More women file suit against Yale fertility clinic
Thirty more women filed a lawsuit against a Yale clinic Monday alleging that their painkillers had been tampered with for years, resulting in agonizing fertility procedures, according to a Connecticut law firm.
This brings the total number of plaintiffs to 59, according to the law firm Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder.
Former nurse Donna Monticone started to steal fentanyl for her own use from the Yale University Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Clinic in Orange in June 2020. She would use a syringe to withdraw the narcotics from the vials and inject saline to make it appear that no drugs were missing.
U.S. Attorney Ray Miller said about 75 percent of the fentanyl given to the clinic’s patients from about June 2020 to October 2020 was adulterated. Some patients said that they suffered excruciating agony during their fertility procedures as a result.
Monticone pleaded guilty in March to tampering with a consumer product and was sentenced to four weekends in prison, three months of home confinement and three years of supervised release in May 2021.
However, the complaint alleges that the clinic’s fentanyl had been tampered with for years.
The complaint alleges that the clinic “repeatedly ignored multiple complaints from women that they had experienced excruciating pain during IVF egg extractions, and other painful procedures, and failed to implement appropriate standard systems to prevent and detect diversion,” the law firm said in a statement. “Yale REI maintains that it first became aware and took action only after a colleague noticed a loose cap on the fentanyl vial at the REI Clinic.”
Kelly Fitzgerald, an associate attorney with the law firm, said these women trusted that the clinic was providing “appropriate, attentive care as they sought one of life’s most treasured goals — parenthood.”
“Yale betrayed our clients at a time of intense vulnerability,” Fitzgerald continued. “Not only were they subject to excruciating pain but they were ignored.”
“The opioid epidemic has been going on for years, and hospitals should be well aware of the potential for abuse and diversion,” she added. “Yale REI had a responsibility to safeguard its patients, and its repeated failures are unconscionable.”
The complaint alleges that the clinic failed to investigate its patients’ complaints.
One of the plaintiffs, Laura Czar, sought treatment to freeze her eggs as she began treatment for breast cancer.
“I went in without hesitation and left traumatized,” Czar said. As a breast cancer patient, Czar said she’s experienced pain before, “but my IVF procedures were beyond pain, it was torture that I endured and Yale’s medical staff completely ignored me and my suffering.”
“No woman should ever have to go through what I went through,” she said.
The complaint alleges that the opioid diversion issue is not new to Yale University hospitals. The law firm cited a Yale University nurse who wa necticut Board of Medical Examiners after she stole hydromorphone from Yale New Haven Hospitall.
“Yale knew that opioid substitution could create unimaginable pain for their patients, yet failed to safeguard opioids and protect their patients,” the law firm stated.