No details released; two families say staff told them a nurse’s alleged actions contributed to deaths

By Buffy Pollock, Rogue Valley Times

Medford police have launched an investigation after authorities were contacted about a patient’s death at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford.

Hospital officials confirmed that police are investigating one death at Asante in Medford, although families of two alleged victims have confirmed the loss of loved ones in interviews with the Rogue Valley Times.

Lauren Van Sickle, Asante communications manager, said she was unable to comment on any reported deaths because police are investigating.

“We were distressed to learn of this issue. We reported it to law enforcement and are working closely with them,” Van Sickle said over the weekend.

Medford police Lt. Geoff Kirkpatrick confirmed 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.”

Multiple hospital sources, who declined to be identified, confirmed dozens of patients injured by medication diversion — the act of replacing a medication with another substance.

Sources allege that a hospital nurse was removing fentanyl from IV bags and replacing it with tap water. Two families shared their stories with the Times, which first learned of the investigation Dec. 23.

Grants Pass resident Garrett Atwood received a Dec. 18 phone call in which he learned that his brother’s death — more than a year before on Nov. 11, 2022 — was allegedly caused by a central line infection that resulted after a hospital nurse replaced fentanyl with non-sterile tap water, he said.

Atwood’s brother, 36-year-old combat veteran Samuel Allison, entered the hospital Oct. 14, 2022, for liver failure. Atwood said his brother’s condition had stabilized and his prognosis was good. Shortly after leaving the ICU, he presented with an infection, was transferred to Oregon Health and Science University in Portland and died within days.

Atwood claimed Asante officials informed family members that his brother’s pain medication was “tampered with.” Atwood further claimed that hospital officials said the infection he developed “was directly linked to the tap water that the nurse in question was replacing it with.”

Atwood said hospital officials told him the employee was “no longer working in the medical field, as they were reported to both the medical board and police.”

Klamath Falls resident Diane Rogers said she was notified by Asante officials that the July 26 death of her husband, 74-year-old Barry Samsten, had been caused by a bacterial infection after fentanyl was replaced with non-sterile tap water.

Samsten, a retired transportation planner for the Southern California Association of Governments, was being treated for a bedsore. His death certificate lists his cause of death as multiple organ failure and septic shock.

“I remember thinking, ‘How does a bedsore go downhill so bad?’ And to do that in the ICU, it’s like they were picking the ones who were the worse off or couldn’t talk,” Rogers said. “He kept looking at me and his eyes would roll back. I’d say, ‘He’s in pain,’ and the nurse would say, ‘No, he isn’t.'”

Multiple sources also told the Times that water supplies in the Intensive Care Unit and Coronary Care Unit — which are in an older part of the hospital — are unsafe for use on patients, even for face washing. The hospital made numerous public statements during 2023 pertaining to infections and water quality issues.

Central line infections are reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as part of the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program. Infections are also reported to the Oregon Health Authority on a monthly basis.

According to the Health Authority’s Hospital Healthcare-Associated Infections database, Asante Rogue Regional had low instances of central line infections between 2016 and 2021.

Infection rates were as low as one per year in 2016 and 2018; two per year in 2017 and 2019; and 3 in 2021. Infections in 2020 topped out at 7 during the onset of the pandemic.

Data for 2022 and 2023 is not posted on the state database, but a statement released by Asante July 6, weeks before Samsten died, reported “ongoing efforts” to reduce hospital-acquired infections.

The statement read, “After a spike in CLABSI cases over the winter, ARRMC’s clinical and support teams rallied to examine processes, aseptic technique and the environment to break the chain of transmission. … This diligence brought a drop in central-line-associated blood infections.”

The report went on to say that the hospital had “engaged the Oregon Health Authority and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for an assessment of Asante’s action plans and to solicit feedback on other potential contributors.”

Prior to July, the hospital released statements in March and April addressing water quality concerns. A March 2 report indicated 10 central line infections between September 2022 and February 2023 in the Intensive Care Unit, one infection in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and one in the Coronary Care Unit.

Six weeks later, on April 14, a second statement addressed “water quality rumors.”

“From September through December 2022, several central line infections in the ARRMC critical care units were linked to waterborne bacteria,” the statement said. “Currently, there is no known water contamination at ARRMC or any of our facilities.”

Rogers voiced frustration at a lack of information being released to the public.

“The man that called me, he said, ‘You got any questions?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’ve got a lot of questions, but you’re not gonna answer any of them for me.’”

Rogers added, “It’s shocking that somebody can do this. The least they could have done was use bottled water.”

Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 458-488-2029 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.