Patient dies after Oregon nurse replaces fentanyl drips with water

A hospital in Oregon has faced criticism after sources revealed that dozens of patients have been injured and another died after a nurse replaced medication IV bags with tap water.  

Medford police have launched an investigation into the incident at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, Oregon after multiple unidentified sources at the hospital came forward, according to local reports.  

Hospital officials have been able to confirm one death, which is being investigated by the police. However, a second death has been reported to be deceased, according to family members in interviews with the Rogue Valley Times.  

Garrett Atwood found out about the cause of the death of his brother on Dec. 18, more than a year after his passing in November 2022 after his brother developed an infection due to the tampered IV bag. 

Atwood claimed that the hospital informed his family that his brother's pain medication had been "tampered with" and that the central line infection that had killed his brother "was directly linked to the tap water that the nurse in question was replacing it with."

Atwood also said that officials at Asante that the nurse was "no longer working in the medical field, as they were reported to both the medical board and police." 

Unnamed sources at the hospital have said, in addition to the death, dozens of patients have been injured by nurses switching out medications for other substances. 

A source at the hospital also told the Rogue Valley Times that water supplies in the Intensive Care Unit and Coronary Care Unit, which is an older part of the building, are unsafe for patients to use for simple tasks such as face washing.  

Medford Police Lt. Geoff Kirkpatrick confirmed that the investigation is ongoing in a text, “We are investigating a case at Asante Rogue Regional. It is in its very preliminary stages and we have no further information we can release.” 

Other central line infections, like the one that Atwood's brother succumbed to, are reported on a monthly basis by the hospital and were in single digits during several years leading up to 2021, but data for 2022 and 2023 have not been published.