A newly filed lawsuit accuses a Yale University fertility clinic of failing to do more to stop a former nurse who diverted pain medication from her patients in order to satisfy her own drug habits.

The lawsuit was filed on October 10th in Connecticut Superior Court against Yale Reproductive Endocrinology Clinic’s New Haven location and represents seven plaintiffs who sought treatment at the facility. The plaintiffs say that they endured excruciating pain after undergoing invasive procedures because they were given a saline solution instead of the intended pain killer, fentanyl.

The newly filed lawsuit comes after another lawsuit accused Yale University of ignoring patient complaints. In November 2021, 68 people sued Yale, saying the healthcare facility ignored “multiple complaints from women that they had experienced excruciating pain during IVF egg retrievals, and other painful procedures.”

It was not until after the lawsuit was filed in 2021 that former Yale nurse, Donna Monticone, pled guilty to charges related to the diverted drugs. Her guilty plea came after a November 2020 Drug Enforcement Agency inspection uncovered that Monticone swapped out the fentanyl for saline starting from June all the way to October 2020.

Monticone received what many called a lenient sentence which included four weekends in prison, three months of home confinement, and three years of supervised release. Yale University also agreed to pay the Department of Justice $308,250 over claims that it failed to keep proper records that would have prevented the theft of the Fentanyl.

The seven plaintiffs in the newly filed lawsuit are represented by Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, the same firm that represented the 68 patients in the 2021 lawsuit. The lawsuit accuses Yale of over 75 counts including medical assault and battery, fraudulent nondisclosure/misrepresentation, and medical negligence.

In the new lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim that Yale's inadequate procedures allowed Monticone to steal “at least 75% of all fentanyl housed at the REI clinic.”

The lawsuit goes on to explain that Yale University knew that its administrators had reviewed the control substances' security processes and record keeping but found that the security processes in place were weak and inadequate.

Additionally, Yale University knew that a substantial quantity of pain medications including fentanyl, ketamine, and midazolam that were stored at the REI Clinic were missing and could not be accounted for.

Still, Yale did not inform patients who were potentially victimized about these weak security procedures. Instead, the lawsuit accuses Yale of trying to conceal that pain medication was missing and unaccounted for.

The lawsuit goes further to say that because of the university’s business practices, the possibility of another drug diversion was even more likely considering there is a current opioid epidemic in the nation.

The university has pushed back against these claims in a press statement released on October 12th. A university spokesman, Karen Peart, shared that after the clinic found out about the drug diversions, they alerted law enforcement, fired the nurse, and “informed impacted patients.”

“Since this time, we have instituted additional measures to ensure we have the right processes, procedures, and safeguards in place,” the spokesperson asserted. “These measures include training and enhanced management systems.”

While the lawsuit only represents seven plaintiffs, the representing law firm says that it's very possible hundreds of Yale patients “underwent the most painful surgeries and procedures offered at the REI Clinic with little” medication for their pain and that more lawsuits could come forward.

The seven plaintiffs are seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorneys fees, and costs.