Episode 4: The Clinic

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After the nurse is sentenced, patients file a lawsuit against the fertility clinic at Yale. The nurse, Donna, is just one person. There is an entire institution that needs to account for what went wrong.

How did the system fail in such a huge way? How did Donna get away with what she was doing — and how long was she doing it for? The lawsuit said that Donna was stealing fentanyl for a lot longer than the five months she claims.

And what about the pain patients felt during retrievals?

We go inside the Yale clinic to find out what staff members can tell us about the failings and to try to make sense of that pain from the perspective of doctors and nurses.

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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
Deputy 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.