Women settle lawsuits with Yale fertility clinic over nurse who stole their painkillers

Dozens of women who say they suffered excruciating pain at a Yale University fertility clinic because a nurse stole fentanyl for her own use and replaced it with saline have settled their lawsuits against the Ivy League school.

The patients and their advocates announced the settlements Monday in New Haven, Conn., where Yale is based. Details of the settlements were not made public, but lawyers said they included significant financial settlements.

“What should have been a time full of hope and joy … turned into a traumatic experience,” said Soryorelis Henry, one of the plaintiffs. “No one should ever have to endure what I went through. My hope is that this case will lead to systemic change and ensure no other patient experiences such suffering.”

The women say they underwent painful and invasive IVF procedures and were supposed to receive fentanyl at Yale University’s Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Clinic in Orange, Conn., and its previous location in New Haven.

Unknowingly, they were given saline instead of fentanyl, and when they told staff their extreme pain during and after the procedures, their concerns were dismissed, according to lawsuits filed by the women and their husbands. They said Yale officials failed to protect supplies of the pain reliever.

Yale said in a statement that the settlement “allows both parties to move forward and begin healing,” adding that it has instituted new safeguards since discovering the nurse’s actions, including more training and supervision.

Seven women initially sued Yale in 2021. Dozens of patients have since come forward and filed lawsuits, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to more than 150, including nearly 100 patients. Many of them say they suffer from PTSD because of what happened to them.

Shannon Garfield said she had her first IVF treatment at the Yale clinic in 2019. She went on to have more procedures that led to the birth of her son, who is now 1.

“I was wide awake and in so much pain, crying and screaming,” she said at the news conference. “It’s horrifying to think of the countless victims, and this further exemplifies a system where women’s voices don’t seem to count.”

In May 2021, nurse Donna Monticone, who no longer works for the clinic, was sentenced to four weekends in jail, three months of house arrest and three years of supervised release. She pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with a consumer product.

Prosecutors said 75 percent of the fentanyl administered to patients at the clinic from June to October 2020 was adulterated with saline. They said Monticone substituted saline for fentanyl to feed his opioid addiction. She apologized to affected patients during her sentencing hearing.

Joshua Koskoff, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said Monticone’s misconduct with fentanyl spanned several years.

“The providers at Yale University ignored the anguished cries of women undergoing these treatments,” he said. “And for over two years, no one has asked a very simple question. Why? Why did so many women who didn’t know each other… suffer this excruciating, torture-like pain for a procedure that Yale University promoted as having minimal or no discomfort?

The lawsuits accused Yale officials of failing to follow mandatory pharmacy protocols and allowing vials of fentanyl to be vulnerable to tampering. The lawsuits also alleged that Yale violated state and federal laws by keeping more than 175 vials of fentanyl in an unsupervised, unlocked area and failing to implement safeguards, including drug testing staff with access to opioids.

The lawsuits included civil charges of medical assault and battery and medical malpractice. They said hundreds of patients were unknowingly treated with saline instead of fentanyl at the clinic.

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