The families of nine patients who died — and nine who survived — after contracting bacterial infections at a southern Oregon hospital have sued the hospital, which they say didn’t act to prevent a nurse from stealing the fentanyl in patients’ intravenous drips and replacing it with tap water that caused the infections.
The former nurse, Dani Marie Schofield, was arrested in June and charged with 44 counts of second-degree assault after investigators said they had found — after a several-month investigation into a rise in infections at the hospital — that Ms. Schofield had swapped tap water for the liquid fentanyl meant for dozens of patients in the hospital’s intensive care unit. Instead, they said, the nurse used the powerful painkiller herself. Ms. Schofield, who was 36 at the time of her arrest, has pleaded not guilty.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Jackson County Circuit Court on Tuesday, claims that the hospital, Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center, in Medford, Ore., failed to detect the theft, and that as a result, patients suffered pain that they would not have had they received fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that is legally prescribed and used as an anaesthetic and painkiller in medical settings.
The lawsuit also claims that because of the hospital’s negligence, patients were exposed to bacteria that is unique to waterborne transmission. The suit seeks $303 million in damages for medical expenses, lost income and the pain and suffering of the plaintiffs.
The patients at Asante whose IV bags contained tap water developed serious infections, and 16 died. The authorities did not charge Ms. Schofield with murder, manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide because, they said, it was not possible to show that the patients’ deaths were directly caused by the infections.
Among those people whose families say they had died as a result of the tap water in their IV drips were a cannabis grower hospitalized after a fall, a retiree suffering from a bed sore and a military veteran who was being treated for liver failure but whose family told local news media that he had a good prognosis.
The lawsuit filed against Asante this week claims the hospital failed to screen and monitor its employees despite “repeated instances of drug misuse by its employees in the past” and that it allowed tap water to have “unreasonable levels of bacteria.”
A spokesman for Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ms. Schofield is not a named as a defendant in the complaint, which refers to a “hospital employee.”
The theft of fentanyl from hospital settings by medical workers is not uncommon; many instances of so-called drug diversion have been uncovered in recent years as the United States has faced a nationwide overdose epidemic.
The authorities in Medford, a city in southern Oregon, began their investigation in late 2023, after they were alerted by the hospital to a rise in infections between July 2022 and July 2023. According to The Rogue Valley Times, which first reported the investigation, the hospital had made a number of public statements in 2023 about infections and water quality issues.
The Medford Police Department said in a statement that they consulted medical experts as to the pattern of “questionable deaths” linked to the infections.
If convicted of the criminal charges she faces, Ms. Schofield, the former nurse, could face up to 70 months in jail for each count of second-degree assault.
At least one separate civil suit has been filed against Asante and Ms. Schofield, on behalf of a 65-year-old man, Horace E. Wilson, the owner of a cannabis company, who died from an infection while hospitalized after his fall.
Medical workers who have been discovered stealing prescribed painkillers for their own use include a paramedic supervisor in Colorado who took fentanyl from a supply destined for ambulances, and a fertility clinic nurse in Connecticut was found to have injected herself with fentanyl intended for patients.
Doctors and dentists have been implicated in such schemes, too, including an oral surgeon in Iowa who admitted he had “skimmed” from vials of fentanyl because of his addiction.
The increase in such episodes has led to more careful surveillance and tracking of painkillers in hospitals as well as to campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers of drug dependency among medical professionals. Officials, including at the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, have encouraged at-risk medical workers to seek out so-called peer services, groups that help connect medical professionals who have faced drug dependency.
The post Families of Patients Who Died Sue Hospital After Fentanyl Was Swapped With Water appeared first on New York Times.
