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2015 death reported in Lousiana

Moderator: Once again, it looked as if a whole year (2015) had passed without a hazing death. As the excerpt below indicates, this death was not reported until 2016.

A member of the Beta Kappa Gamma Fraternity at LSU died in the fall semester of 2015 during one of the fraternity’s retreats.

It was the fraternity’s annual “Apple Night” retreat, where they stayed overnight in the woods to bond with one another.

Members left for the retreat on Nov. 6, 2015, the next morning 22-year-old Praneet Karki was pronounced dead within 10 minutes of arriving at the hospital.

“A young person with no known chronic medical issues, certainly you would have to come to the bottom of that with other scientific investigations,” William “Beau” Clark, the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner, said.

A toxicology screen showed no traces of drugs or alcohol in Praneet’s system. The autopsy revealed damage to his heart. His cause of death is listed as “arrhythmia, likely exercise induced” on the autopsy report. Because he had no pre-existing conditions, according to the coroner, his death was ruled as “natural.”

“There was some kind of decreased blood flow to the heart muscles that caused the heart…. LINK to KATC story

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. In April of 2024, the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division and Best Humorist, second place.

He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com and in his weekly column "Far from Randolph" in the Winchester Star-Gazette of Randolph County, Indiana.

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