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2007-05-01 issue:

EMU student falls from roof during prank

by Eastern Mennonite University

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HARRISONBURG, Va.—Early Friday morning, April 13, a prank orchestrated by a group of Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) students turned tragic when a student fell off the roof of the three-story Oakwood residence hall.

Michael Wiebe-Johnson, 19, a first-year pre-engineering student from Elkhart, Ind., was injured while the group was trying to place a stuffed buffalo from the university’s Suter Science Center lobby on the dorm roof. He was transported by helicopter to the University of Virginia medical center around 6:25 a.m.

Wiebe-Johnson was moved April 14 from the trauma center onto the critical care unit. He suffered a fractured hip, several cracked vertebrae and a concussion, but doctors did not detect any paralysis. By the next day his condition was upgraded to “stable.”

The buffalo was a gift to the D. Ralph Hostetter Museum of Natural History from Ervin and Pat Yoder of Berlin, Ohio. It weighs between 250 and 300 pounds.

“Michael is slowly regaining his memory of the events leading up to the fall,” Ken L. Nafziger, vice president for student life, said April 15. “He’s been able to talk with his parents and friends from EMU, and his situation seems to be progressing nicely. A lot of prayers have been answered.”