IPDN student dies after drinking spree

Yuli Tri Suwarni ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Bandung   |  Tue, 05/06/2008 1:57 PM  |  The Archipelago

A student died at the Advent Hospital on Sunday in Bandung, West Java, reportedly due to organ failure following a drinking binge.

Chris Benard, 23, from the Institute for Public Administration, IPDN, was initially admitted to AMC Hospital in Cileunyi, some 2 km from the IPDN campus in Jatinangor, Sumedang, on May 2.

"He was admitted in a critical condition due to a severe drop in consciousness," Norman, a doctor attending Chris' at Advent Hospital's intensive care unit, said.

"According to his friends, they went out on a drinking spree two days earlier," he said.

Chris' pulse and breathing rate was rapid, Norman said. Chris had no medical history of acute illnesses and no physical wounds on his body, he said.

Norman was unable to determine conclusively whether alcohol was the cause of death.

IPDN reported the case to the Jatinangor Police and Sumedang Police on Sunday, completely handing the case over to them.

Chris had passed his comprehensive test at IPDN on April 30 and, according to plans, would sit his final examination on June 2 before graduating on June 7.

The Sumedang Police have refused to issue a permit allowing Chris' family take home his remains -- currently laying at rest at Borromeus Hospital in Bandung -- to Central Kalimantan. Chris' family have objected to an autopsy being carried out on the body.

Urbanus Siram, said Chris, the youngest of his two children, was a representative from Pulau Pisau regency, Central Kalimantan, sent to study at IPDN in 2004.

"I was shocked when I discovered he was admitted to hospital because he had never complained of any illness in his life," Urbanus said.

Urbanus did not say why the family had rejected an autopsy.

Urbanus, a civil servant at the industry, trade and cooperatives office in Pulau Pisau, arrived in Bandung with his wife Dewi on Monday.

Sumedang Police chief of detectives Adj. Comr. Hotben Gultom said police would ask that an autopsy be performed to determine the cause of death.

"An autopsy must be conducted. We will persuade the family of the deceased," Gultom said.

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