Oregon hospital faces $303 million lawsuit from 18 former patients

An Oregon hospital is being sued for $303 million after one of its employees allegedly replaced patients’ medications with water, multiple news sources report.

The complaint, obtained by KDRV, was filed on Tuesday, September 3, by 18 former patients of Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, Oregon, against the medical facility in Jackson County Superior Court.

In the complaint, the patients accuse the medical center of negligence due to the “actions of a hospital employee” for failing to “adequately screen and monitor” employees for medication diversion, failing to “adequately train and monitor” them to “enforce protocols,” and failing to “properly warn and monitor” for the “use of unsafe tap water,” among other claims.

The complaint comes after a former nurse at the hospital, Dani Marie Schofield, was arrested and charged with second-degree assault after she was accused of replacing fentanyl in patients’ IV bags with tap water, the Associated Press and Rogue Valley TimesAccording to the complaint, these actions led to patients developing “bacterial infections.”

“An employee of Defendant Asante embezzled painkillers prescribed to Plaintiff’s patients who were in pain,” the complaint, filed Tuesday, said. It also said the employee “exposed” patients to “bacteria and unsterile needles.”

“All plaintiffs have suffered pain that they say they would not otherwise have suffered, and for a longer period of time than they otherwise would not have had to endure,” the complaint states.

The plaintiffs were informed by Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in December that their IV bags of fentanyl had been replaced with tap water, according to the complaint, per AP. Of the 18 plaintiffs who filed the complaint, nine are dead, according to the outlet.

According to AP, the lawsuit seeks $303 million in damages for medical expenses, loss of income and pain and suffering suffered by the victims.

Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center and Shlesinger and deVilleneuve, the law firm representing the patients, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

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In February, a separate lawsuit was filed against the hospital and Schofield, alleging that Schofield replaced a 65-year-old patient’s fentanyl IV with tap water, leading to his death, the hospital said. Rogue Valley Times.

Schofield was arrested following an investigation by Medford police, which was launched after hospital officials reported an increase in infections through central lines at the medical center from July 2022 to July 2023, AP reported. She has pleaded not guilty.