TUNKHANNOCK TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Chun Hsien Deng was in bad shape.

The other three pledges for the Pi Delta Psi fraternity had gotten through the initiation ritual all right. But blindfolded, wearing a backpack weighted down with sand, and making his way across a frozen yard while trying to avoid tacklers, Mr. Deng had been sacked at least one too many times, law enforcement officials later said. He was unconscious.

So the fraternity brothers took him inside — out of the freezing mountain air, at least. It was about 5 a.m. on Sunday, and they had been carousing all weekend: 30 or so of them, and the four pledges, all students at Baruch College in Manhattan, all in the same rental house in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. They changed his clothes, did a Google search on his symptoms and looked up hospitals nearby, said Chief Harry W. Lewis of the Pocono Mountain Regional Police.

A call to 911 could have sent ambulances or the police. But the fraternity brothers did not call. Perhaps an hour and a half passed, authorities said.

Eventually a decision was made: Mr. Deng, who went by the name Michael, needed help. The students put him in a car, and three of them drove off with him to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, about half an hour away.