Ten sufferers died at an Oregon hospital after a nurse allegedly changed fentanyl intravenous drips with faucet water, after a nurse allegedly changed fentanyl intravenous drips with faucet water, the New York Publish reported.
Officers from Asante Rogue Regional Medical Middle in Medford reported to the police early final month, suspecting {that a} former worker had stolen treatment. Varied sources on the hospital, in response to native media, indicated conflicting numbers relating to deaths associated to infections—some claimed 9, whereas others acknowledged a complete of 10 fatalities.
A number of informants additionally alleged that the nurse in query had administered non-sterile faucet water to sufferers, masking the misuse of the hospital’s ache treatment, notably fentanyl. The purported substitution had reportedly been impacting sufferers since a minimum of the autumn of 2022, in response to the Rogue Valley Instances.
Households of two sufferers who died, Samuel Allison (36) and Barry Samsten (74), have been knowledgeable by hospital officers that the deaths resulted from infections because of the substitution of their ache treatment with non-sterile faucet water, as per the report.
Medford police Lt Geoff Kirkpatrick acknowledged, “There was concern that this behaviour resulted in antagonistic affected person care, although the extent of the affect on these sufferers is but to be decided.” Kirkpatrick shunned confirming whether or not the deaths have been straight linked to treatment theft or tampering, emphasising an ongoing investigation into potential antagonistic affected person outcomes.
The police division has knowledgeable affected sufferers of the treatment swap however has not disclosed the precise variety of deaths or people impacted. The hospital expressed misery over the problem and affirmed their collaboration with regulation enforcement in a press release.
The Oregon Well being Authority acknowledged an investigation on Wednesday, specializing in “studies that the incidents led to well being care-associated infections that severely injured, and should have precipitated the deaths of, a number of sufferers.” Whether or not any arrests have been made in connection to the incident stays unclear.
