After being arrested by the Drug Enforcement Agency last year, college student Daniel Chong's life was about to take a turn for the worse. He had no idea just how bad it would get, but he is now a wealthy man due to the ordeal he suffered through.

Chong was at a friend's house last year when a DEA raid netted approximately 18,000 ecstacy pills, other drugs, and some weapons. The University of California, San Diego college student was taken into custody along with eight other individuals and was left alone in a jail cell. Then he was forgotten, for four days.

"Each suspect was interviewed in separate interview rooms, and frequently moved around between rooms and cells," said Amy Roderick, a spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration. "The individual in question was accidentally left in one of the cells."

Chong, who was an engineering student and just 24-years-old at the time, was not a primary target in the sting and authorities did not expect that charges were going to be filed against him. Regardless, he had to fight for his life while in jail, and when he was finally discovered by DEA agents four days later, he was covered in his own feces, severely dehydrated, and on the brink of death.

"I had to recycle my own urine. I had to do what I had to do to survive," Chong said about his ordeal. At one point the lights went out in his cell, and he was thrown into complete darkness and experienced hallucinations. "I was completely insane. It's impossible to describe hallucinations like these.

Chong recalls that after the third day of being in the cell he believed that he was going to die. His situation became so dire that at one point he removed his glasses and bit down on one of the lens to make a shard of glass. With that shard he attempted to scribble "Sorry Mom" on his arm, but only got finished with the letter 'S' before suffering from a punctured lung due to glass inhalation.

The entire situation was a huge embarrassment for the DEA, who even offered up an extremely rare apology for Chong's treatment. Chong soon filed suit against the DEA for his treatment, asking for $20 million. This week he settled for $4.1 million to be paid for by the Justice Department.

"I extend my deepest apologies [to] the young man and want to express that this event is not indicative of the high standards that I hold my employees to," said William R. Sherman, who was a special agent in charge of the DEA's San Diego Division.

Once Chong was found dying in his cell, it took him a full five days to recover at a local hospital. He says that he now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder in the wake of his unfortunate ordeal.