What happens when a nurse steals your fentanyl?

{{{ I explored some of this in “The Retrievals,” a podcast series about recent events at the Yale Fertility Center.

The women I reported on experienced an extreme version of procedure pain. They underwent egg retrievals at a clinic where a nurse was stealing the fentanyl they should have been administered to manage the pain of the surgeries. Their pain control was missing entirely. Some of the women screamed out that they felt everything during their retrievals, in which a long needle is inserted through the “Virginia” wall and into the “the place where the egg is”. {{Edits required by TMF censor-bot}}

For months, patient after patient complained about pain, and they say the clinic dismissed their complaints. One reason their complaints did not raise more alarm is that members of the medical staff expected that patients could feel pain with this procedure. Under the drug protocol the clinic had offered for years, some patients felt even severe pain. Pain had been normalized. }}}

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Good lord. That’s all I got.

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Was the nurse using the drug? Was there any mention of the criminal prosecution of the nurse? Usually a medical person is not criminally prosecuted but still this would be a good time to send the nurse to prison.

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My group used to cover a fertility clinic many years ago. We always did general anesthesia, never sedation. So main comment, someone is trying to “cut corners” on expenses by forgoing anesthesia and anesthesia personnel. Aside comment, even if they did get their fentanyl, they would still feel it, they just wouldn’t care as much. Without some “hypnotic” like versed, they will remember it all.

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That’s the error. If they added versed to the cocktail, no one would have remembered and the fentanyl thief could have gotten away with it. {{LOL}}

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