few days?" Dr. Sagman ignored Dr. Speken's advice,
indicating that he, Dr. Sagman, was in charge. Seth was not
sedated and was not given withdrawal doses of Xanax. Before
midnight that day, Seth therefore entered a delirious, psychotic
state due to withdrawal from Xanax. Seth began to act so
bizarrely that Dr. Ortiz was paged by the nurses at about
midnight. In spite of the fact that Seth was clearly
deteriorating, Dr.
Ortiz
did not come.
Day 3 Monday
On Monday morning, Dr. Speken spoke to Dr. Collins
when the latter called to say he
was the psychiatrist on Seth's case. Dr. Speken said to Dr.
Collins, as he had to the E.R. doctor and to Dr. Sagman, "I
have been treating Seth with Xanax for around a year. He has been
misusing the medication recently and took almost 70 pills over
the past 2-3 weeks." Later in the same day Dr. Collins again
called Dr. Speken and reported a conversation that he,
Dr.Collins, had with Seth. Dr. Speken said, "It sounds to me
like Seth's delirious, probably from the abrupt Xanax
withdrawal." Dr. Collins response was to
withhold even the inadequate Ativan being given to Seth rather
than to completely sedate Seth and begin administering Xanax in
withdrawal amounts. By that afternoon Seth was found "wandering hallways."
When Dr. Collins interviewed him he was hallucinating. Seth was
in Xanax withdrawal. He had hallucinations, tachycardia and
hypertension. Still he was not treated
for Xanax withdrawal by giving sufficient doses of medication to
produce deep and continuous sedation. Instead, a Dr. Charles told
Seth's mother that Seth was being transferred to a psychiatry
ward. Seth's mother told Dr. Charles that what Seth needed was
treatment for abrupt Xanax withdrawal, not a psychiatric service.
Later that afternoon, Dr. Speken visited his son who was having
visual hallucinations due to withdrawal delirium. Dr. Speken,
increasingly alarmed, called Dr. Sagman, who said they were
sending Seth to a "special unit to begin the
withdrawal."
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