Among the 54,000 calls fielded by the Utah Poison Control Center last year was one from a Utah State University fraternity chapter, whose leaders were seeking advice about an intoxicated pledge.

The Sigma Nu chapter commander would later tell Logan police they followed the center's recommendations by giving Michael Starks water, laying him on his side and monitoring him. About four hours after the call, Starks was dead. The ensuing police investigation led to hazing charges and the closure of the fraternity chapter and a neighboring sorority by their national leadership.

Charging documents suggest poison control gave poor advice. But a recording of the call, obtained by The Tribune through a government records request to the Cache County Attorney's Office, offers a more nuanced scenario. Sigma Nu members provided faulty information to the center and either misunderstood or didn't follow poison control's recommendations. In spite of the call, Starks didn't get the medical intervention that might have saved the 18-year-old freshman from Salt Lake City.

"Had the fraternity members told the truth about Michael's age and how much he drank and followed poison control's recommendation to monitor Michael and take him to the hospital right away if he could not be aroused, we would not have lost our little brother, my parents would not have lost their youngest son, and USU would have avoided the darkest day in their recent past," said Starks' brother George Jr. in a prepared statement. "What happened on this night represents the worst in Greek society and we hope that important lessons in leadership, responsibility and value for human life are learned."

Starks spent the evening before his death with several teen-age sorority women at an off-campus home Nov. 20 as part of a non-sanctioned pledging event. The women gave him a liter bottle of vodka and the 160-pound freshman willingly drank about three-fourths of it in an hour, according to witnesses. Starks' fellow pledges crashed the party and brought him back to the fraternity house, where chapter commander Cody Littlewood took charge. He was told that Starks had consumed a fifth of vodka, he said in an interview with The Tribune. Littlewood insisted the drinking occurred against his instructions, adding that Starks was lucid and laughing when he arrived. Still, he asked member Colton Hansen to call poison control to be safe.

During the 97-second call placed at 11:32 p.m., Hansen described Starks' as "pretty drunk," but "fine."

"People get pretty drunk all the time. But you know, I am just trying to figure what the difference is here," responded the poison control official. Hansen declined to name the patient and said he had consumed "about half a bottle" of whiskey. He also said Starks was 21 and gave a Bountiful zip code for his location.

The poison control agent did not press Hansen for more detailed information about Starks' weight or the time frame in which he drank the liquor. Nor did she recommend giving Starks water and placing him on his side, as Littlewood told police. She did instruct Hansen to make sure Starks was "arousable, and if at any time he's not arousable or if he aspirates this into his lungs then you want to make sure you get him into the hospital."

Hansen relayed these instructions to Littlewood, who put two pledges in Starks' room to sleep beside him. The chapter boss stayed up through the night, checking Starks every 30 to 45 minutes. Around 3:45 a.m., Littlewood tried to wake Starks only to find he wasn't breathing. He summoned another fraternity member to begin CPR and called 911. But it was too late. Autopsy results indicate Starks' blood alcohol level when he died was .37, more than four times the limit for driving.

Hansen, who is not charged in the alleged hazing, did not respond to e-mail requests for an interview. Littlewood's lawyer, Clayton Simms, said his client's statement to police was truthful.

"The level of care he provided Michael Starks was greater that what poison control recommended, as conveyed to him," Simms said.

Experts say that a person, especially an inexperienced drinker, who quickly consumes a fifth of liquor, the equivalent of 17 shots, should be rushed to a hospital because of the risk of respiratory failure. In the ER, a blood screen would quickly detect lethal amounts of alcohol and the patient, if still breathing, could be successfully treated with dialysis and given fluids intravenously, measures that accelerate removal of alcohol from the blood, said toxicologist Edward Krenzelok, who directs Pittsburgh's poison control center.

Krenzelok calculated that a 200-pound man drinking 17 shots in an hour could achieve a blood alcohol level in the high .40s, well into lethal range for someone whose metabolic system is not accustomed to big waves of liquor.

"It's very potent central nervous system depressant," he said. "You get to a point you can't keep the person awake. That's a typical story. They put them on the couch and they never wake up or they aspirate their own vomit," said toxicologist Edward Krenzelok, who directs Pittsburgh's poison control center.

The University of Utah's College of Pharmacy operates the poison control center from an office in Research Park, where trained nurses and pharmacists handle 150 calls a day. Center officials say they stand by the way the Starks call was handled, although they could not discuss particulars because of patient confidentiality constraints and center policies.

"With any drug exposure we refer to a hospital if we have concerns. We don't rely on lay people to do medical care at home. We base it on the information the caller provides us. That's all we have to go on," said center medical director Martin Caravati, a toxicologist with 20 years' experience in the emergency room.

"Staff is trained to ask pointed questions and how the patient is doing. We ask the age, gender, mental status. We want to get an idea how symptomatic the patient is. We always try to find out what the substance is and how much they took and over how long a period."

But the poison control dispatcher failed to elicit that information in the Starks case, Simms said.

"Obvious follow-up questions weren't asked," Simms said. "Poison control didn't ask the weight, how quickly he consumed the alcohol, the exact amount, how long ago he consumed the alcohol, what was his condition, was he up, was he vomiting?"

Simms was mystified that poison control did not call back, as it often does in response to initial toxic exposure calls, nor give more detailed instructions. He noted that word "arousable" does not appear in standard dictionaries.

"Some of the call is subject to interpretation. Some of it sounds like a brush off," Simms said. "'Arousable,' to me, is different than make sure they don't go to sleep. I don't know that it's easily definable."