this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2023
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Up to 10 hospital patients in Oregon died from tap water injections instead of fentanyl: report (www.businessinsider.com)
submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/health@lemmy.world
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An Oregon hospital is under investigation by police following reports of multiple patient deaths.

On Friday, NBC5 News revealed that the police were looking into at least one patient's death at the Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford.

Inside sources within Asante have since disclosed details surrounding the reported deaths, per NBC5 News. It is alleged that up to 10 patients died of infections contracted at the hospital.

The sources claim the infections were caused by a nurse who purportedly substituted medication with tap water.

It is alleged that the nurse was attempting to conceal the misuse of the hospital's pain medication supply — specifically fentanyl — and intensive care unit patients were injected with tap water, causing infections that resulted in fatalities.

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[–] plz1@lemmy.world 29 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Most (good) hospitals have tracking on units of medications, even saline. She's have to "lose" the saline bag to use it, whereas tap water was easier to hide. I really don't like the way the article words this as "misuse of hospital supplies" rather than "attempted murder" or "gross medical malpractice" though. That seems a bit too squishy to me.

[–] assembly@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The nurse could have at least spent a dollar and used distilled water. Probably safer than tap.

[–] plz1@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

I’m guessing she was either selling the fentanyl or using it. Either way not likely that she was thinking straight.

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 2 points 9 months ago

Saline inventory is not tracked. Saline bags for use as IV fluids are scanned and tracked because they are ordered by a doctor and considered equivalent with administering a medication. But we also use those bags all the time for things that aren't tracked like priming tubing for "piggyback" administration of something that is ordered with the nearly full bag thrown away at the end, never scanned or tracked. And saline flushes aren't tracked.

There's ample supply of saline that would never be missed in the quantities that would have been used here. There is zero reasoning for using tap water instead of saline.