad, which took the injured student to Canton-Potsdam Hospital, after which he was transferred the University of Vermont Medical Center, formerly Fletcher Allen Hospital in Burlington.

Alcohol was being served at the function, Bates said, but his investigators have no knowledge whether or not Anderson was partaking.

“All indications to this point are that this was an accident,” Bates said.