MEDFORD, Ore. A former nurse at a southern Oregon hospital faces criminal charges for harming nearly four dozen patients by stealing fentanyl and replacing it with non-sterile tap water in intravenous drips.
Many of the patients developed serious infections and 16 of them died, but authorities said they did not pursue charges of murder, manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide because investigators were unable to establish that the infections caused those deaths. The patients were already vulnerable and being treated in the hospital’s intensive care unit, the Medford Police Department noted.
Dani Marie Schofield, 36, a former nurse at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, was arrested last week and charged with 44 counts of second-degree assault. She pleaded not guilty on Friday and was being held on $4 million bail. Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
“After reviewing hospital records, patient records, and pathology reports, MPD consulted with several medical experts, each of whom agreed that the questionable deaths associated with this case could not be directly attributed to infections,” the department of police in a press release.
The investigation began late last year after hospital officials noticed a concerning increase in central line infections between July 2022 and July 2023 and told police they believed an employee had diverted fentanyl, leading to “the results.” adverse effects” for patients.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that has helped fuel the country’s overdose epidemic, but it is also used in legitimate medical settings to relieve severe pain. Drug theft in hospitals It’s an old problem.
Schofield has voluntarily agreed to refrain from practicing as a nurse and suspend her nursing license pending the outcome of the criminal case, said Clark R. Horner, Schofield’s civil attorney, in response to a pending civil case filed in February against Schofield and the hospital.
The lawsuit was filed by the estate of Horace Wilson, who died at Asante Rogue Medical Center. He had sought treatment at the hospital on January 27, 2022, after falling down a staircase. He suffered bleeding in his spleen and had it removed.
But doctors then noticed “unexplained high fevers, very high white blood cell counts, and a precipitous decline,” the complaint said. The tests confirmed an infection with treatment-resistant bacteria, Staphylococcus epidermidis. Wilson died weeks later.
In response to the lawsuit, Schofield denied being negligent or causing harm to Wilson.
David deVilleneuve, an Oregon attorney, said he has been in contact with about four dozen former patients or their representatives who are weighing whether to sue over Schofield’s treatment. Only 15 of them appeared on the list of victims cited by authorities in the indictment. He said he expects to file his first cases within about three weeks.
DeVilleneuve said he was surprised that prosecutors did not charge Schofield with manslaughter. But he noted that proving she caused the deaths would be more difficult in a criminal case, where the standard is beyond a reasonable doubt, than in a civil case, where it is a preponderance of the evidence.
“Their burden of proof is greater than mine,” he said.
Asante contacted Medford police last December regarding a former employee “who they believe was involved in stealing fentanyl prescribed to patients, resulting in some adverse patient outcomes,” the complaint said.
That month, hospital representatives “began contacting patients and their families, telling them that a nurse had substituted tap water for fentanyl, causing bacterial infections,” he said.
Schofield, for each charge, faces a mandatory minimum of five years and 10 months in prison, with a potential maximum sentence of 10 years.
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