Episode 1: The Patients

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Dozens of women came to a clinic at Yale for fertility treatment. All of them experienced unexpected and severe pain during a procedure called the egg retrieval. They said that their pain was not taken seriously by their health care providers, or that they were not believed. As a consequence, they came up with their own explanations for their pain. Often they blamed themselves.

In the months that followed, it was discovered that a nurse at the clinic had been stealing fentanyl used in patient procedures and replacing it with saline. Now the patients who were in pain had an explanation for it — and lots of questions for the institution that let this happen.

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About the Music

Carla Pallone is a composer based in France. After classical training as a violinist, she performed in the bands Mansfield.TYA and VACΛRME. She now composes music for cinema and the theater, and has written music for films including “La Fille au Bracelet,” “Libre Garance!” and “Midnight Skin.”

Credits

Reported, produced and hosted by Susan Burton
Produced and edited by Laura Starecheski
Executive Editor, Serial Productions Julie Snyder
Supervising Producer, Serial Productions Ndeye Thioubou
Music supervision and sound design by Phoebe Wang
Original score by Carla Pallone
Music mixing by Thomas Poli at Impersonal Freedom
Research and fact-checking by Ben Phelan and Caitlin Love
Standards Editor Susan Wessling
Legal review by Dana Green
Art direction by Pablo Delcan
Additional editing by Katie Mingle and Ira Glass
Additional production by Michelle Navarro
Assistant Managing Editor Sam Dolnick
Producing help by Jeffrey Miranda, Kelly Doe, Renan Borelli, Desiree Ibekwe and Anisha Muni

Special thanks to Erik Tanner, Pierre Cattoni, Lee Riffaterre, Katie Fuchs, Jordan Cohen, Victoria Kim, Jason Fujikuni, Kimmy Tsai, Ashka Gami, Nina Lassam, Jon McNally, Krystal Plomatos and Sam Posner.