West Coast mom of six loses both legs, hand after doctors ignored her complaints: bombshell lawsuit

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After a undergoing a routine hysterectomy, Trisha Stevens was eager to return to normal.

But just weeks later, the Oregon mother of six would battle a debilitating infection — leading her to lose both both of her legs, one of her hands, and face other life-changing complications.

Now, Trisha and her husband Brian are suing multiple Portland-area doctors and regional healthcare giant Legacy Health, seeking $68.5 million in damages, KGW reports.

“I came home having lost both of my legs and my right hand,” Trisha told KGW. “My left hand was left unusable after the necrosis. I lost parts of my lips and tongue, and I live with paralysis in a body that no longer responds the way it once did.”

Around two weeks after the surgery, Trisha experience a sharp pain in her abdomen followed by vaginal bleeding while walking down the bleachers at her son’s softball game

She called Dr. Nakamura’s clinic, Bridgetown Medical Group, and reported continued bleeding, a blood clot “the size of a baseball,” a low-grade fever, diarrhea and stomach cramping.

Through a nurse, Nakamura told Trisha to monitor her bleeding at home and come into the office if she passed another clot, but her condition quickly worsened.

Later that night, when Trisha arrived to the emergency room at Legacy Mount Hood, her heart was racing, her blood pressure, low and she was breathing quickly. According to the lawsuit, she was “saturating vaginal pads with blood at a rate of three per hour.”

Hospital staff diagnosed Trisha with peritonitis, an inflammation of the abdominal lining; lactic acidosis, a buildup of acid in the blood; and acute kidney injury. Later, she was diagnosed with bacteria in the bloodstream and septic shock.

The hospital’s on-call OB/GYN Dr. Gregory Eilers then noted that the edges of Trisha’s surgical closure were separated and looked raw, diagnosing her with an infection at the site. Despite this, the doctor did not recommend surgery or test for infection inside the abdomen, according to the lawsuit.

The suit also claims that once Trisha was admitted to the hospital, the infection continued to spread, leading to multiple organ failure.

Over the next several weeks, both of Trisha’s legs were amputated above the knee, and her right hand was amputated at the wrist. Her left thumb and portions of her left finger also needed to be removed.

Due to tissue necrosis, Trisha also lost portions of her lips and tongue, much of her hair, and suffered spinal cord damage, leaving her paraplegic.

“There are days I still do not know which was harder: almost dying or waking up and realizing everything that was taken from me,” Trisha told KGW.

“I was a wife who could reach for Brian’s hand without thinking and a mother who could walk down the hallway when one of my children called my name,” she continued.

“I could climb into bed beside them after a nightmare, wrap both arms around them when they cried, and make them feel safe simply by being there. I could drive, cook, clean, care for my family and carry my share of our life. I never knew those ordinary things were freedoms until they were gone.”

Now, Trisha’s husband Brian acts as her caretaker.

The complications have led to a profound change in Trisha’s daily life. The mom told KGW she can no longer play with her children or navigate her home with ease, as it is not built to accommodate a wheelchair.

“Even the gravel driveway I crossed thousands of times without a second thought can stop my wheelchair from following my family outside,” Trisha said.

“I fought so hard to survive because I wanted to come home to them. I never imagined that I could make it home and still sometimes feel as though I am living on the edge of the very life I fought so hard to return to.”

In the lawsuit, Trisha claims Legacy Health staff were negligent in delaying treatment of the abdominal infection and in managing her blood pressure.

It also claims Nakamura and Bridgetown Medical were negligent in not evaluating her or sending her to emergency care after she reported her symptoms following her hysterectomy.

The mom told KGW that of the most difficult parts of her complications is losing her independance.

“I did not fight this hard simply to remain alive while life happens around me,” Stevens said. “I survived because I desperately want to live it and God saved me!”

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