An Arizona woman says a medical mistake led to a life-threatening overdose after records show SimonMed admitted to giving her the wrong medication during an MRI scan in 2021.
“It was just so egregious,” she said. “She was immediately rendered unconscious,” Rachel Fitzpatrick, the patient’s attorney, said.
The allegations are detailed in a medical malpractice lawsuit Fitzpatrick recently filed against the imaging company.
It happened at the Thompson Peak SimonMed Imaging Center in Scottsdale. The patient asked ABC15 not to publish her name to protect her privacy but said she wanted the public to hear her story.
“Not only did they give her the wrong medication altogether, but they also administered it in an excessive dose,” Fitzpatrick said. “Such an excessive dose that no one should ever receive that under any circumstances in one go.”
According to the lawsuit and the patient’s medical records, a SimonMed tech accidentally gave the patient a large dose of the sedative Diazepam (Valium) instead of contrast media, which is often used during MRI scans to enhance imaging.