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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