Victims of an unnecessarily painful egg retrieval procedure are speaking out, after their pain medication was swapped for saline solution.
"It was just really hard and you never think you're going to be a victim of something like that," Victoria Seidl told NBC's Kaylee Hartung.
Seidl and is one of the dozens of other women who decided to undergo a routine surgical procedure to retrieve her eggs at Yale University's fertility center in 2020.
“It took a toll but it’s Yale, I was going to make it work,” Angela Cortese, another victim, told Hartung.
A federal investigation discovered that a nurse working at the clinic, Donna Monticone, tampered with at least 175 vials of fentanyl — a pain medication 100 times more potent than morphine — over a five month period in 2020.
The nurse acknowledged taking the pain medication for her own personal use and replacing it with saline solution, leaving the women in excruciating pain during and after their procedures, according to her plea agreement.
“It’s like a stabbing internal pain that no one should ever feel. Ever.” Cortese described.
It wasn't until an anesthesiologist working at the clinic noticed how easily a cap popped off a fentanyl vile that staff discovered the nurse's crime.
In 2021, Monticone pled guilty to a federal charge of tampering with a consumer product. She surrendered her nursing license and was sentenced to four weekends in prison and three additional months of home confinement.
For its role, Yale agreed to pay more than $308,250 to the U.S. Department of Justice in order to resolve allegations the university violated the Controlled Substances Act.
Now, 68 victims — including Cortese and Seidl — are suing Yale, accusing the university of failing to properly safeguard its supply of fentanyl.
"At the end of the day, I hold Yale responsible," Laura Czar, another victim who is suing the university, told NBC. "This never should have happened.
The case is now a subject of a podcast by the New York Times.
A spokesperson for Yale University told NBC the institution "deeply regrets the distress suffered by some of its patients" as a result of the former nurse's crime.
"After Yale discovered the nurse’s misconduct, it removed her from the center, alerted law enforcement agencies and notified patients who might have been affected," the spokesperson said. "The center also reviewed its procedures and made changes to further oversight of pain control and controlled substances."
Seidl says that prior to having her eggs retrieved, she was assured that the procedure was "not invasive." At the time all she was thinking about, she said, was "how many eggs did we get?"
“This is something that changed me and my family’s life forever,” she told NBC.
NBC’s Kaylee Hartung shared that she underwent the same procedure in 2021 when she decided to have her eggs retrieved and frozen — not long after the women had their traumatic experiences.
"The women I spoke to all agreed: The takeaway here is listen to your body," Hartung told TODAY co-host Hoda Kotb. "If something doesn’t feel right do not hesitate to speak up and definitely don’t blame yourself.”
