Rakan plugged his ears and refused to listen or to talk on the phone to his family in Iraq, while Himmet Taskomur, a Turkish friend from Cambridge, tried to reason with him. Rakan wanted to go home, but his sister and brother-in-law in Iraq insisted that he follow the doctors' orders.

Dr. Laurence Ronan looked on, along with social worker Amy Simpson, right, and Deb McSweeney, a therapist.