The Retrievals Serial
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- True Crime
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Dozens of women seeking to become mothers came to a fertility clinic at Yale. A (five-part) narrative series about the shocking events that unfolded there. From Serial Productions and The New York Times.
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Episode 1: The Patients
Patients at a fertility clinic experience excruciating, unexpected pain. For months the reason for that pain remains hidden. Then they get a letter from the clinic.
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Episode 2: The Nurse
The patients know what happened to them. Now they learn who did it. The story of the nurse whose own pain was also unseen.
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Episode 3: The Sentence
At the nurse’s sentencing hearing, the patients learn a shocking detail that forces them to confront the limits of their compassion.
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Episode 5: The Outcomes
In fertility treatment, a successful outcome is defined as a healthy baby. In this story, the outcomes are complicated for everyone involved.
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Trailer
The patients in this story came to the Yale Fertility Center to pursue pregnancy. They began their I.V.F. cycles full of expectation and hope. Then a surgical procedure called egg retrieval caused them excruciating pain.
Some of the patients screamed out in the procedure room. Others called the clinic from home to report pain in the hours that followed. But most of the staff members who fielded the patients’ reports did not know the real reason for the pain, which was that a nurse at the clinic was stealing fentanyl, and replacing it with saline.
From Serial Productions and The New York Times, The Retrievals is a five-part narrative series reported by Susan Burton, a veteran staff member at “This American Life” and author of the memoir “Empty.”
Susan details the events that unfolded at the clinic, and examines how the patients’ distinct identities informed the way they made sense of what happened to them in the procedure room. The nurse, too, has her own story, about her own pain, that she tells to the court. And then there is the story of how this all could have happened at the Yale clinic in the first place.
Throughout, Burton explores the stories we tell about women’s pain. How do we tolerate, interpret and account for it? What happens when pain is minimized or dismissed?
Episode 1 of The Retrievals arrives Thursday, June 29th.
Customer Reviews
Excellent
Not a subject I thought would appeal to me but i was addicted, in no small part by my outrage at the whole situation. I’m very glad this has been exposed and come to light
Another disappointment
Such an interesting story which absolutely needed to be told. However here is told in such a disappointing way, again leading absolutely nowhere. Americans do need to get a grip on themselves and stop thinking they are the centre of the world.
Great podcast, shame on Yale
It disgusts me that Yale settled on this case by sneezing a tiny $300k payout. It’s a dribble; a continuation of their ignorance and demonstrates their Freudian attitude toward these women.
I will not comment on the outcome for the nurse as in the words of the women who suffered - I have not been through what they have been through and ergo do not understand their pain.
I do however believe that the Yale doctors had an absolute responsibility to believe their patients and deliver far greater care and attention. Perhaps they were ignorant because of the opioid crisis - this is just my narrative and not based on any facts - but when a patient is screaming or when one is outright saying she could drive herself home because she is that lucid (while supposedly on fentanyl) - there is absolutely no way that they should have proceeded.