A 20-year old male student is in critical condition at St. Joseph’s Hospital after ingesting an unconfirmed substance this afternoon, and in response hazardous material teams were deployed to Texas A&M and an area hospital.
The incident occurred at approximately 3:30 p.m. Bryan and College Station first responders and Texas A&M officials converged on the scene, where they roped off an area in front of the Memorial Student Center and Rudder Tower.
A College Station Fire Department hazmat team deployed to Texas A&M’s campus, as the unconfirmed substance is suspected to be chemical in nature.
A Bryan Fire Department hazmat team deployed to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where it set up a decontamination unit in the hospital’s parking lot.
Tim Ottinger, a St. Joseph’s official, said the decontamination unit stands ready to decontaminate hospital staff or anyone effected by the unconfirmed substance. He said the patient is in critical condition.
Lt. Allan Baron, public information officer for the University Police Department, said the investigation is ongoing.
Update 10/16/2014, 7:41 p.m. — Chris Meyer, assistant vice president for the office of safety and security, said the reason a Code Maroon was not issued was due to the fact the incident immediately affected the safety of only one student and university officials didn’t deem it necessary to interrupt ongoing classes with announcements that would have gone off over the loud speakers.
Meyer said the university officials did not see any immediate threat to other students’ safety because the situation was contained and was being properly handled by emergency teams.