FILE - An entrance to Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, Jan. 4, 2024.
Roman Battaglia / JPR
A lawsuit filed on Sep. 3 in Jackson County Circuit Court alleges Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center was negligent in failing to prevent a former nurse replacing patients’ pain medication with non-sterile tap water.
The complaint, filed by Medford, Oregon, law firm Shlesinger & deVilleneuve, is seeking $303,285,000 on behalf of nine surviving former patients and nine estates of those who died allegedly under the hospital’s care. Plaintiff damages include medical expenses, lost income and millions for “non-economic” injury.
The lawsuit lists over a dozen examples of alleged negligence by Asante. Those allegations include the hospital not adequately monitoring employees for drug diversion, allowing tap water to have unreasonable levels of harmful bacteria, failing to follow infection investigation protocols set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and hiring a nurse prone to drug misuse.
“This should have never been allowed to happen,” said Shlesinger & deVilleneuve attorney Shayla Steyart. “We’re hoping the hospital takes this seriously enough to prevent this from ever happening again. We will do everything we can to get justice for our clients and their families.”
A spokesperson for Asante declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Related: Medford nurse arrested in drug diversion case at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center
The complaint doesn’t name the Asante employee accused of causing the patient infections. But a lawsuit filed in February by Rogue Valley attorney Justin Idiart on behalf of the estate of Horace Wilson alleges former nurse Dani Marie Schofield was responsible for swapping that patient’s opioid painkiller fentanyl with tap water. That complaint, which asks for $11.5 million in damages from Asante and Schofield, alleges Wilson died from an infection caused by the drug diversion.
In June, the Jackson County district attorney’s office charged Schofield with 44 counts of assault in the second degree — one count for each patient that authorities say the nurse harmed. Sixteen of those former patients died. All 18 former patients named in the latest complaint appear in that indictment.
According to Tuesday’s lawsuit, all plaintiffs were contacted by Asante in December of 2023 about the possibility of bacterial infection caused by a nurse’s drug diversion. The complaint notes those patients received care at the hospital within the last two years.
Schofield is out of jail currently on a $4 million bail. Her pre-trial hearing concerning the criminal charges begins next week. She faces a minimum sentencing of 70 months for each of the 44 cases of assault under Oregon’s Measure 11.