Video revealed what happened the night a fraternity pledge sustained a paralyzing brain injury at a University of Missouri frat house.
In 2021, Danny Santulli was an incoming freshman and new pledge of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported Thursday.
By October that year, Santulli and the other freshman pledges had one last hazing ritual to endure, which was called the “Pledge Dad Reveal.”
During the ritual, “pledge dad” Ryan Delanty taped a bottle of vodka to Santulli’s hand and told him to drink the entire liter.
He was also ordered to chug beer from a funnel.
The video showed an intoxicated Santulli falling straight back to the floor and hitting his head, as frat members made fun of him.
WARNING: The following video contains images that may be disturbing for some readers.
Hazed into drinking excessive quantities of alcohol, Danny Santulli approached the precipice of death – and it was all caught on camera.
Houses of Horror: Secrets of College Greek Life premieres Monday at 9/8c. #SecretsOf pic.twitter.com/jnwzUSHFTg
— A&E (@AETV) August 9, 2024
Should the students have been given harsher sentences?
Fraternity members were then seen carrying Santulli onto a couch before leaving him there.
Santulli fell off the couch and remained there for some time before one member picked him up, realizing something was wrong.
After checking for a pulse and seeing how limp he was, the frat brothers picked him up and started carrying him to a car, dropping him on his head at one point.
“It looked like he wasn’t breathing, but no one called 9-1-1,” said David Bianchi, the Santulli family attorney. “Their first instinct is to protect themselves and the fraternity. Nobody wanted to be the person blamed for what was going on here. Instead, they got one of the fraternity members who had a car to agree to drive him to the hospital.”
Santulli had a blood alcohol content of .486 and was diagnosed with acute alcohol poisoning when he arrived at University Hospital.
He would remain hospitalized nearly eight months, according to KOMU-TV in Missouri.
Santulli is now blind, paralyzed and unable to speak, according to Bianchi.
“Unfortunately, his condition is unchanged,” Bianchi said. “He has massive brain damage.”
Bianchi filed a civil law suit in 2022, naming 25 defendants associated with the fraternity.
That same year, the Santulli family had already racked up $2 million in medical expenses.
Bianchi said the family ultimately won a multi-million dollar settlement.
“They will have whatever they need for the rest of his life without regard to cost,” Bianchi said, the Daily Mail reported.
The incident prompted the University of Missouri to withdraw recognition for the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and the chapter was disbanded.
Eleven of the fraternity brothers were criminally charged. Of those, 10 were indicted by a grand jury for hazing.
Fraternity “pledge dad” Ryan Delanty, who handed Santulli the bottle, was sentenced to six months in jail and six more under house arrest for giving alcohol to a minor.
“Our next step is for Danny’s Law that should pass in 2025,” said Tom Santulli, the victim’s father. “Basically, if someone is in distress and so forth someone calls 911, you get immunity. You get immunity from the hazing felony.”
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