An Oregon hospital is being sued after a nurse allegedly killed nine patients by swapping their fentanyl for tap water.
Lawyers filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford on behalf of living and deceased patients, accusing the institution of negligence and failing to properly monitor how drugs were administered.
The $303million suit comes after Dani Marie Schofield, a former nurse at the hospital, was accused of killing 65-year-old Horace Wilson when she stole his fentanyl supply that was being used to manage his pain and replaced it with contaminated water.
The new complaint mentions 17 other patients who Ms Schofield also allegedly switched medication on, including the families of nine who died.
Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, Oregon, is being sued after nurse Dani Schofield allegedly stole patients’ fentanyl and replaced it with water
According to a separate lawsuit, 65-year-old Horace Wilson died after Ms Schofield allegedly replaced his fentanyl supply with water. This caused a bacterial infection and sepsis
The hospital is named as the defendant in the new suit. A separate lawsuit from Mr Wilson’s family that was filed in February names both the hospital and Ms Schofield.
Asante is accused of failing to monitor medication administration and prevent drugs from being diverted from patients to their employees.
Other claims include failing to adequately screen employees, allowing tap water to have unreasonable levels of bacteria, failing to properly warn and control the use of unsafe tap water, and acting vicariously through the acts of its employees, among others.
Medford police begin investigating the situation late last year after the department said it ‘received numerous calls from individuals asking if they or a family member have been impacted by the suspected actions of the former Asante employee.’
According to the lawsuit, the hospital began informing an unspecified number of affected patients in December that a hospital employee had replaced their fentanyl with tap water in intravenous drips.
This led to bacterial infections in each patient, as the water was allegedly contaminated.
The complaint states ‘all Plaintiff Patients were infected with bacterium uniquely associated with waterborne transmission.’
All of the patients experienced ‘mental anguish,’ according to the lawsuit. Nine have allegedly died from the nurse’s actions.
Ms Schofield was arrested in June and charged with 44 counts of second-degree assault.
She left her job the following month and has pleaded not guilty. She told The Lund Report: ‘The truth will, I’m sure, come out.’
It’s unclear exactly why Ms Schofield was stealing the drugs.
One of the victims of Ms Schofield’s alleged actions was Mr Wilson. He was admitted to Asante in January 2022 after falling 10 feet from a ladder and damaging his spleen, an avocado-sized organ in the left rib cage that helps filter blood.
Doctors removed his spleen, but within days of the operation, his condition took ‘a turn for the worse’ after Ms Schofield allegedly put water in his IV.
Mr Wilson was infected with the bacteria staphylococcus epidermidis, which flooded his bloodstream and ‘became essentially impossible to eradicate,’ according to a separate lawsuit filed by his family for $11.5million.
He then went into multi-organ failure from sepsis, a deadly immune system overreaction that causes the body to attack healthy organs and tissues.
He died on February 25, roughly a month after he was first admitted. Before he died, Wilson recovered enough cognitive function to tell the medical staff in the intensive care unit that he ‘no longer wished to live this way,’ his family’s lawsuit states.
