A US doctor is accused of injecting rubbing alcohol instead of pain blockers into a woman’s toes before removing her toenails, causing severe and permanent injuries, including tissue necrosis, according to a $13m lawsuit filed last week.
WUSA9 reports that Sarah Blackman, from Washington, went to Dr Colin Mizuo on 29 January to have two ingrown toenails removed, one on each foot, at Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Centre in Oregon.
This procedure typically requires an injection of lidocaine or a similar anaesthetic. However, Mizuo reportedly injected 4ml of rubbing alcohol into each of her toes, then pulled off her toenails with no anaesthetic, according to the lawsuit.
Blackman screamed in pain and begged him not to pull the second toenail, according to the lawsuit, but he reportedly told to “just get it over with” and that he was in a rush to leave the clinic. He told her to be still or the needle he was using could go through her toe.
For three months, neither Mizuo nor Kaiser Permanente staff told Blackman she had been injected with rubbing alcohol instead of a local anaesthetic.
She said although she returned home after the procedure and followed the aftercare instructions provided, the pain in her toes did not go away. Apart from a constant burning and throbbing sensation in her toes, her feet also began to swell and turn red. Then the skin on the two treated toes started to change colour and ooze.
Eventually, the skin “appeared to be coming off”.
The lawsuit described the effects of rubbing alcohol as a “perfect cellular killer”.
Nine days later, Blackman went to the emergency department at Kaiser, where staff were baffled by how a “simple toenail removal” could cause what was happening to her feet: tissue necrosis, or death of the tissue.
She was admitted to the hospital where she stayed for two days, while doctors treated her as though she had an infection and administered multiple IV antibiotics.
After her hospitalisation and over multiple visits, Blackman continued to endure excruciating pain and was barely able to walk because of the wounds on her feet, the lawsuit said.
On 3 March, the Kaiser head of podiatry and a case manager contacted Blackman and said she had been injected with rubbing alcohol instead of a local anaesthetic.
She was told a “letter of explanation” would be sent to her, but according to the lawsuit, no such letter ever arrived, despite multiple requests for it.
For months, according to the suit, her chart included an email from the head of podiatry calling it an “unfortunate mistake”.
Blackman’s lawsuit described the experience as “torture”, with Blackman suffering “severe and permanent injuries”, including chemical burn, necrosis, loss of tissue and disfigurement, permanent nerve injury, numbness, burning, chronic pain, bone injury, impairment of weight-bearing and walking due to wounds and severe pain, and psychological injury.
Her husband, Jason Fleskes, is also listed as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. He is seeking $1m of the $13m for loss of society and companionship with his wife.
KGW Kaiser Permanente declined to comment.
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