The New York Times and Serial Productions have announced a new five-part podcast titled The Retrievals. Hosted by Susan Burton, author and editor of This American Life, the narrative series focuses on the experiences of patients at the Yale Fertility Center. The first episode will be released on Thursday, June 29, with subsequent episodes following on a weekly basis.
The Retrievals weaves together the voices of a dozen women who underwent egg retrieval procedures at the Yale Fertility Center. These women complained of severe pain for months, but the cause remained elusive until an anesthesiologist discovered a loose cap on a vial of fentanyl. It was later revealed that a nurse at the clinic had been stealing the pain medication and replacing it with saline. The series delves into the stories of the patients, the nurse, and the institutional failures that allowed such an incident to occur at a prestigious clinic like Yale.
“In The Retrievals, Susan Burton takes on a question I’ve always wanted to explore: Why do we not take women’s pain more seriously?” said Serial Productions Executive Editor Julie Snyder. “What happened to the patients in this story is horrible. But how each of them made sense of it – both before they knew the source of their pain, and after they learned the truth – is fascinating and so illuminating.”
