Man survives jump from Ballantine

Hundreds of students witnessed a 22-year-old male student jump from the eighth floor of Ballantine Hall just before noon Monday.\nThe student, a Merrilville, Ind., resident who lives in the dorms, survived the attempted suicide and was transported to Bloomington Hospital, according to IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger. Eyewitnesses said the man jumped and landed on the solid awning of the north side's first floor after breaking a window with a chair.\nMinger said seven IUPD officers, three IUPD detectives, the Bloomington Fire Department and Bloomington Hospital Ambulance Service responded to the call. IU Emergency Services also responded to the call.\nAssistant Professor of English Ivan Kreilkamp was walking over a bridge to Ballantine when the incident occurred.\n"I was worried that the chair was going to hit someone," Kreilkamp said. "The chair was thrown hard through the window. A second later, a man clambered out, kind of leaned over and let go."\nSenior and IU EMS volunteer Nate Polite was the first responder on the scene. Polite said he was leaving the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation when he heard several screams and ran toward Ballantine Hall. \n"When I got up (to the awning) there were two workers. One janitor was an EMT also," Polite said. "I was the only one who could slip through the window, so I took my sandals off and got down on the rocks. There was glass everywhere."\nPolite said the student was conscious and sitting up when he reached him.\n"He was talking to me, he definitely seemed disoriented, but he was conscious," Polite said. \nPolite said it was a good sign the student had feeling in his legs.\n"We were worried about femur fractures," Polite said. "He had some puncture wounds and some lacerations. In that situation, you have got to get him out of there as soon as you can, because there could be internal bleeding."\n Minger said IUPD received 10 emergency calls from witnesses. Amy Brummet, the Bloomington Police Department dispatch supervisor, said the BPD central emergency dispatch received 22 emergency calls in a span of about three minutes.\nSome students who witnessed the incident called friends on their cell phones, while others could only stare and try and piece together what had happened.\nPolite said his greatest relief was that he reached the scene and was able to try and help.\n"I was very surprised and very happy to see that he was sitting up," Polite said. "I was just very glad because I was afraid as soon as I heard that I was going to come to something that couldn't be worked -- a scene that didn't have hope."\nBloomington Hospital would not release the man's condition.\n-- Contact staff writer Mallory Simon at mgsimon@indiana.edu.