Two New Haven medical professionals get light prison sentences after admitting to abuse of patient pain killers
Donna Monticone admitted stealing powerful painkillers from women undergoing fertility treatment, almost guaranteeing them agonizing, debilitating pain. Jennifer Farrell, who bought powerful pain medication from internet drug dealers, was a Fulbright scholar recognized for establishing an emergency medical training program in Bangladesh.
Both women were medical professionals with patients whose lives might depend on their judgment. Both became drug addicts through the access to addictive pain medications that their employment gave them. And, as a result of their addictions, both were sent to prison this week -if only for periods of days - after long, emotional arguments for leniency in U.S. District Court.
Monticone was ordered to spend four, consecutive weekends in jail. Farrell was sent to jail for 30 days.
Monticone, a 49-year old nurse and mother of three from Oxford, worked at the Yale Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility clinic, having been inspired to become a nurse through her own fertility treatment. A colleague noticed a tampered seal on a vial of the powerful, synthetic opiate fentanyl in October 2020. An investigation revealed that, for five months, Monticone had been using a syringe to remove fentanyl from vials in the clinic inventory, injecting herself with the drug and refilling the vials with saline solution.
Over that period, as many as 100 women said they suffered through painful, invasive surgical fertility procedures. They were given what their physicians thought was pain medication. Some described screaming in pain while their physicians increased the dosage of what turned out to be saline. One woman compared the experience to torture. Another, a trauma surgeon, said her experience with the surgical pain caused her physicians and colleagues to suspect her of being an addict; they suspected the purported fentanyl had no effect because addiction had made her tolerant.
The investigation showed that about 75% of all the fentanyl given to patients at Yale reproductive clinic from June to October in 2020 was adulterated with saline. Some of these vials likely contained diluted fentanyl, while others had none of the drug at all.
Farrell, 38 and living in Chapel Hill, NC, became addicted to the widely abused pain killer oxycodone while working as a medical resident in at Yale New Haven Hospital.
The U.S. Department of State, among others, has recognized Farrell for developing CriticaLink, a social network designed to mobilize first responders trained for for medical emergencies, such as motor vehicle crashes, in Bangladesh. She based the project on the Fulbright fellowship spent in Bangladesh training volunteer first responders in emergency medical skills. CriticaLink was recognized as one of the best new mobile apps in the world at the 2015 World Summit Awards.
Court records indicate Farrell was prescribed the pain reliever oxycodone for an infection while working at Yale New Haven in September 2017. When the prescription expired, she admits that she began “self-medicating,” by buying opiate medications illegally over what is known as the Dark Web.
Farrell denied ordering pills over the internet when the U.S. Postal service intercepted a drug delivery in March 2018. After that, she began using hospital records to identify patients whose medical histories included pain issues, write fraudulent prescriptions in their names and arrange to have the drugs delivered to her. The scheme collapsed when a patient alerted authorities to the scheme after learning that a fraudulent prescription had been issued in her name.
Both women made hours-long, emotional pleas for leniency. Both said they turned to drugs as relief for emotional trauma. Monticone said that, after a long, bitter divorce, she had become convinced that her children were not safe when visiting her ex-husband who, she said, irresponsibly exposed them to COVID-19, early in the pandemic. among other things.
Farrell said she was suffering from such severe post traumatic stress that her life had begun to unravel. She said her trauma’s included a disfiguring childhood injury to her brother, her father’s death, her inability to rescue trapped victims of a Tibetan earthquake and her rape in south Asia by a cricket player.
The judges hearing the cases - U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in Monticone’s case and Jeffrey A. Meyer in Farrell’s - were sympathetic to the remorse shown by the two women and their explanations for their addictions. Both judges sentenced far below the recommended federal guidelines - about five years in Monticone’s case and four years in Farrell’s.
The last medical professional charged federally with similar offenses - 43-year old Wolcott pharmacist Carl Mancini - was sentenced to more than four years by Judge Michael Shea. As was the case with Montincone, Mancini was charged with causing terminal cancer patients to die agonizing deaths by injecting himself with their pain medication and replacing it with Saline. Unlike the two women, Mancini was a repeat a offender and was working as a pharmacist in violation of a court order.
Federal prosecutors argued for prison sentences in both Monticone’s and Farrell’s cases.
“We’re not here because of a difficult divorce, or that she took drugs or eve that she stole drugs,” prosecutor Ray Miller said of Monticone. “We are hear today because she knowingly, intentionally, repeatedly replaced the drugs with saline and inflicted incredible emotional and physical suffering on the victims.”
In Farrell’s case, prosecutor Heather Cherry said, “If she had been buying oxycodone on the street in New Haven, we wouldn’t be here today. We are here today because she was a drug dealer and what is worse she was a doctor. It is an incredible amount of trust that society gives to these doctors. We give them these prescription pads. And Dr. Farrell broke that trust.”
