The man who was pulled from Mirror Lake in August died after spending roughly a month in critical condition.
Tushar Shriram Kabre, age 28, died Thursday at 11:15 a.m. at the Wexner Medical Center. His cause of death was near drowning, Franklin County Coroner Jan Gorniak said.
His manner of death was still undetermined as of 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, Gorniak said.
While cause of death refers to why a person died, manner of death explains how the person died, whether it was accidental, natural, a suicide or a murder, according to Oracle’s ThinkQuest.
Kabre was taken to the hospital in critical condition Aug. 18 and was placed in the Intensive Care Unit. A Medical Center spokeswoman told The Lantern earlier this month Kabre had been removed from the ICU but remained in critical condition.
Kabre was pulled from the lake after a 911 call reporting a “person in distress in Mirror Lake” was received at approximately 5 p.m. Aug. 18, and other bystanders approached the Ohio State Public Safety Mobile Command Unit that was in the area to get additional help.
OSU assistant vice president of media and public relations Gayle Saunders sent a university statement about Kabre’s death to The Lantern Tuesday afternoon.
“Our hearts and thoughts go out to the family and friends of Tushar Shriram Kabre during this very difficult time. We will continue to make university resources available to them,” the email read.
Police officers and Student Safety officers jumped into Mirror Lake Aug. 18 to pull Kabre from the water and bystanders reported paramedics performed CPR and chest resuscitations for several minutes without any apparent reaction from Kabre.
OSU Administration and Planning spokeswoman Lindsay Komlanc said in an August email that Kabre “received a masters of science in chemistry degree in Autumn 2011” but he was not currently enrolled at the university.
OSU Ph.D. candidate Krishna Patel, an acquaintance of Kabre’s from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, told The Lantern Aug. 19 that Kabre was a student from India and said he didn’t know of any relatives of Kabre’s in the area.
Attempts to locate relatives of Kabre were unsuccessful.
Jumping in Mirror Lake before the OSU football game against the University of Michigan is a university tradition but not a university sanctioned event.
OSU’s Tuesday statement touched on the possibility of Kabre’s death influencing the future of the Mirror Lake area.
“This tragic situation and other concerns have prompted renewed conversation among university leaders about how best to ensure that Mirror Lake is both a beautiful and safe feature on our campus,” the statement read.
Student Life spokesman Dave Isaacs said Aug. 19 how Kabre being pulled from Mirror Lake would affect the jump was unknown.
“Certainly the Mirror Lake jump will be discussed and, if appropriate, we will reflect on the unfortunate incident of another night,” Isaacs said.
Isaacs referred The Lantern to Saunders for further comment on the incident Tuesday.
Some students said they hope Kabre’s death doesn’t affect OSU’s treatment of the lake.
“(The incident) shouldn’t impact whether we have a lake or not on campus, accidents are bound to happen,” said Paul Linville, a first-year in computer science. “This lake is used by enough students in the right way … (Incidents like this are) just too rare to want to take action against the lake.”
Some OSU students said they think the Mirror Lake jump in particular is safer than a normal day at the lake because of an increased police presence.
“At the Mirror Lake jump, there (are) a lot of people around … so there would be more people around to react to help somebody who couldn’t swim or was struggling,” said Savannah Bever, a third-year in cellular and molecular neuroscience.
Others said they didn’t think the death of a former student should influence the tradition.
“Mirror Lake jump is obviously dangerous and kind of ridiculous, but I mean, everyone is watching and there is a lot of supervision. Also, police officials are on the scene so I don’t think it should be canceled and I don’t think canceling it would be very successful either,” said Harrison Levy, a second-year in Japanese.
Linville said he doesn’t think OSU will do anything to change the Mirror Lake jump.
“This lake is tradition … it would be hard to take action after one incident like that,” he said. “I couldn’t see it happening and I don’t think it’s necessary.”
Dan Hessler contributed to this story.
