The Retrievals S02 - Trailer

4 min

•Jul 10, 20259 months ago

Summary

The Retrievals Season 2 investigates a pattern of C-section patients experiencing severe pain during surgery due to inadequate anesthesia. The trailer reveals that what initially appeared to be an isolated incident involving a nurse became a widespread systemic issue affecting numerous patients, predominantly women, raising questions about medical protocols and patient safety.

Insights

Medical professionals normalize severe patient pain during C-sections as expected 'pressure' rather than recognizing it as a critical anesthesia failure
Systemic issues in obstetric care remain invisible to patients but are known within the medical community, suggesting institutional acceptance of preventable suffering
Patient advocacy and investigative journalism can expose hidden medical practices by aggregating individual experiences into patterns of systemic harm
Gender disparities in pain management and treatment validation persist in surgical settings, with women's reports of pain being dismissed or minimized

Trends

Investigative journalism exposing systemic healthcare failures through patient testimony aggregationGrowing awareness of anesthesia-related complications in obstetric proceduresPatient safety gaps in surgical protocols for cesarean sectionsGender-based disparities in pain recognition and treatment in medical settingsInstitutional normalization of preventable patient suffering in healthcare systems

Topics

Cesarean Section Anesthesia FailuresPatient Safety in Obstetric SurgeryMedical Professional Training and ProtocolsPain Management in Surgical ProceduresGender Disparities in HealthcareInstitutional Medical Culture and AccountabilityPatient Advocacy and Investigative JournalismAnesthesia Awareness During SurgeryDoctor-Patient Communication in Medical SettingsSystemic Issues in Hospital Operations

Companies

The New York Times

Producer and publisher of The Retrievals podcast series; mentioned as employer of colleague Dan in Crossplay game seg...

Serial Productions

Production company behind The Retrievals podcast series, in partnership with The New York Times

People

Susan Burton

Host and creator of The Retrievals podcast series investigating systemic anesthesia failures in cesarean sections

Dan

Colleague at The New York Times mentioned in Crossplay game segment

Quotes

"I could feel the incision. And the doctor asked me, do you feel pressure? And I said, no, I feel everything."

Patient testimony

"I could feel them taking my organs out and moving them. I could feel them pulling the baby."

Patient testimony

"It was kind of like, well, pressure's normal. Pressure's normal. Pressure's normal. And I'm like, how does he know that it's pressure, not pain?"

Medical professional

"Patients don't know this happens. Doctors and nurses do."

Medical professional

"The details of that podcast are less important than the common experience it described: Pain a doctor didn't listen to, pain a doctor didn't adequately treat."

Susan Burton

Full Transcript

I'm opening up crossplay. I've been playing against Dan, my colleague at the New York Times. Kat's played another move. Ugh, she played stoop for 36 points. I've got a Z, which is 10 points. I'm guessing tanga is not a word. Let's see. Tanga is a word. Oh. Dan played his last turn. Let's see who won. It's so close. But I did win. New York Times game subscribers get full access to Crossplay, our first two-player word game. Subscribe now for a special offer on all of our games. It follows a group of doctors and nurses in a Chicago hospital who are spurred into action after one of their own nurses undergoes an excruciating surgery, the kind of thing that should never happen to anyone but it turns out happens a lot Writing this season Susan was inspired by shows like The Pit and ER So if you like us and you love those shows you are in for a treat This new season of The Retrievals rolls out like a taut medical drama. If you want to take season two for a spin, you can listen to the trailer I'm about to play. Or if you're already a fan, then you already know how good the show is going to be. So why wait? Just go ahead and search for The Retrievals podcast. You'll find the second season there ready for you to start. It's four episodes, and we'll be releasing a new episode every Thursday for the next few weeks. And of course, if you're a New York Times subscriber, you can listen to the whole season right now. Okay, here is a trailer for the show. And again, please search for The Retrievals in your podcast apps. Here's Susan. If you're listening to this, it might be because you heard a podcast series I made called The Retrievals. Sometimes when I meet people, they'll say, oh, the one where the nurse stole fentanyl. Others don't mention the plot. They go straight for the theme. They know the podcast as the one where doctors thought it was normal for the women to be in pain. It doesn matter if you haven heard The Retrievals The details of that podcast are less important than the common experience it described Pain a doctor didn listen to pain a doctor didn adequately treat That resonated with many listeners, and hundreds of them, mostly women, began writing to me with their own stories. One afternoon, I opened a note that was unlike any I'd received so far. The listener described something that was so shocking that I thought what she experienced must have been singular, an anomaly, a mistake. Then, within a day or two, I opened two more of these notes describing similar experiences. Soon I understood that this was a subject that would come up again and again. I was rushed into the C-section. My husband was there, and I could feel them starting the operation. I could feel the incision. And the doctor asked me, do you feel pressure? And I said, no, I feel everything. And everybody kept telling me, oh, you know, you're just feeling a lot of pressure. And I was like, no, I'm pretty sure this is just pain. And they said, well, that's not possible. You know, if you were feeling it, you would pass out from the pain. And I was like, I wish I could pass out from the pain because this is I could feel them taking my organs out and moving them I could feel them pulling the baby I mean it was it was I shaking just talking about it It was major abdominal surgery without full anesthesia Patients don't know this happens. Doctors and nurses do. So when I look back to residency, it's something that we all see and we all know. What I remember hearing is that C-sections are going to hurt. I mean, I don't think anyone was like, hey, it's okay for your patient to be in severe pain. But it was kind of like, well, pressure's normal. Pressure's normal. Pressure's normal. And I'm like, how does he know that it's pressure, not pain? I feel like at first, before I saw it happen, when people would say, oh yeah, I felt everything and all this. I'm like, that can't be true. Like, there's no way. There's no way. Who would let that happen? Like, who would do that? But, uh... From Serial Productions and the New York Times, I'm Susan Burton, and this is The Retrievals, Season 2, The C-Sections. Coming July 10th. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.