Towson student loses battle for life after 8 months in coma

Gilad Nissim, 19, died Sunday surrounded by family

BALTIMORE —A Towson University student who fought for his life for the past eight months after a rare condition put him in a coma has died.

Gilad Nissim, 19, who grew up in Rockville, died Sunday at a hospital in Israel, surrounded by family.

On March 26, the Towson freshman collapsed while walking on campus and was taken to the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, where they discovered that several veins had burst in his brain, causing multiple aneurisms.

The rupture happened due to a cerebral arteriovenous malformation, or AVM, that the usually healthy Nissim had unknowingly had since birth. AVMs are a rare condition that affects less than 1 percent of the population.

Nissim spent several months in a coma. In June, he was transferred to a hospital in Jerusalem to be closer to his sisters and other family members.

While the teen had shown slow signs of physical progress over the past few months, he never regained consciousness. On Sunday, Nissim's family announced that he had passed away.

Nissim would have turned 20 in December.  Friends of Nissim's at Towson University are planning a candlelight vigil in his memory in Freedom Square on the campus at 8 p.m. Wednesday.