- Dani Marie Schofield, a former nurse at Assanti Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, Oregon, was arrested and charged with 44 counts of second-degree assault for allegedly stealing fentanyl from patients and filling their IV drips with unsanitary tap water.
- Scofield was not charged with manslaughter because investigators could not prove that a waterborne infection was the direct cause of the patient’s death.
- Oregon attorney David DeVilleneuve said he has been in contact with about 40 former patients who are considering whether to sue over their treatment by Dr. Schofield.
A former nurse at a southern Oregon hospital is facing criminal charges after allegedly stealing fentanyl and replacing it with unsterile tap water for IV drips, harming nearly 40 patients.
Many of the patients developed serious infections, and 16 of them died, but authorities said they did not file charges of murder, manslaughter or criminal negligence because investigators could not prove that infection was the cause of death. Medford police noted that the patients were already seriously ill and were being treated in hospital intensive care units.
Dani Marie Schofield, 36, a former nurse at Assanti Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, was arrested last week and instead charged with 44 counts of second-degree assault. She pleaded not guilty on Friday and is being held on $4 million bail, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
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“MPD reviewed hospital records, patient records and pathology reports, and consulted with multiple medical experts, all of whom agreed that the suspicious deaths associated with this case were not attributable to direct infection,” police said in a news release.
The investigation began late last year after hospital officials noticed a spike in central venous catheter infections between July 2022 and July 2023 and notified police that employees may have been diverting fentanyl, causing “adverse” outcomes for patients.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is fueling the country’s overdose epidemic but is also used in legitimate medical settings to relieve severe pain, and theft of the drug from hospitals has been a long-standing problem.
A view of Assanti Rogue Regional Medical Center on Jan. 4, 2024, in Medford, Oregon. (Janet Eastman/The Oregonian via The Associated Press, File)
Scofield has voluntarily agreed to refrain from practicing as a nurse and to have her nursing license suspended pending the outcome of the criminal case, Scofield’s civil attorney, Clark R. Horner, said in response to a pending civil lawsuit filed in February against Scofield and the hospital.
The lawsuit was filed by the estate of Horace Wilson, who died at Assanti Logue Medical Center, where he was being treated after falling off a ladder on January 27, 2022. Wilson suffered bleeding from his spleen, which was removed.
But doctors later noticed “an unexplained high fever, an abnormally elevated white blood cell count, and rapid weakness,” the lawsuit states. Tests confirmed she had an infection caused by Staphylococcus epidermidis, a bacteria that is resistant to treatment. Wilson died a few weeks later.
In response to the lawsuit, Schofield denied any negligence or injury to Wilson.
Oregon attorney David DeVilleneuve said he has been in contact with about 40 former patients or their representatives who are considering whether to sue over their treatment by Scofield. Only 15 of them are named in the indictment’s list of victims. He said he plans to file the first lawsuit in about three weeks.
DeVilleneuve said he was surprised prosecutors didn’t charge Scofield with manslaughter, but noted that proving Scofield caused the death would be harder in a criminal case, where the standard is beyond a reasonable doubt, than in a civil case, where a preponderance of the evidence is required.
“Their burden of proof is higher than mine,” he said.
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According to the lawsuit, Assante contacted Medford police in December after a former employee “appeared to have engaged in the theft of fentanyl prescribed to patients, adversely affecting patient outcomes.”
That same month, hospital representatives “began contacting patients and their families to inform them that nurses had mistaken fentanyl for tap water, resulting in bacterial infections,” the report said.
Schofield faces a minimum sentence of five years and 10 months in prison and a maximum of 10 years on each charge.
