Former intensive care nurse arrested for allegedly replacing fentanyl with tap water

A former intensive care unit nurse was arrested for allegedly switching patients’ painkillers with tap water, police in Medford, Oregon, said Thursday.

Dani Mari Schofield is charged with 44 counts of second-degree assault. These charges “reflect the total number of patients this investigation has determined were affected by Schofield’s criminal conduct,” Medford police said in a statement.

Second-degree assault charges are brought when a person “intentionally or knowingly causes serious bodily injury to another person,” police said.

The arrest came nearly seven months after officials at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center, a 378-bed hospital in Medford, contacted police because they were concerned about a rising number of infections among patients caused by central venous catheters. Central venous catheters are tubes inserted into large veins to deliver medications.

“There was concern that Schofield had diverted liquid fentanyl from patients for their personal use and then replaced it with tap water, resulting in serious infections,” the police statement said Thursday.

Police did not disclose how many of the patients Schofield allegedly abused had died. In March, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of the estate of Horace Wilson, a patient from Asante. Wilson died after being hospitalized in January 2022 with a ruptured spleen and broken ribs following a fall from a ladder.

The lawsuit alleged that during his hospital stay, Wilson’s pain medications were replaced with non-sterile tap water, which introduced bacteria into his bloodstream, leading to his death.

The lawsuit names both Asante and Schofield as defendants and accuses them of negligence. Neither responded to requests for comment at the time.

The allegations of drug abuse – a term that refers to the misuse of prescription drugs, sometimes to abuse them or sell them illegally – were first reported by NBC affiliate KOBI-TV in Medford in December 2023. The station said at least one patient at Asante died after a nurse allegedly misused his pain medication.

Asante did not respond to a request for comment on the arrest Thursday. An attorney for Schofield, who police say left Asante in July 2023, did not immediately respond to a voicemail seeking comment.

Oregon State Board of Nursing records show that in November 2023, Schofield voluntarily agreed to a suspension of her nursing license “pending the outcome of the investigation.”