A nurse at an Oregon hospital reportedly changed pain medicine with nonsterile tap water, sending germs into a patient’s system that contributed to his death, a lawsuit filed this week claimed.
The patient, Horace Wilson, was taken to Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford with a lacerated spleen and fractured ribs after he fell off a ladder in January 2022, the lawsuit states.
As he recovered from numerous procedures in the critical care unit, Wilson’s medical team discovered “unexplained high fevers, very high white blood cell counts, and a precipitous decline,” the lawsuit states. He died in the hospital on Feb. 25, 2022.
“He was only 65 and in good health, so he should have been able to recover from this,” said Justin Idiart, the attorney who brought the lawsuit.
Wilson’s treatment team got blood samples during his stay that were positive for Staphylococcus epidermidis, a kind of bacterium that is likely to have been introduced via tap water, the lawsuit continues.
The claim, filed on behalf of Wilson’s estate and his wife, Patti Wilson, names both Asante and Dani Marie Schofield, the nurse who reportedly changed out the prescription, as defendants, accusing them of negligence. Schofield did not reply to several attempts to comment. Records from the Oregon State Board of Nursing reveal that she voluntarily consented in November to a nursing license suspension, awaiting “the completion of an investigation.”
Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center, a 378-bed hospital, also did not respond to several requests for comment this week but told NBC News in a statement in January that it was “distressed to learn of this issue” and had reported it to law authorities.
The civil lawsuit demands roughly $11.5 million and seems to be the first legal action taken since Medford, Oregon, police announced in January that they were investigating claims of drug theft at Asante.
The charges of drug diversion—a word that refers to misappropriating prescription drugs, often to misuse or unlawfully distribute them—were first made public by NBC station KOBI-TV in Medford. The station claimed in December that at least one patient at Asante had died when a nurse reportedly replaced their pain medicine with tap water.
The Medford Police Department has refused to comment on how many patients may have been victims of the suspected medication diversion.
In a statement Wednesday, the agency stated that it is “actively investigating allegations of theft and misuse of controlled substances by an employee of Asante Rogue Regional Hospital.” The police did not specify who was being probed and stated that “no one has been charged with a crime as a result of this investigation.”
“Since December 2023, investigators have been diligently working on this case,” the statement added. “Numerous interviews have been conducted, with many more yet to be completed. We are methodically evaluating hundreds of papers, including medical records, which need extensive investigation and consultation with professionals in the medical field.”
The wrongful death lawsuit argues that Asante started telling patients or their families in December that a nurse had swapped fentanyl with tap water, causing bacterial infections.
Idiart said Wilson’s family was not among those contacted, but after his relatives heard the claims of drug diversion, they feared Wilson had also been a victim.
“They saw this turn for the worse and couldn’t get good explanations from Asante of what was going on,” Idiart said, adding that the family noticed “reactions like he was in pain, even though he was supposed to be sedated a lot of that time.”
The lawsuit states that during Wilson’s hospitalization, Schofield had been directed to link bags of the potent painkiller fentanyl to a programmed pump, which supplied the medicine to Wilson via a central line.
Central lines are tubes implanted in major veins to give medicine. Bacteria and other pathogens may enter the bloodstream if the line isn’t placed or cleansed correctly, or if the fluid being delivered isn’t sterile.
Allowing tap water straight into the circulation is not safe since a waterborne disease might enter the body and create an illness. In hospitals, sterile bags of saline solution are regularly supplied intravenously for several therapeutic objectives, including to alleviate dehydration.
Schofield noted in Wilson’s chart “on several dates” that he had gotten fentanyl; the lawsuit states that the bag purportedly contained water.
During his stay, Wilson’s health swiftly worsened to multisystem organ failure, according to the lawsuit. He needs a tracheostomy to help him breathe.
“Eventually, Horace Wilson was weaned from sedation and recovered enough mental function to communicate to the ICU staff that he no longer wished to live this way,” the lawsuit reads.
Idiart said he is exploring further possible claims relating to Asante. After police announced the probe, “we started getting lots of calls,” he claimed.
Two additional attorneys told NBC News that they too have heard from folks who are scared that they or their loved ones were impacted by the alleged drug diversion. The attorneys are in the midst of analyzing such accounts but have not yet filed litigation.
David de Villeneuve, an attorney in southern Oregon, said several families he has talked to are plagued by the thought that their loved ones may have lived had they gotten competent treatment. Compounding their sadness is the idea that the patients may have suffered owing to a shortage of pain medicine, he noted.
“It’s a different process of mourning and grieving when you go from ‘My loved one died of natural causes’ versus ‘My wife was killed or negligently killed,’” deVilleneuve said.
NEWS COLLECTED: NBC NEWS
