Suit Says Gadolinium-Based MRI Contrasting Agent Caused Death

CLEVELAND - A federal lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a 24-year-old man who received injections of a gadolinium-containing MRI contrasting dye that allegedly caused his death from a form of fibrosis. Rockwell v. Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Inc., No. 07-1564 (N.D. Ohio).

The complaint, filed May 29 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, contends that Trevor Drake received two doses of Magnevist injectable paramagnetic contrast agent before undergoing two MRIs at the Cleveland Clinic. Because Drake was suffering from renal sufficiency at the time he received the injections, he developed Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis and died, …