The Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro, Ore., where Sarah Blackman says she was injected with rubbing alcohol instead of an anesthetic (KPTV/YouTube).
An Oregon doctor who was "in a rush" to leave work injected rubbing alcohol into a woman instead of a local anesthetic before removing her toenails, leaving her with "severe and permanent injuries," a lawsuit says.
Sarah Blackman was at a Kaiser Permanente clinic in Hillsboro for a "bilateral toenail-removal procedure" to remove two ingrown toenails when the doctor injected 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol "in lieu" of the local anesthetic, according to a legal complaint filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court and obtained by Law&Crime.
Blackman and her husband are seeking $13 million from Kaiser for negligence, medical malpractice and loss of "society, companionship, comfort, affection, and conjugal relations," as well as the loss of Blackman's "contribution to household services, including cooking, cleaning, errands, and shared family responsibilities; and the loss of the emotional support and partnership she previously provided," per the complaint.
"The injection of 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol in lieu of a local anesthetic during an in-office podiatric procedure constitutes a 'never event' — a gross and obvious deviation from accepted medical and nursing standards of care that should never occur in the course of competent medical treatment," the complaint charges. "Plaintiff endured what can only be described as torture."
According to Blackman's complaint, the doctor who treated her was supposed to administer lidocaine into each of her second toes. Instead, the physician "proceeded to pull the plaintiff's toenails with no anesthetic," the document alleges.
"Ms. Blackman was in agony throughout, audibly screamed and cried, and begged that the second toe not be treated," the complaint recounts. "[The doctor] told plaintiff she should 'just get it over with' and that he was in a rush to get out of the clinic."
Blackman says that the doctor did not reevaluate why the injections were so painful, nor did he determine whether she was numb prior to pulling her toenails. "Instead, he told Ms. Blackman to hold still or the needle could go through the toe and proceeded with the bilateral procedure over her protestations," the complaint alleges.
Blackman says she went home and followed her aftercare instructions, but the pain from the procedure did not go away. Her toes were allegedly "very painful and had a constant sensation of burning and throbbing," per the complaint. Then her feet began to swell and turn red, with the skin on her two treated toes beginning to "change color" and "ooze" as the skin appeared to be coming off, she says.
"Ms. Blackman immediately went to Kaiser Emergency Department on Feb. 7, 2026," the complaint recalls. "The emergency department staff were at a loss to explain or understand how a simple toenail removal could cause what was happening to Ms. Blackman's feet."
Blackman was admitted to a Kaiser hospital facility, and the working diagnoses were allegedly that an infection and tissue necrosis, or death of the tissue, were causing her problems. Unbeknownst to her, the isopropyl alcohol she had been injected with was acting as a "perfect cellular killer," according to the complaint.
Blackman says she was admitted to the hospital from Feb. 7 through Feb. 9.
"Because none of the healthcare providers caring for her knew that alcohol had been injected, they treated her as though she had an infection and administered multiple IV antibiotics," the complaint explains. "Following the hospitalization, she required ongoing wound care and debridement, multiple office visits and endured excruciating pain as well as being barely able to walk due to the wounds and the pain."
On March 3, Kaiser personnel finally contacted Blackman by phone and disclosed that she had been injected with rubbing alcohol, and that she would receive a letter of explanation, according to the complaint. "No such letter was ever provided despite multiple requests by plaintiff and her attorney," the complaint states.
"For months, defendant chose to conceal the true cause of her injury by not documenting that plaintiff's toes had been injected with rubbing alcohol and choosing not to include the cause when ordering imaging studies, thereby impeding future care providers from knowing the cause of the injury so that appropriate diagnoses and treatment could be performed with full knowledge of the cause," the complaint says. "For months all plaintiff's chart notes contained was an email … referring to the injection of 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol into the patient's toes as an 'unfortunate event.'"
Blackman says that she suffered "severe and permanent injuries, including but not limited to chemical burn injury and necrosis of the bilateral second toes; loss of tissue and disfigurement; permanent nerve injury, numbness, burning, chronic pain; permanent deformity of the toes; bone injury, severe and permanent arthritis causing fusion of the bones in both toes; loss of range of motion and joint function; impairment of weightbearing and walking due to wounds and severe pain; painful wound care treatment; required hospitalization, debridement, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and ongoing podiatric care; psychological injury, including nightmares, sleep disturbance, anxiety, and depression for which she is receiving mental-health treatment; and other injuries to be proven at trial."
Kaiser did not respond to Law&Crime's requests for comment on Tuesday.
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