A teenage girl’s life was put at risk due to a surgical error during a heart operation, according to a lawsuit filed by her parents. The suit alleges that medical staff at Oregon Health and Science University mistakenly inserted a heart valve incorrectly.
Steven and Lori Stokes, the girl’s parents, recounted their 13-year-old daughter’s traumatic experience following open-heart surgery in August of last year. The surgery, conducted at the Portland-based hospital, involved implanting a new heart valve.
Initially, the family received reassuring news from surgeons who stated that the procedure had gone “very well.” However, their daughter remained in critical condition in the intensive care unit as her heart continued to struggle.
Despite extensive testing and imaging conducted by the medical team, no explanation was found for the heart valve’s malfunction, according to the lawsuit.
In a desperate move, the Stokes transferred their daughter to Seattle Children’s Hospital, despite warnings from doctors that the transfer could be life-threatening. It was there that doctors discovered the valve had been inserted upside down, the lawsuit claims.
As a result of this incident, the Stokes family is pursuing legal action against Oregon Health and Science University and Dr. Ashok Muralidaran, the surgeon responsible for the original operation, seeking $17 million in damages.
According to the suit, seen by KGW, the initial procedure required health teams to stop her heart while she was on a bypass machine.
After the surgery, health officials said that her heart was likely not working due to the ‘shock’ of the operation, the suit added.
Steven and Lori Stokes said their daughter, 13, underwent a horrifying ordeal inside Oregon Health and Science University, seen here
Her parents are suing OHSU and surgeon Dr. Ashok Muralidaran, seen here, for $17 million
The next day she remained inside the hospital’s intensive care unit where doctors started carrying out testing to determine what went wrong.
The suit claimed that doctors told the worried parents that there was no explanation for it other than ‘shock’, the suit claimed.
The girl was kept inside intensive care for three days and was kept alive only by a machine that pumps blood through another heart-lung machine to reoxygenate it and circulate it back through her body, the suit said.
According to the suit she had an open chest incision throughout her stay and her condition deteriorated throughout.
It was at this point that hospital staff discussed palliative care options for the teen with her parents which included organ donation, they claimed in the suit.
Doctors then carried out another surgery on her heart and told Steven and Lori that their daughter required either an artificial heart or a transplant to survive, the suit said.
They informed the two that they would need to go elsewhere for such procedures as they could not undertake them, dropping the bombshell that they feared she would not survive a transfer to another facility, the suit added.
Doctors told the parents that she would likely die in OHSU and was now so ill that she would die en route to another hospital, the suit alleged.
The suit said that teams at OHSU led by Dr Muralidaran put the valve in upside down, causing her heart to continue to not work properly
The girl was taken to Seattle Children’s Hospital where the problem with the valve was uncovered
Her parents decided to take the risk and had her taken to Seattle Children’s Hospital where they claimed she was now ‘very near death’ in their suit.
Doctors at the facility performed a number of procedures to remove blood, clots and fluid from her wound, her parents said.
They then scanned her heart and found that the valve installed by doctors at OHSU was upside down and not functioning correctly, according to the complaint.
Doctors then removed the valve and replaced it with a new one that was in the correct position, her heart started to function as normal shortly after.
Over the next few days her condition and improved and she stabilized, being taken off all the machines that had kept her alive, the suit said.
After a month she was then allowed to return home with her parents. The family was left with medical bills totaling over $3.35 million, the suit added.
The suit will likely run into tort claim limits which under state laws mean OHSU, a public institute, can only be held liable for a maximum of $5.275 million.
The parents lawyer Robert Wagner told Oregon Live: ‘It’s a complete and egregious screw-up. She is making a miraculous recovery.’
OHSU declined to comment citing the ongoing suit when approached by the Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail contacted Dr. Muralidaran for comment.
