US man 'abandoned' in US jail gets $4m in compensation

A university student in the US city of
San Diego has received more than
$4m (£2.6m) from the US
government after he was abandoned
for more than four days in a prison
cell, his lawyer said.
Daniel Chong said he drank his urine to
stay alive, tried to carve a message to his
mother on his arm and hallucinated.
He was held in a drug raid in 2012, but
told he would not be charged. Nobody
returned to his cell for four days.
The justice department's inspector is
investigating what happened.
After Mr Chong was rescued, he spent
five days in hospital recovering from
dehydration, kidney failure, cramps and a
perforated oesophagus. He also lost 15lb
(7kg).
He said he thought he was forgotten by
mistake.
"It sounded like it was an accident - a
really, really bad, horrible accident," he
said.
The jail cell had no windows and Mr
Chong had no food or water while he
was trapped inside.
His lawyer said that as a result of the
incident the Drug Enforcement
Administration had introduced new
policies for detention, including checking
cells daily and installing cameras inside
them.