Teen in coma taken off life support

An 18-year-old college freshman who has been in a coma since a drug overdose Tuesday was taken off life support Friday at her family’s request and died without regaining consciousness, police said.

Coeur d’Alene police say the North Idaho College student who gave her the drug will be charged with manslaughter.

Coeur d’Alene police offered condolences to the family of Gloria Discerni, who was pronounced dead at Kootenai Medical Center shortly after 2:45 p.m. Friday.

Discerni, from Cottage Grove, Ore., was at a small party in an apartment near the North Idaho College campus Tuesday night. She lost consciousness after ingesting what police say is an estimated 10 drops of the hallucinogen LSD mixed into a glass of orange juice.

Concerned friends took Discerni to KMC Tuesday night, but her condition continued to worsen.

“We express sympathy to the family of our 18-year-old victim,” Sgt. Christie Wood, information officer for the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, said Friday evening. “We also express our sympathy to the family of Cameron Jester. This is a senseless tragedy.”

Jester, an 18-year-old student from Nebraska, was among the people who took Discerni to the hospital. He was arrested there after admitting that he provided the LSD, police said.

Wood said Jester expressed remorse for Discerni’s violent reaction to the drug – she began vomiting and fading in and out of consciousness almost immediately, police have said – and is being held under suicide watch at the Kootenai County Jail on a $100,000 bond.

Jester was arrested Tuesday on two drug charges: delivery of a controlled substance for the LSD, and possession of a controlled substance for hallucinogenic mushrooms he was carrying, Wood said. Wood and Lt. Don Jiran said Friday that an additional charge of manslaughter will be filed against Jester.

Wood said an autopsy and toxicology reports will be needed to determine the cause of death. “We don’t know if (the LSD) is the cause of death,” she said.

Jiran said the hallucinogenic drug “is not that prevalent” in North Idaho. Like methamphetamine, LSD is made in batches by amateur chemists and its potency can vary widely. According to court documents, police say Jester told them he purchased the LSD in Spokane.

Police say there may have been only four or five people at the party Tuesday in an apartment in the 700 block of Rider Avenue. Wood and Jiran said that as far as they know, only Jester and Discerni took hits of the LSD.

Each had about 10 drops of the drug mixed into glasses of orange juice, police have said.

Wood and Jiran said they could not guess the potency of the LSD ingested at the party.

Police are still investigating the source of the drug and awaiting toxicology reports.