(NewsNation) — An Oregon hospital is facing a lawsuit filed by more than a dozen families whose loved ones were injured or killed after a nurse allegedly stole fentanyl from intravenous drips and refilled them with tap water that caused bacterial infections. 

The lawsuit filed this week in civil court by 18 families accuses Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, Oregon of negligence concerning a former nurse “prone to drug misuse,” among other causes of action, according to court papers. 

It claims the hospital failed to “screen and monitor their employees for drug diversion” and failed to “monitor the medication dispensary.” 

The suit seeks $303 million in damages for medical expenses, lost income and the pain and suffering of the plaintiffs.

Dani Marie Schofield, 36, a former nurse at the medical facility was arrested in June and charged with 44 counts of second-degree assault. 

Authorities alleged Schofield harmed more than 17 patients by stealing fentanyl and replacing it with non-sterile tap water in intravenous drips.

Many of the patients developed serious infections, and nine of them died. Authorities did not pursue murder, manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide charges, saying investigators could not establish that the infections caused those deaths. 

The patients were already vulnerable and being treated in the hospital’s intensive care unit, the Medford Police Department noted.

“It’s our job to get justice for our clients by making sure this never happens again,” Shayla Steyart, an attorney for the patients, told NewsNation in a statement.  “It should have never been allowed to happen in the first place.”

The Asante Rogue Medical Center declined NewsNation’s request for comment. 

The investigation began late last year after hospital officials noticed a troubling spike in central line infections from July 2022 through July 2023 and told police they believed an employee had been diverting fentanyl, leading to “adverse” outcomes for patients.

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that has helped fuel the nation’s overdose epidemic, but it is also used in legitimate medical settings to relieve severe pain. 

Schofield voluntarily agreed to refrain from practicing as a nurse and to suspend her nursing license pending the outcome of the criminal case, Clark R. Horner, Schofield’s civil attorney, said in response to a pending civil suit filed in February against Schofield and the hospital.

In June, she pleaded not guilty on and was being held on $4 million bail, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

Schofield for each charge faces a mandatory minimum of five years and 10 months in prison with a potential maximum sentence of 10 years.

The civil suit was filed by the families of nine patients who contracted infections and the nine who died. 

The nurse was not named in this week’s court filing but is facing another civil suit filed by the estate of Horace Wilson, who died from an infection.  

Wilson had sought care at the hospital in 2022 after falling from a ladder. He suffered bleeding from his spleen and had it removed.

But doctors then noted “unexplained high fevers, very high white blood cell counts, and a precipitous decline,” the complaint said. 

Tests confirmed an infection of treatment-resistant bacteria, Staphylococcus epidermidis. Wilson died weeks later.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.