Freshman remains in critical care after 3-story leap

An IU wrestler remained in the critical-care unit at Bloomington Hospital on Wednesday night after surviving a leap from the third floor of the Walnut Center parking garage early Sunday morning, hospital officials said.\nFreshman Eric Cameron, 18, has shown signs of improvement after initial CT scans showed bleeding in his brain. Cameron was placed in intensive care on a ventilator. A critical-care registered nurse said his CT scan Wednesday showed the bleeding had stopped. Once the swelling in his brain recedes, Cameron will be on the road to recovery, the nurse said.\n"He's doing much better," said his mother, Sheila Ankney, who drove from Cincinnatito Bloomington on Sunday morning with Cameron's father and stepfather. Ankney said Cameron was off the ventilator and breathing on his own. He was still in a lot of pain, she said, but was able to speak a few words to the nursing staff and his family. \nAssistant Dean of Students Suzanne Phillips, who has been working closely with the family, said Cameron seems to be making tremendous strides in his recovery process.\n"Every day seems to be a huge improvement, so it's very encouraging," she said. "It's day by day at this point."\nAnkney told the IDS on Monday that it was a "miracle" her son had not broken any bones or been paralyzed by the fall. \n"It's been a long couple of days, but today there's been a lot of hope," Ankney said.\nAccording to the police report, Cameron, who lives in McNutt Quad, was escaping from Bloomington Police Department officers when he jumped from the third floor of the parking garage at the corner of Seventh and Walnut streets onto power boxes and flipped to the ground, landing on his back. He had been involved in an altercation with another man and several women when the police were called, BPD Sgt. David Drake said Monday.\nBefore the fall occurred, a friend of Cameron's got into a fight with a 25-year-old man and four women at about 3 a.m. Sunday morning near Kilroy's Sports Bar on North Walnut Street. Drake said the unidentified friend began "hitting on" the women and followed them into the parking garage. Cameron and a second unidentified friend tagged along. After one woman, a 22-year-old IU student, told them to go away, the first unidentified friend of Cameron's punched her in the eye. She sustained a contusion on her right cheek, one loose tooth and two chipped teeth, according to the police report.\nThe 25-year-old man then punched Cameron's friend, knocking him to the ground.\nAfter the 25-year-old man and the four women clambered into their SUV, Cameron began punching the rear driver's side window of the vehicle, Drake said, reading from the report.\nWhen BPD officers arrived, Cameron "took off running and jumped over the wall" of the parking garage, Drake said. According to the report, Cameron smelled of alcohol when officers found him, though a Breathalyzer test was not performed.\nDrake said the two men whom Cameron was with disappeared sometime during the incident, and police have not yet found or identified them.\nAnkney was amazed with the support she has received from the IU community, including from the Dean of Students Office, the wrestling team and more than two dozen friends around the country who had come to visit her son. In addition, the father of the IU woman injured in the Sunday morning incident met with Cameron.\n"Her dad came yesterday to see how Eric was and we sat down and had a long conversation," Ankney said, explaining how she believes Cameron was just trying to help a friend when the argument turned into a physical fight. "Things just got out of hand"