Waterfront recreation turned to tragedy Friday evening when Lisabette Chang '93, a presidential scholar who had returned to school after a two year battle with leukemia, went into cardiac arrest while swimming in the Connecticut River.
Chang died later that night at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. She had a history of heart trouble related to her leukemia, according to her doctor Alan Kritz.
Chang had been swimming with a friend by the dock of the Ledyard Canoe Club when the friend began shouting for help because she thought Chang was drowning, police said.
Students splashing about to escape the sweltering summer sun responded to cries for help and pulled Chang ashore just before 7:30 p.m.
Witnesses described a frightening and chaotic scene after Chang was pulled from the water. One student ran to the canoe club to call Safety and Security while others, unclear as to what was happening, gathered around.
The witnesses said that after Chang was first pulled from the water she was lying on her side breathing and had a pulse. The four students closest to Chang thought she had survived a near drowning and, not realizing she had suffered cardiac arrest, thought the danger had passed. Some swimmers jumped back into the river.
An initial report to Hanover Police at 7:35 from the College's Safety and Security Office indicated that bystanders thought Chang was conscious when she was pulled onto the dock.
But moments later it became clear something was still gravely wrong and two students jumped from the water, turned Chang over on her back and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Paramedics who arrived on the scene used a defibrillator to get her heart beating again and rushed her to the hospital. She died about an hour later.
Kritz, a specialist in hematology and oncology at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, said Chang's leukemia was in remission. Her heart had been weakened by chemotherapy, but Kritz said her death was unexpected. "This was sudden and shocking," he said.
An autopsy revealed Chang suffered from cardiomyopathy -- an enlarging of the heart --which was caused by medication used to treat her cancer, according to Kathy Dalton, a nursing supervisor at the DHMC.
Dalton said Chang's death was not related to the heat wave which has gripped New England for the past few days.
Chang matriculated with the Class of 1993 in September 1989 but left school near the end of her freshman year to battle cancer.
Sylvia Langford,1993 class dean, said Chang had been a presidential scholar and was running a straight A average since returning to school last September. "That's how I knew her," Langford said. "I would send her those letters at the end of the term that said 'Congratulations, my goodness!"
Lisabette Susan Chang was born April 27, 1971. Before coming to Dartmouth, she graduated from Scarsdale High School where she was a national merit finalist. She was also a member of the national honor society and an editor of the school newspaper.
At Dartmouth, Chang was majoring in English. She just recently began her presidential scholar research on Virginia Woolf with English Professor Brenda Silver. She was tapped for Fire and Skoal senior society and was elected to be the society's president.
Dean of Students Lee Pelton notified Chang's parents by phone at their Tarrytown, N.Y. home.
Chang is survived by her parents Sue Lee Chang and Ki Young Chang and by a younger brother. A wake will be held at 8 p.m. tonight in the Edwin Bennett Funeral Home, 824 Scarsdale Avenue in Scarsdale, N.Y.
The funeral will take place at the funeral home tomorrow at 10 a.m. and burial will follow at the Kesico Cemetary in Valhalla, N.Y. Contributions may be made in Lisabette Chang's name to the American Leukemia Foundation.
