Student dies after being in coma for eight months
This article was posted with permission from Brandi Bottalico, News Editor at The Towerlight.
By Brandi Bottalico/TheTowerlight
Hundreds of students gathered on Nov. 20 in Speaker’s Circle to commemorate the recently deceased Gilad Nissim with a candlelight vigil.
Nissim was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation, a rare medical condition, in March after he collapsed and had a seizure due to a brain aneurysm. He then slipped into a coma.
Gil was on life support for eight months. Initially he was being treated at the University of Maryland Medical Center but he was then transferred to a rehab facility in Israel to be closer to his family. On Nov. 16, Nissim died.
“Everything he did was real, and he was just an honest guy,” Theta Chi member Kevin Kutner said. “He was just always himself, and didn’t hold anything back.”
Kutner, along with Joe Gros, gave Nissim the bid to join the fraternity in mid-September of last year. Sophomore Evan Zimmerman was in the same Theta Chi pledge class as Nissim.
“I spent countless nights with him,” he said. “He was always putting a smile on my face, always picking me up when I was down and always knew the right things to say. He will be greatly missed.”
At the vigil, presidents from other fraternities, Towson Greek life staff, Rabbi Mendy Rivkin and fellow brothers shared prayers and stories.
“We are all affected by the loss of a fellow tiger,” Phi Sigma Kappa President Zachary Andrews said.
Rivkin said that he had Nissim over for Passover Seder and was impressed with his patience with his 5 year-old son.
“Gil didn’t just have patience with him like he adults do with children,” he said. “He treated my 5 year-old son like he was one of his Theta Chi brothers.”
Rivkin said that his friends and family can make his spirit remain with them.
“His soul makes Towson brighter,” he said. Gros said that he first met Nissim during a serendipitous encounter after a fraternity meeting. Both residents of Tower A, they quickly became friends, often hanging out playing video games and talking about girls, he said at the vigil.
Nissim was always trying to learn more about the fraternity, Gros said.
“He went out of his way to have a personal relationship with each one of us,” he said. “He had an unconditional openness to him.”
Gros said that one time Nissim said that he felt nice guys like him always finish first.
“As the nicest guy I’ve ever met in my entire life, I think you finished first,” she said.
Theta Chi’s award for the most chivalrous is going to be renamed in honor of Nissim, Kutner said.
“He always signed up for events, and he was always enthusiastic about attending events and helping us out,” he said.
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