MIT student dies after falling into alcoholinduced coma

September 30, 1997 10:50 a.m. EDT

BOSTON (AP) Three days after falling into an alcoholinduced coma, a
Massachusetts Institute of Technology freshman died and the
investigation was turned over to homicide detectives.

Maura McLaughlin, spokeswoman for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center,
said today that Scott Krueger, an 18yearold fraternity pledge, died
Monday night.

McLaughlin said she could give no details, at the family's request.

The death is being investigated as a homicide, said Officer Kevin
Jones, a Boston Police Department spokesman.

Krueger of Orchard Park, N.Y., had been in a coma since Friday, when he
was found at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house in Boston with his
heart stopped. Police said vomit and empty liquor bottles were found in
Krueger's room.

Krueger's parents said their son's blood alcohol level had reached .410
percent five times the legal limit for drivers in Massachusetts
and that he had attended a fraternity function before losing
consciousness. They said hospital physicians had to pump charcoal into
their son's stomach to soak up the alcohol in his system.

Fraternity officers have declined to comment.

MIT administrators said Monday they are planning an alcohol education
campaign and are considering banning alcohol campus wide.

``The MIT community will do all that we can to see that this kind of
tragedy never happens here again,'' MIT President Charles Vest said in
a statement today.

The fraternity was immediately suspended from taking part in social
activities at the university.

In August, a student died at a fraternity at Louisiana State University
after a night of drinking. It was the latest in several deaths linked
to alcohol at fraternities over the past year, including incidents in
California, Maryland and New York.