Canyonville resident Bronson Pickett, before his June 2023 crash. Pickett has lived with polycystic kidney disease since 2006 but was managing the disease and had acceptable kidney function prior to the crash and his subsequent stay at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford.

When Canyonville resident Bronson Pickett sustained life-threatening injuries in a rollover crash last June, doctors reassured his family that his recovery wouldn’t be hindered by the kidney disease he’d managed to live with since 2006.

Now one of 44 victims named in a criminal drug-diversion case against former Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center nurse Dani Marie Schofield — who is alleged to have caused serious infection in patients by swapping pain medication in IV bags with non-sterile tap water — Pickett spent most of the past year in and out of the hospital.

During Pickett’s initial monthlong stay at Rogue Regional, where he recovered from injuries sustained in the June 2, 2023, accident, his doctors became alarmed when he developed a serious blood infection and his already-vulnerable kidneys lost even more function.

Now on an organ transplant list — his kidney function reduced by half — Pickett never saw the full recovery doctors anticipated.

Pickett, who turns 49 in August, had been rebuilding an old Toyota pickup with his then-17-year-old son, Gannyn. Father and son were test driving the vehicle and going up a hill when the engine stalled and his brakes failed. Attempting to avoid hitting a power transformer, and struggling to see after dark, Pickett overcorrected while the truck rolled backwards and tumbled down a 450-foot ravine.

“We kept picking up speed as it was going backwards. We just kind of slalomed back and forth, and as soon as it started rolling I just grabbed my son and held on to him,” Pickett said in an interview last week.

After being ejected from the truck upon impact, their fall broken by a tree, Pickett’s son called 911, then climbed the hill to help direct emergency responders to the crash site using the flashlight on his cell phone.

Pickett — who had broken ribs, punctured lungs and severed tendons in his hand — was life-flighted to Rogue Regional in Medford, the only Level II trauma center between Eugene and Redding. His son was transported to Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg — a decision Pickett is still grateful for.

Pickett, in an exclusive interview last week with the Rogue Valley Times, said he waited for an arrest in the criminal case before sharing his story.

Medford police arrested the 36-year-old Schofield — who left her job at the Medford hospital in July 2023 — on June 13. She was arraigned the following day, pleading not guilty to 44 counts of second-degree assault.

Pickett said he was notified by hospital officials and detectives just after Christmas — almost six months before Schofield’s arrest — that the blood infection he suffered was caused by a hospital nurse injecting non-sterile tap water into his intravenous line. Medford police, contacted by hospital officials in December after an internal investigation into an increase in central line infections, launched a criminal investigation in January.

“It was surprising to get the phone call, but then a lot of things started to make sense after we found out what had happened,” Pickett said.

His wife, Lucinda Pickett, said learning of the drug-diversion investigation helped her “connect the dots” when it came to the hospital staff’s confusion upon finding several different types of bacteria in her husband’s blood, and that liquid fentanyl, prescribed for pain, failed to ease his suffering.

According to Schofield’s indictment, the former nurse is alleged to have “unlawfully and knowingly caused serious physical injury” by diverting Pickett’s prescription pain medication on or about June 3, the day after his accident.

“I had a doctor pull me out into the hall and ask if my husband had a problem with drugs, or a high tolerance, she said, ‘because we’ve given him enough to tranquilize an elephant and he’s still in pain,’” Lucinda recalled.

“He was originally intubated until the morning of June 5, so he wouldn’t have been able to say how much pain he was in. It hurts my heart to imagine the pain he was experiencing. …

“When he finally came to, the first thing he asked was where was our son. He didn’t even know if our son had lived. It was a really emotional moment when he finally got to see our son. … I think that helped to start the healing process, but after that everything started to take a turn.”

Bronson would be hospitalized from June 3 to June 22, spending a week each in the intensive care unit and a step-down intermediate care unit. His infection and a fever would spike after being sent home, prompting a return on June 24. He was finally released July 4.

Since learning of the drug diversion, Lucinda said she feels untrusting toward medical providers and frequently relives the days after the accident. She remembers the hospital assuming that water quality was the issue behind “all the infections.”

“After I heard about the tap water being what caused the infection, I remembered going over to the sink in the ICU and they had signage up over the sink that said do not use the water from those faucets, that the water wasn’t safe,” she said.

“As for trusting health care … you go to a hospital to be taken care of and for them to mend you and help you heal, and then you get hurt. You start thinking, ‘Was this happening when I was in the room?’”

Having previously maintained 30% kidney function, Pickett’s health has deteriorated since his hospital stay. Over the past 12 months, he’s been diagnosed with lupus and bladder cancer. Pickett said doctors think his weakened immune system contributed to the other conditions.

A barber and owner of B’s Winston Barber Shop since 2017, after decades of building logging roads, the one-time outdoorsman now struggles to get through a full day of cutting hair due to the symptoms of his kidney disease such as fluid retention, which causes everything from swelling and fatigue to debilitating pain. Pickett’s wife borrowed against her 401K, and collection notices fill the family’s mailbox.

“My kidney function had been staying about 30% before the accident. I deal with kidney stones and stuff like that, which sucks, but my kidney levels were doing OK. My doctor told me I could live a long life and manage my disease,” he said.

“Since I’ve been released, I haven’t been able to get my kidney function up. It’s been staying around 17%. At my last appointment, my kidney specialist told me I’m down to 14%. … When you get to 15%, you can go on dialysis. My doctors haven’t put me on dialysis yet, but I am retaining water, so they’re keeping an eye on it.”

Adding insult to injury, the hospital billed for the bags of fentanyl that were never administered.

“They’re expecting payment for this, and he wasn’t even getting any of it,” Lucinda said.

“I don’t know how they do their inventory, but to have us paying for it even if it was never administered doesn’t seem OK.”

Bronson said hearing media reports of Schofield’s arrest and arraignment only to learn that she was released June 21 after posting $400,000 bond toward a $4-million bail was upsetting.

“Arrested a year after she left the hospital and she was out just as quick as they arrested her,” he said.

David deVilleneuve, of Shlesinger & deVilleneuve, will represent Pickett in a soon-to-be filed civil case related to the drug diversion. In an interview with the Times, DeVilleneuve said Pickett’s case stood out due to the fact that other victims either recovered or died, while Pickett was left with “permanent life-altering consequences to the tap water infiltration.”

“We are very sad to learn of his deteriorating kidney function since the Asante employee placed tap water into his IV,” deVilleneuve said.

“Bronson is a hardworking Southern Oregonian who has been diligent to maintain his good health despite some medical conditions. It is shocking and mind-numbing to think that he sought treatment at Asante and came out in a much worse condition. … Asante’s employee, for over a year, was causing serious harm to innocent patients.”

Trying to focus on the positive, Lucinda said her family has an increased appreciation for being with one another. Gannyn Pickett recently graduated high school, and the couple, lifelong Canyonville residents who met in first grade — she kissed him on the playground and he ran home to tell his mom he would marry her one day — is taking life “one day at a time.”

“Seeing this so-called nurse, since she was arrested, to show just such a complete disregard for what she was doing to all of these people is really upsetting. My heart just goes out to everyone now having to relive everything all over again. It’s been very numbing,” Lucinda said.

“If anything, this whole thing has taught us how to be more grateful for being able to be in the presence of our loved ones, just having them around. Now I love my husband even harder, and I have to just soak in those moments … hold him for longer and try to register all those things in case it’s the last time. I know we both feel like we’ll take every bad day over no days at all.”

For updates on Pickett, or to help with expenses, visit online at gofundme.com and search for Bronson Pickett.