Chong contorted himself to shift his handcuffed arms from behind his back to the front, Iredale said.

CNN: Student forgotten in cell for 5 days will sue DEA

O'Connor didn't plead guilty this week and the charge is played in abeyance for two years, Iredale said.

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He was rushed to a hospital, where he was kept in intensive care for two days, having been close to death from kidney failure, Iredale said.

CNN: Student forgotten in cell for 5 days will sue DEA

It wasn't until the afternoon of Wednesday, April 25, that an agent opened the steel door to Chong's cell and found the handcuffed student, Iredale said.

CNN: Student forgotten in cell for 5 days will sue DEA

On Wednesday, Iredale filed a damage claim with the DEA, which he said is the beginning of the process for a civil suit in federal court.

CNN: Student forgotten in cell for 5 days will sue DEA

"Even if they forgot him for the weekend, there is no account for how they could have left him there for three full business days, " Iredale said.

CNN: Student forgotten in cell for 5 days will sue DEA

"This was not, we think, a psychiatric problem or a characterological defect because there is substantial evidence that during this same time, there was a tumor growing in her brain, in the centers of the brain that affect and control, logic, reasoning and, most importantly, judgment, " attorney Eugene Iredale said at a news conference Thursday.

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