Patients at a Yale University fertility clinic experienced excruciating pain after undergoing invasive fertility procedures after a nurse stole hundreds of vials of fentanyl and replaced the patient’s medications with saline solution , according to a lawsuit.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of patients underwent fertility surgeries with little or no pain medication, according to a lawsuit filed Oct. 10 in Connecticut Superior Court in Stamford. It’s unclear exactly how much fentanyl the nurse diverted, but the lawsuit says the Drug Enforcement Administration found the nurse adulterated at least 75 percent of the fentanyl in the clinic.
The suit accuses Yale University of knowing that painkiller bottles were missing and could not be located and of hiding the information from potential victim patients. Seven victims filed a lawsuit against Yale, describing the painful nightmare of undergoing surgery without painkillers after unknowingly being given saline. Their pain was tortuous, the suit claims.
A woman underwent an ovarian cyst suction procedure in 2019, which the lawsuit says required a surgeon to insert a thick needle through the vaginal wall into an ovarian cyst. The procedure was excruciating, according to the lawsuit.
A man underwent a testicular sperm extraction procedure in 2019, during which a surgeon cut away his scrotum and the connective tissue of his testicles. The pain was excruciating and so intense that it hurt to wear clothes, according to the lawsuit. His healthcare providers reportedly eased the pain.
Both procedures were performed without anesthesia and no anesthesiologist was present during the procedures, the suit states. A woman felt such extreme pain when she felt a needle stick into her ovary that she screamed and writhed in pain. Then she curled up in the fetal position and moaned in the recovery room.
Another woman thought her organs were going to come out through her groin, according to the lawsuit.
Yale was ordered to pay $308,250 to the federal government by the Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s Office in October 2022. The U.S. Attorney’s Office identified the nurse who used fentanyl as Donna Monticone, who pleaded guilty in March 2021. Monticone admitted to knowing the fentanyl she had falsified. would be used in surgery, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
“Immediately upon learning of this incident, Yale contacted law enforcement, terminated the nurse in question, and notified affected patients,” Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart said in a statement to Messenger. “Since this time, we have instituted additional measures to ensure we have the appropriate processes, procedures and safeguards in place.”
Peart pushed back the timeline of the allegations in the lawsuit. She said the DOJ investigation confirmed that the nurse diverted fentanyl from June to October 2020.
This was not the first time Yale University faced opioid theft. In 2016, a nurse got in trouble for stealing hydromorphone. In 2019, a resident was arrested for writing illegal prescriptions for some 4,000 oxycodone pills, according to the suit. Yet Yale failed to implement legally mandated measures to prevent opioid theft, the suit claims.
#Surgery #patients #suffer #tortuous #pain #nurse #steals #pain #medication #lawsuit
Image Source : themessenger.com