‘It was horrific’: Women given saline instead of fentanyl, lawsuit says
When a couple decides to try to have a child by in vitro fertilization, it’s often accompanied by anticipation, anxiety and worry about whether the egg and sperm will unite and produce a healthy baby.
So when the procedure to retrieve eggs from a woman’s ovary turns out to be physically painful, it can create long-term emotional pain, as well, according to a lawsuit and two women who underwent the procedure at the Yale University Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Clinic.
They are among dozens of women and spouses who are suing Yale University, claiming the staff at the clinic should have known that, instead of receiving fentanyl to relieve pain during the procedure, they instead were being injected with saline — salt water.
“The result was that dozens, perhaps hundreds, of women underwent the most painful fertility surgeries and procedures offered at the REI Clinic with little or no analgesia,” the lawsuit states.
Angela Cortese, 33, of Vernon, who first had her eggs retrieved on Dec. 3, 2019, said the pain was “excruciating” as a nurse wiped tears from her eyes and Cortese tried “not to flinch every time they’re using this giant needle to retrieve the follicles.”
“I want to say it was probably around 45 minutes that I was very much aware of what exactly was happening and feeling every pinch and prod,” she said. “And it doesn’t feel like somebody’s just pinching you. It feels like somebody’s stabbing you through your vagina. It was horrific.”
Cortese and Victoria Seidl said they agreed to speak to Hearst Connecticut Media about their experiences in order to prevent such an episode from happening again.
What the plaintiffs are claiming is that Yale showed “carelessness and recklessness” in failing to prevent a diversion of at least 75 percent of the fentanyl stored at Yale REI by one nurse, Donna Monticone, over at least five months.
In all, 59 patients and 47 spouses are involved in the lawsuit against Yale.
Monticone pleaded guilty March 1 in U.S. District Court in New Haven to one count of tampering with a consumer product. Judge Janet C. Hall sentenced her to four alternating weekends in prison, three years of supervised release, a $100 special assessment and $637.56 in restitution.
“I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. She had a really great public defender,” Cortese, a public defender herself, said of the sentence. She said she lost all sympathy for Monticone when she found out Monticone also had undergone IVF.
‘Thinking about it was horrific’
Cortese and her wife, Holly Cortese, turned to IVF because Angela Cortese has a unicornuate uterus, meaning only half of the organ developed and she has only one fallopian tube, but she does have two ovaries.
“So then the decision was made, once we discovered that, to do reciprocal IVF,” Angela Cortese said. “So we would use my eggs and my partner’s uterus, essentially.”
At the time, Yale REI was at Long Wharf in New Haven and anesthesia wasn’t available. “They said I was getting the fentanyl and Versed, that I shouldn’t really be aware of anything,” Cortese said. “It would be quick. I’d be in and out and on my way.”
That’s not what happened, however. “I was awake for and aware of the entire procedure,” she said. “Thinking about it was horrific. I try really not to think about it, honestly.” Her heart rate shot up and the blood pressure cuff caused bruises on her arm because it kept tightening.
Meanwhile, “you’re in the most vulnerable position you could possibly be in and you’ve got a team of nurses and doctors and they’re using a hollow needle to do the procedure vaginally and … I watched the entire thing.” At one point, the doctor asked her if she was able to continue because she was in so much stress, she said.
Afterward, Cortese said she felt embarrassed and that she had done something wrong. It took two days for her to describe to her wife what happened. One embryo was viable and implanted in Holly Cortese. But she miscarried.
“And in the moment that I should have been comforting my wife about the miscarriage, I…
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