A newly released podcast from The New York Times delves into the story of how a nurse's tampering with pain medication led to an estimated hundreds of women undergoing painful egg retrieval procedures at the Yale Fertility Center.
In the fall of 2020, Donna Monticone, a nurse responsible for the ordering and inventory of controlled substances at the Yale Fertility Center on Yale University's West Campus in Orange, Conn., was found to have been stealing vials of fentanyl used for fertility procedures at the center and replacing them with saline. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut, Ms. Monticone pleaded guilty in March 2021 to tampering with a consumer product.
An audit from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency found "discrepancies" surrounding the Yale center's inventory of controlled substances, including vials of fentanyl, ketamine and midazolam. Overall, the audit revealed "discrepancies of 665 units of controlled substances." In October 2022, Yale paid $308,250 to resolve allegations it violated the Controlled Substances Act.
"The settlement resolves allegations that Yale failed to maintain complete and accurate records concerning the controlled substances it purchased and dispensed at the Yale Fertility Center, and failed to provide effective controls and procedures to guard against theft and diversion of controlled substances," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut said in a news release last fall.
"The Retrievals" is a five-part narrative series hosted by Susan Burton that tells the story of what dozens of women endured when undergoing egg retrievals at the clinic, and how in many cases, their pain was dismissed by staff members who, at the time, did not know the administered pain medications had been tampered with. The first episode was released June 29.
"They started the procedure. And, you know, I was just sort of taken by surprise, not expecting the excruciating pain," one woman said in the podcast. "My blood pressure started going up. I was sweating profusely and telling them I was just in too much pain, that they had to stop. At that point, I remember them giving me more, more of the pain medication, and me saying, 'It's not making a difference.'"
Becker's has reached out to Yale and will update the report if more information becomes available.