Top Stories

Parents begging for answers after WVU student injured at fraternity

UPDATE 4:15 p.m.

UPMC has approved Rusko's transfer from Ruby Memorial Hospital to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, effective Friday.

The Rusko family sent Channel 11 the following statement:

We just wanted to take a moment to update everyone that has been following our story that UPMC has reconsidered and is now approving David to go to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta Georgia!!! Our next chapter starts tomorrow when we leave and are transported down!

We want to thank everyone for all your love, support, prayers, thoughts, well wishes and for everyone whom has reached out to us during this time. We also want to thank UPMC for believing in David and giving him the chance he DESERVES for his recovery.

But thee most important one whom we want to thank is God. Without him we know that we wouldn't be where we are today and we are so humbled to know that through this he was in complete control! Because ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is possible through him and he is the reason that we are now going to Atlanta!

ORIGINAL STORY:

A West Virginia University student has been fighting to survive for six weeks after he fell down a flight of stairs.

According to investigators, 22-year-old David Rusko's friends didn't call 911 for more than two hours after the fall.

Download the WPXI News App for the latest updates on Rusko's recovery.

Rusko has a traumatic brain injury and cannot communicate with his family, who spent Christmas with him at Ruby Memorial Hospital.

Doctors have told the family they can’t do anything more for him and he needs to be admitted to a different hospital in Atlanta. Rusko had been accepted as a patient, and his UPMC health insurance was also accepted, but the health plan denied the transfer, saying "the medical records they've received do not indicate a need for this service."

TRENDING NOW:

"[They're] basically saying the level of care he's getting there is the same as he's getting here and that is not true at all," Rusko's father, also named David, said. "David's doctors at Ruby have told us they can't do anything more for David. They are keeping him stable, but its time to move on to a facility like the Shepard Center."

In a statement to Channel 11, a spokesperson for UPMC said they could not provide specifics on this case, but they are seeing what can be done.

“A patient must be medically cleared for release by his or her current facility in order to be transferred to another facility," A UPMC spokesperson said in a statement emailed to WPXI."UPMC Health Plan leaders are currently reaching out to this patient’s clinical care team and family directly."

Rusko's fall happened at the SAE fraternity, which has been suspended.

 

Cox Media Group

Most Read