Leverett Guard Found Unconscious

A Leverett House security guard has been in the hospital for a week after a student found him unconscious in Leverett’s McKinlock Courtyard on January 26.

William Gibson is currently listed in good condition and has been moved out of the intensive care unit where he was first treated last week.

Andrew R. Suggs ’05 said he found Gibson collapsed in the snow with his eyes open when he was taking out his trash around 9 p.m.

“He was lying in a position that made it look like he had laid down—there wasn’t any blood,” Suggs said.

Suggs said he immediately got help from some other Leverett students and called 911.

“From what I could tell when I found him he wasn’t breathing,” Suggs said. “We started saying his name and he started breathing.”

Suggs said he waited with Gibson for about ten minutes until the ambulance arrived, and when Gibson was loaded into the ambulance he was still unconscious.

Gibson was taken by ambulance to Massachussetts General Hospital where he was held in the intensive care unit and his condition was listed as serious, according to Massachussetts General Hospital spokeswoman Emily O. Parker. She said she could not disclose the cause of Gibson’s ailment due to HIPAA regulations, and others contacted earlier this week also could not say why Gibson collapsed.

Leverett House Master Howard Georgi ’68 could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Leverett Allston Burr Senior Tutor Catherine Shapiro sent out an e-mail the day after Gibson was taken to the hospital saying that students could e-mail her get well messages and she would deliver them to Gibson.

The house also set up a box in the house office for donations to send Gibson flowers, after Tulita M. Papke ’06 suggested collecting money, Papke said.

According to Suggs, Gibson had worked in Leverett for about a year and was well known to most of the students.

“I knew him by his first name, and I think most people in Leverett probably do,” Suggs said.

—Staff reporter Joshua P. Rogers can be reached at jprogers@fas.harvard.edu.