A student severely cut by glass, naked and profusely bleeding left Reitman Hall in an ambulance last Tuesday night, in what one person confirmed was a drug-related incident. Residents said the student, who is in stable condition, was cut when he threw himself toward a glass window adjacent to the bathroom on Reitman One around 8:30 p.m.

The student didn't fall from the building, and much about the incident remains unclear, including whether or not the student had attempted suicide.

But one person with first-hand knowledge of the incident, who would speak only on condition of anonymity, confirmed reports that the student had ingested hallucinogenic mushrooms earlier that night.

Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan said he did not know whether drugs were involved, but rumors about mushrooms spread around campus last week, recalling for some upperclassmen the death of Eliezer Schwartz '04, who fell from the third-story balcony of a Gloucester apartment building in November 2003. Witnesses said Schwartz had eaten mushrooms earlier that evening.

The floor near the middle of Reitman One was covered in splotches of blood Tuesday where the student collapsed, after suffering severe lacerations on his left breast and armpit area. The window by the bathroom was shattered with blood splattered on the walls and the carpet.

As the carpets were being shampooed late last Tuesday-just hours after police and Residence Life officials sealed off the entire hall-residents gave consistent accounts, but most acknowledged that they hadn't seen enough to know the whole story.

Residents said they heard a loud crash in the bathroom before they saw the student stumbling through the hallway, naked and bleeding. Jonathan Wallace '10, who lives on the hall, said the student, looking disoriented, stumbled into his room and stood in the doorway for about 10 seconds.

Wallace and his roommates led out the student, who left behind him a trail of blood on the carpet and on their door. The student then slammed into another window at the end of the hall, witnesses said, before he stumbled back to the middle of the hall and collapsed.

Wallace said that it didn't seem like the student was trying to throw himself through the second window, but the person with first-hand knowledge of the incident characterized the way the student broke the first window as a likely suicide attempt.

Schwartz's death in 2003 sparked visible debate about mushroom-use on campus. Schwartz's friends always maintained that his suicide didn't make sense, and that his actions must have been spurred by the mushrooms.

"One person's enlightenment can be another person's hell," Dawn Skop, the University's drug and alcohol counselor, told the Justice a few months after Schwartz's death. "Everyone reacts differently to these drugs. Let the buyer beware."

The community advisor on Reitman One declined comment, citing Residence Life regulations. Callahan and administrators said they didn't know whether the student was attempting suicide.

Public Safety received a call from a resident at 8:40 p.m., who said he saw the student bleeding in the hallway, Callahan said. A student that residents identified as the first to call Public Safety declined to comment.

BEMCo arrived on scene and administered first aid. Brandeis police, Waltham Police and the Waltham Fire Dept. were also on scene.

The student, who was transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, could not be reached for comment. A Medical Center spokesperson said the student was transferred to another facility Oct. 20, but added that he did not know which.

-Rachel Marder, Dan Hirschhorn and Jules Levenson reported from Reitman Hall