UNIVERSITY student has been paid £2.7million compensation after cops locked him in a cell — and FORGOT he was there for four days.
Handcuffed Daniel Chong had no food or water and had to drink his urine to stay alive.
He also began to hallucinate and tried to carve a farewell message to his mum on his arm.
The horrific ordeal only ended after he slid a shoelace under the door to get attention and cops heard him screaming for help.
Shocked officers opened the door to find him covered in faeces in the windowless cell at the Drug Enforcement Administration’s HQ in San Diego, California.
The US Justice Department’s Inspector General is now investigating how Daniel, 25, came to be abandoned
The engineering student was arrested in a drugs raid at a friend’s house in April last year, but after questioning he was told he would not face charges.
Daniel’s attorney Eugene Iredale said officers told him: “Hang tight, we’ll come get you in a minute” — but no one returned to the cell for four days.
Daniel said he was so desperate for a drink he urinated on a metal bench and bent down to lap it up.
He also piled up blankets and clothes in a vain bid to set off an overhead fire sprinkler with his cuffed hands.
On the third day he began to hallucinate that agents were pumping poison gas through air vents.
He believed he would not survive and bit into his spectacles to break them, using a shard of glass to try to carve “Sorry Mom” into his arm. He only managed to complete the “S”.
Daniel said: “All I wanted was my sanity. I wasn’t making any sense.”
The frail student spent five days in hospital being treated for dehydration, kidney failure, cramps and a perforated oesophagus. He lost 15 lbs in weight.
The US Justice Department confirmed it had reached a settlement for $4.1million but declined to comment further.
No staff have been disciplined over the blunder and the DEA has not explained how it happened, although it has since introduced daily checks and cameras in cells.
Daniel said: “It sounded like it was an accident — a really, really bad, horrible accident.”
He said he plans to buy his parents a house and save the rest of his pay-out.
