Lawsuit claims wrong imaging contrast injection left woman unable to move legs

A recently filed lawsuit claims a Stanford Medicine provider injected the wrong imaging contrast dye into a patient, leading to subsequent health problems. 

Alice Brock, 75, and her husband filed the civil suit on July 8 in a San Mateo County, California, Superior Court. Since 2012, Brock has had an intrathecal baclofen pump placed in her body, used to deliver muscle relaxant medication into her spinal canal to alleviate spasms. 

However, on July 14, 2025, she visited the California academic institution for a myelogram—an imaging test used to make sure the pump is working properly. Attorneys contend providers injected Omnipaque 350, an iodine contrast agent, into Brock’s intrathecal space, the fluid-filled area that serves as a pathway for delivering medications that bypass the blood-brain barrier.  

“Over the course of the next several hours, Alice Brock experienced a decline in neurological functioning to the point that she lost her ability to move her legs,” the lawsuit claims. Attorneys contend she was “never advised” about the injection, nor did she provide informed consent for providers to use the drug. 

The Mercury News first reported word of the lawsuit on July 10. Writer Ethan Baron says Stanford has declined to comment on the complaint, saying patient-privacy laws prohibit it from publicly discussing a patient’s care. 

Brock and attorneys note that, at the time of the incident, Omnipaque 350 was the subject of an FDA-approved black box warning. This indicated risk associated with intrathecal administration of the drug. The FDA labeling warned that such intrathecal administration of a wrong iodine concentration, even if inadvertent, could cause death, seizures, cerebral hemorrhaging, a coma or paralysis. 

“Defendants … breached their duty of care through their various acts and omissions, including but not limited to choosing to inject Omnipaque 350 into Alice Brock’s intrathecal space,” the lawsuit charges. 

As a result of the incident, attorneys claim Brock has suffered injuries including decreased sensation, increased weakness, motor loss, and impaired mobility. The patient has purportedly had to hire physicians and other health professionals “in an attempt to remedy the damage and injury caused by said defendants’ negligence.” Brock believes further services will be required to continue treating these issues. She’s seeking unspecified damages to address her pain, suffering, distress and “loss of enjoyment of life.” 

Defendants named in the lawsuit include Stanford Medicine, the school’s Neuroscience Health Center, neurosurgeon Jaimie Henderson, MD, and radiologic technologist Victor Bautista. 

The Mercury News has more details about the case, noting that Brock suffered the original injury, which led to her needing the pump, while horseback riding at age 17. After the injection, Brock claims she has been forced to leave her four-story home of 45 years because of its stairs, with plans to move into a Palo Alto continuing-care community later this fall. 

She has used a walker for a decade but had previously been able to go up and down the stairs. Now, walking has become “very difficult and very slow,” with Brock and her husband living in a temporary one-story home in Washington state. 

“We want to make sure this doesn’t happen to other patients,” attorney Loren Schwartz told the newspaper.