BU exchange student sues Worcester Polytechnic Institute, frat house for alleged severe burn injury
She describes the pain "like needles stabbing you."
Yvette Digan, an Boston University exchange student from Hong Kong, says she has spent her first months in the United States in excruciating pain.
She sustained burns on about a third of her body, following an incident this spring at a Worcester Polytechnic Institute frat house, where she was severely burned, according to a lawsuit she filed against the school and Zeta Psi Fraternity on May 22.
“It hurts to move my neck … it’s a very specific kind of pain, like needles stabbing you,” said Digan, 22, who has also set up a GoFundMe page to crowdfund money for her medical costs.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute declined to comment on Sunday, citing “active litigation.” The lawyer representing the fraternity did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Digan alleges she was burned after a fraternity member “negligently poured a highly flammable liquid, believed to be denatured alcohol” onto an open fire.
She sustained second and third-degree burns on 30 percent of her body including her legs, left hand and breasts, according to her lawyer. Digan claims the third-degree burns have penetrated her subcutaneous tissue, damaging hair follicles, sweat glands, and nerve endings.
Digan has tattoos on her arms of designs she drew herself that she got right when she turned 18. But the intricate tattoo of a slithering snake on her left forearm is mostly singed off now, replaced with red bumpy skin that’s still healing.
Digan, who studies law at City University in Hong Kong, came to the US at the beginning of May for a summer exchange program at BU.
“My long term goal was to hopefully practice law in the States,” she said. “I just kind of wanted to have a taste of that of what it would be like to go to school here.“
Digan, through her lawyer, said she attended a social gathering at Zeta Psi Fraternity to meet a WPI student with whom she was friends.
She was released from MassGeneral on June 10 after multiple skin graft surgeries, some involving the use of cadaver skin. Since then, Digan has been juggling her classes at BU with occupational therapy appointments and counseling.
In an open letter Digan’s lawyer posted on LinkedIn on July 12, he wrote that he was disappointed by his communications with representatives from WPI, saying that the educational institution “should have been advocating for its injured student.”
Along with WPI and the fraternity, Digan is also preparing to sue Luxco, an alcohol company that makes the 190-proof spirit Everclear that Digan alleges a fraternity member poured on the fire.
Luxco did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
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