A complaint filed this week claims an Oregon hospital nurse replaced pain medication with nonsterile tap water, sending bacteria into a patient's bloodstream and causing his death.
According to the lawsuit, Horace Wilson was taken to Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford with a lacerated spleen and damaged ribs after falling off a ladder in January 2022.
As Wilson recovered from multiple ICU surgeries, his treatment team noted “unexplained high fevers, very high white blood cell counts, and a precipitous decline,” the suit claims. He died in the hospital Feb. 25, 2022.
According to case attorney Justin Idiart, “He was only 65, good health — so he should have recovered from this”. The lawsuit says Wilson's inpatient blood tests showed Staphylococcus epidermidis, a bug likely introduced by tap water.
Wilson's estate and wife, Patti Wilson, sued Asante and Dani Marie Schofield, the nurse who reportedly switched the prescription, for negligence. Despite several requests, Schofield did not comment. According to Oregon State Board of Nursing records, she voluntarily agreed to a nursing license suspension in November pending “completion of an investigation.” In January, 378-bed Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center told NBC News that it was “distressed to learn of this issue” and had reported it to law enforcement. It did not reply to several requests for comment this week.
This civil case, which wants roughly $11.5 million, is the first since Medford, Oregon, police announced in January that they were investigating drug theft at Asante.
Drug diversion—stealing prescribed medications to abuse or sell them—was originally reported by Medford's NBC affiliate KOBI-TV. The station reported in December that a nurse replaced a patient's pain medicine with tap water at Asante, killing them. The Medford Police Department won't say how many patients were drug diverted.
The government stated Wednesday that it is “actively investigating allegations of theft and misuse of controlled substances by an employee of Asante Rogue Regional Hospital.” Police said “no one has been charged with a crime as a result of this investigation.”
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