$US4.1m for US student left in cell 5 days A MAN forgotten for almost five days in a US jail without food or water has won a $US4.1 million ($A4.54 million) settlement from the US government. Daniel Chong, 25, survived by drinking his own urine, after his jailers from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) failed to remember he was being held in their facility. "It was an accident, a really, really bad, horrible accident," Chong said at a press conference on Tuesday. Chong, a college student in the southern California city of San Diego, had been smoking marijuana on April 20, 2012 at the home of a friend, when he and several others were swept up in a DEA raid, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday. Unknown to Chong, the house had been under surveillance for days and a large quantity of ecstasy pills and weapons and ammunition were reportedly found on the premises. Chong was taken into custody, questioned briefly at the DEA facility in San Diego, then assured he would soon be released. Instead, officials apparently forgot about him and did not return to free him from the windowless, 1.5-metre by 3-metre room for almost five days. Chong quickly lost weight and was able to wriggle out of a set of handcuffs, the Times reported. But he was unable to escape the cell and his cries for help went unanswered. Unable to break a sprinkler for water, Chong had to drink his own urine to stave off dehydration, and began to suffer hallucinations. Fearing he would die before help arrived, he broke his eyeglasses and began to carve the message, "Sorry, mom," into his arm, the newspaper said. When he finally was discovered, Chong was covered in his own faeces and severely dehydrated. He was rushed to a hospital, with a swollen oesophagus, close to kidney failure and breathing with difficulty. He spent three days in intensive care before being released two days later. The settlement, reportedly was approved by the Department of Justice, which would not comment to the newspaper about the out-of-court agreement. Chong's lawyer, Eugene Iredale, said Chong has had to undergo intensive psychotherapy and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder since the ordeal, which "should never happen to any human being on the face of the planet."