Sejal Shah is a psychiatrist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who evaluated Lindsay Clancy after Clancy said she wanted to change her healthcare representative from her husband to her parents. Shah testified as a prosecution witness in Clancy's murder trial in Plymouth County Superior Court today (Monday, August 3, day 5) over the Jan. 24, 2023, deaths of her three young children, which occurred while she was being treated for postpartum mental health problems. Shah assessed Clancy's psychiatric safety, decision-making capacity and medication management and found she was capable of changing her healthcare proxy. "We waited to make that make the change from Patrick Clancy to her parents until the next day, for a variety of reasons. We wanted to ensure that that choice was consistent over time, and especially because the day that I saw her, she had just gone through some pretty major medical events, including she had a major spine surgery, a decompression and a fusion. She had gone through some oxygen desaturations overnight, so was not breathing as well. Her heart rate was up, all of which then led to her being what we call delirious," Shah said. She said Clancy "was confused overnight to the point where she asked her nurse, 'Am I delirious?' And she was also experiencing some visual hallucinations." Shah said the nursing team "also voiced, you know, concerns that she had come in after a reported suicide attempt, and so making sure that she was able to make that decision of sound mind. And so we actually waited until the next day when she could be reassessed. At that point, her delirium had cleared, and she was continuing to make that consistent choice to change her healthcare proxy to her parents," Shah said. Clancy "was saying that her parents are quite supportive to her, and that she was thinking that she would have to change her healthcare proxy from her husband to somebody else," she continued. "And we didn't necessarily go into the reasons as to you know why she would have to change it. But she explained that she was very close with her parents; they would see each other frequently, given that they lived in close geographic proximity, and that she felt that they were very supportive to her and would have her best interests in mind should we need to invoke the healthcare proxy," Shah testified. Clancy's trial involves serious mental health issues and could distress some or many people. If you or someone you know needs help, you can call or text 988 to speak to a trained crisis counselor. You also can visit 988lifeline.org or dial 800-273-8255 [TALK]. #law #crime #court - @meghannmcuniff