Hospital in which nurse allegedly replaced liquid fentanyl with tap water faced $300 million lawsuit

A $300 million lawsuit has been filed against an Oregon medical institution for the alleged activities of a nurse who is accused of substituting non-sterile tap water for liquid fentanyl, which led to the deaths of several patients. As previously reported by Law&Crime, Dani Marie Schofield was taken into custody in June and charged with 44 counts of assault for allegedly taking patients’ prescribed liquid fentanyl and substituting it with tap water. When Schofield left the medical facility in July 2022, it was claimed that dozens of patients suffered from dangerous diseases, some of which resulted in deaths, according to a statement made at the time by Medford police. 303 million in damages are sought in the wrongful death and negligence complaint that Law&Crime examined.

Nine patients who survived Schofield’s alleged torture and the families of nine patients who did not are represented by the plaintiffs’ attorneys on behalf of at least eighteen former patients. According to the complaint, “All Plaintiff Patients were infected with bacterium uniquely associated with waterborne transmission.” “Not what you would think”: 13-year-old girls are accused of beating the 93-year-old great-grandmother to death with a hatchet till her face vanished.

According to the lawsuit, the hospital neglected to take precautions against potential staff fentanyl theft. The CDC believes that fentanyl is a synthetic opioid and is a major cause of drug overdose deaths. “Given the frequency of such acts throughout the industry, defendant Asante knew or should have known of the high likelihood of drug misuse by its employees.” “Defendant Asante knew or should have known of the high likelihood of drug misuse by its employees given the prevalence of such acts throughout the United States,” the complaint says, adding that the hospital has also had “repeated instances of drug misuse by its employees in the past.”

The patients “suffered pain that they otherwise would not have suffered and for durations of time that they would not have otherwise had to endure” as a result of Schofield’s actions, the complaint claims. In the complaint, Schofield is not listed as a defendant.

“We will ensure that this never occurs again and we will secure justice for these individuals,” plaintiffs’ attorney David deVilleneuve stated in an email to Law&Crime. Early in December 2023, representatives from Asante Rogue Regional Hospital alerted police to the “rising number of central line infection cases” they were observing among the patients under their care, sparking the start of the seven-month probe against Schofield. The hospital enlisted outside assistance to undertake an internal probe.

The hospital found that all of the infection cases were limited to patients in the Intensive Care Unit and that they all occurred within a particular time frame after conducting an internal investigation with the assistance of independent medical specialists. The police were furnished with the report.

It was reported by the investigators that they “poured through volumes of hospital records” for months, interviewing over 100 people, including physicians, nurses, patients, and many of the victims. Schofield is mentioned in a lawsuit that the estate of Horace Wilson filed in February, although not being named in this particular case. Following a ladder fall in January 2022 that resulted in a lacerated spleen and damaged ribs, Wilson was hospitalized to the Asante ICU, according to NBC News.

According to the lawsuit, Schofield replaced Wilson’s painkillers with tap water, which led to a bacterial blood infection that was ultimately fatal. According to online documents, a pretrial hearing in the criminal case is scheduled for December. In July, Schofield secured $4 million bond, as reported by the local press.