A wrongful death suit was filed Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court against Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center and a Medford nurse on behalf of the estate of 65-year-old Horace “Buddy” Wilson.

Wilson died Feb. 25, 2022, the suit alleges, after 35-year-old Medford RN Dani Marie Schofield repeatedly swapped prescribed fentanyl with non-sterile tap water, which she administered through Wilson’s bloodstream via his central line, according to court documents.

The suit, which seeks $11.5 million in damages, is the first to be filed among what local law firms said they anticipate will be dozens of cases against the hospital system. The Oregonian was the first to report on the suit.

Wilson, a father of six and founder of Decibel Farms, a cannabis operation in Jacksonville, was admitted to RRMC Jan. 27, 2022, with broken ribs and a lacerated spleen after falling from a ladder.

After a Jan. 28 splenectomy, during which Wilson was intubated, he suffered from hypotension — low blood pressure — and was administered various fluids and medications. After showing signs of improvement between Jan. 28 and Feb. 2, the suit alleges that Wilson’s clinical course “took a turn for the worse” Feb. 3.

Wilson required three operations to treat a “breakdown of his surgical repair,” requiring him to be intubated again during the third procedure. He began showing clear markers of infection and had “episodes of fever and a steadily increasing white blood cell count.”

The suit alleges that Wilson’s low blood pressure should have stabilized after the splenectomy and that persistent hypotension is a hallmark of sepsis. According to Wilson’s medical charts, Schofield administered fentanyl to Wilson on several dates beginning Jan. 29, 2022.

“In order to divert the fentanyl,” the suit alleges, “Defendant Schofield replaced this entire quarter of a liter of ‘missing fluid’ with non-sterile tap water, thus reintroducing new inoculums of the bacterium Staphylococcus epidermidis into Horace Wilson’s bloodstream via his central line each time she administered the solution.”

Schofield, who did not immediately return a call from the Rogue Valley Times on Monday evening, had not been publicly named prior to the filing of the suit.

Asante officials and Medford police have repeatedly declined to identify Schofield pending the ongoing investigation.

Medford police first confirmed in early January that they began investigating claims in December that theft of controlled substances by a former Asante employee had resulted in “adverse patient care.”

In early February, four local law firms tallied some three dozen potential clients who had either been informed by Asante that their loved ones could have died as a result of the drug diversion at Asante, or who had contracted infections but survived.

The Rogue Valley Times has interviewed a handful of families who said they were contacted in late December. Interviews with families established that some deaths occurred between November 2022 and July 2023, though a handful of law firms confirmed in recent weeks that the timeline started even earlier.

The death of Wilson, whose estate is being represented by Idiart Law Group in Central Point, established the drug diversion cases as beginning earlier still.

Schofield, according to Oregon Board of Nursing records, voluntarily agreed to refrain from practicing nursing on Nov. 22, 2023, “pending the completion of an investigation.”

Schofield began working at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center on Dec. 31, 2015. Previously she worked at a rehabilitation center from September to December of that year.

Asante officials also could not immediately be reached for comment Monday evening.

The hospital reported a spike in central line infections in 2022, data confirmed by Oregon Health Authority figures. Typical infection rates of between 1 and 3 central line infections jumped to 15 in 2022 and 14 in 2023.

Medford police Lt. Geoff Kirkpatrick declined to comment Monday evening on the filing of the civil suit.

“We have nothing further to comment on this case at this time,” Kirkpatrick said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with an online link to court documents.