The parents of a teenager in the United States were told she was likely to die – days after what should have been a simple mitral valve replacement was eventually followed by open heart surgery at another hospital where it was found the valve had been inserted the wrong way round, reports Daily Mail.
Steven and Lori Stokes said their daughter (13) underwent a horrifying ordeal at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland after the valve replacement.
They are now suing OHSU – and Dr Ashok Muralidaran, who performed the initial surgery – for $17m.
Their lawsuit says that after initially being told by surgeons that the procedure went “very well”, her heart could not be restarted properly, and she was placed on ECMO, a machine that helps circulate and oxygenate blood.
She remained in ICU for three days, with her condition continuing to deteriorate. Medical staff even discussed end-of-life options with her parents, and organ donation.
Doctors suggested that she required either an artificial heart or a transplant to survive.
They said her parents needed to take the girl elsewhere for such procedures as they could not do them – but added she would probably not survive a transfer to another facility, and was likely to die at OHSU.
Her parents decided to risk moving her to the more medically advanced Seattle Children’s Hospital on 20 August.
The lawsuit says her condition deteriorated further after the transfer and that she was “very near death”.
In the days after she arrived, reports 13NewsNow, Seattle Children’s performed multiple invasive procedures, including surgery to remove blood, clot and fluid from her open chest incision and adjust the ECMO system.
Her condition slowly began to stabilise, and when a cardiac CT scan was done, it showed the prosthetic mitral valve that had been implanted at OHSU was upside down.
By 2 September, she was stable enough for surgeons to perform open-heart surgery, during which they removed the valve and replaced it with another one that was properly positioned. Her heart then began functioning well enough that she was taken off cardiac bypass and no longer needed ECMO, the lawsuit says. She remained in the Seattle Children’s ICU as her condition improved.
On 5 September, surgeons permanently closed the incision made during the OHSU surgery, and on 24 September, she was discharged and allowed to go home.
Her parents’ lawyer told Oregon Live: “It’s a complete and egregious screw-up. But she is making a miraculous recovery.”
OHSU and Muralidaran declined to comment.
The lawsuit alleges medical negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress and unjust enrichment. The family claims the teen suffered permanent physical and emotional injuries, pain and suffering, prolonged hospitalisation, additional procedures and medical bills.
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