A former intensive care unit nurse in Oregon was arrested on Thursday for allegedly replacing fentanyl from patients’ medical drips with tap water, resulting in dozens of injuries.
Dani Schofield, 36, worked at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center, then known as Rogue Valley Medical Center. in Medfield and allegedly had contact with all 44 victims, some of whom had died. Jackson County prosecutors said they could not charge Schofield with homicide or murder because the medical experts they consulted said they could not link any specific actions to the deaths, according to the Lund Report.
Seven months before Schofield’s arrest, hospital officials reportedly contacted authorities about a spike in central line infections among their patients. An investigation uncovered that all the injured patients were in the intensive care unit. The reported injuries occurred between July 2022 and July 2023, when Schofield left the hospital.
“There was concern that Schofield had been diverting patients’ liquid fentanyl for her personal use and then replacing it with tap water, causing serious infections,” Medford police said.
While officials have not publicly identified any victims, NBC reported that Horace Wilson’s estate filed a lawsuit claiming he was admitted at Asante hospital after falling from a ladder and died in January 2022, when Schofield was a nurse there. Wilson, 65, reportedly suffered a laceration and broken spleen, and a lawsuit alleged that his pain medication was switched with unsterile tap water — resulting in the bacterial infection that killed him.
Wilson’s lawsuit, which was filed in March, lists the hospital and Schofield as defendants.
Schofield is charged with second-degree assault. KOBI reported that she remains jailed on $5 million bail.
