Ryan ChartrandCal Poly business senior Joseph Hassan, 24, died Sept. 25 after a four-day coma resulting from a mixture of prescription and illegal drugs, close friends and family members said.
Although the toxicology tests are still pending, it is believed by some who knew him that his death was a result of a deadly mixture of the prescription medications OxyContin, an analgesic; Xanax, which treats depression and anxiety disorders; and the illegal drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy.
“It happened sometime in the afternoon on Saturday. A little bit after 2 p.m. is when he stopped breathing,” said Hassan’s close friend and fellow Cal Poly business major Omid Shamsapour, 22. “I’ve known that he has taken stuff before, but not to that extent.”
Hassan was admitted to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center after his brother Adam Hassan and mother Vasi Hassan found him unconscious in his living room in the afternoon of Sept. 22. When they realized he wasn’t breathing, they called for an ambulance.
The Cal Poly student had no apparent brain activity after the hospital performed several tests that Saturday, Shamsapour said.
Several friends and family visited the patient over the next few days, but upon doctors’ recommendations the family decided to remove Hassan from life support around 9 p.m. Sept. 25.
“All we ever prayed for was for him to come back,” said Shamsapour, who recounted the story on behalf of Hassan’s family.
“Joseph is by far the best friend I’ve ever had in my life, and by that I mean he was charming, funny, smart, athletic and hilarious.”
Hassan planned to graduate this December with a business degree in finance and then to attend law school.
“Everybody that he met really touched his heart,” Vasi Hassan said.
She added that because her son loved San Luis Obispo so much, she hopes that one day she can convince the city to name a street after him.
“He spoke so highly of San Luis Obispo and how he didn’t really want to leave. It was just such a comfortable place to be and a beautiful environment. It just gave him ambition to move on and make his dream come true,” she said.
He would have been the first in his family to graduate from college and had been out celebrating Friday night, said Cal Poly associate professor of finance Larry Gorman. He worked closely with Hassan for nearly two years.
“I saw him that Friday afternoon,” Gorman said. “He was on top of the world. He was excited about grad school and that this was his last quarter (at Cal Poly). He had everything going for him.”
The day Gorman was told that Hassan was in the hospital, he had been writing a letter of recommendation for the student.
He said that Hassan’s death was the exact opposite of suicide. Instead, it was “excess celebration,” he said.
“He was very upbeat, very honest and was always trying to improve himself,” Gorman said.
Although he added that Hassan was “wise beyond his years,” Gorman could not account for the reason why the student allegedly ingested the mixture of chemical substances.
The San Luis Obispo Police Department said that the circumstances surrounding Hassan’s death are still being investigated and more information will be released when the investigation is closed.
Hassan’s wake was held at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension in Oakland and he was laid to rest in an Islamic burial at Five Pillars Cemetery in Livermore on Sept. 28, his mother said.
Because Hassan was so close to finishing school, it is important that he gets his degree in some form, Shamsapour said.
Several of Hassan’s friends even looked into taking a few classes in his name in order to get him the proper amount of credits and courses he would have needed in order to graduate in December.
“There is no university process for that,” said Dave Christy, dean of the Orfalea College of Business.
“I’m very proud that students would want to do something for him, but that’s not the way honorary degrees occur.”
Instead, Christy said that Hassan may be nominated for a posthumous degree, an award for a deceased student who satisfactorily completed at least two-thirds of all coursework toward a degree.
The best way students can honor Hassan’s memory is to do well in their coursework, Christy said.
“I hope the students work hard in their own classes and we’ll work hard to award him a posthumous degree,” he said.