Man 'abandoned' in jail cell gets $4million compensation

A university student has received $4.1 million from the US government after he was abandoned for more than four days in a prison cell, his lawyer said. Daniel Chong, from the city of San Diego, said he drank his own urine to stay alive, and tried to carve the words 'sorry mom' to his mother on his arm and hallucinated when nobody returned to his cell for four days. He was one of nine people held  in a drugs raid in 2012, but then authorities determined not to charge him. The justice department's inspector is now investigating what happened. One of Mr Chong's lawyers said a police officer put him in the holding cell after it was determined not to charge him and said: "We'll come get you in a minute". However, no-one did return to the cell which had no windows, and Mr Chong had no access to any food and water during his four and a half days trapped. He says he slid a shoelace under the door and screamed to get attention before he was found by several people in the cell at the Drug Enforcement Administration's San Diego headquarters. After Mr Chong was rescued, he spent five days in hospital recovering from dehydration, kidney failure, and a perforated oesophagus. He had also lost 7kg of weight during his ordeal.