West Coast woman loses both legs and hand due to medical negligence: lawsuit

After undergoing a routine hysterectomy, Trisha Stevens couldn’t wait to get back to normal.

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

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

“I came home after losing both my legs and my right hand,” Trisha told KGW. “My left hand became 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 used to.”

Trisha’s nightmare reportedly began with a hysterectomy performed by Dr. Alvin Nakamura on October 4, 2024 at Adventist Health in Portland.

Four days after her surgery, pathology results showed inflammation. But there is no record that Dr. Nakamura ever reviewed the results, informed Trisha or took any steps to treat the inflammation, according to the lawsuit.

About two weeks after surgery, Trisha felt a sharp pain in her abdomen followed by vaginal bleeding while walking in the stands at her son’s softball game.

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

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

Later that night, when Trisha arrived at Legacy Mount Hood’s emergency room, her heart was racing, her blood pressure was low and she was breathing rapidly. According to the lawsuit, she “saturated the 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. He was later diagnosed with bacteria in his blood and septic shock.

Dr. Gregory Eilers, the hospital’s on-call obstetrician-gynecologist, then noted that the edges of Trisha’s surgical closure were separated and appeared raw, diagnosing her with an infection at the site. Despite this, the doctor did not recommend surgery or testing 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 few weeks, both of Trisha’s legs were amputated above the knee and her right hand was amputated at the wrist. His left thumb and parts of his left finger also had to be removed.

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

“There are days when I still don’t know what was harder: almost dying or waking up and realizing everything that was taken away from me,” Trisha told KGW.

“I was a wife who could reach out to Brian without thinking and a mother who could walk down the hall when one of my children called my name,” she continued.

“I could lie next to them after a nightmare, wrap both arms around them when they cried, and make them feel safe just by being there. I could drive, cook, clean, take care of my family, and carry my share of our lives. I never knew these ordinary things were freedoms until they were gone.”

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

The complications led to a profound change in Trisha’s daily life. The mother told KGW she could no longer play with her children or move easily around her home because it was not designed to accommodate a wheelchair.

“Even the gravel driveway that I have mindlessly crossed thousands of times can prevent my wheelchair from following my family outside,” Trisha said.

“I fought so hard to survive because I wanted to return home. I never imagined I would be able to return home and I still sometimes feel like I’m 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 managing her blood pressure.

It also claims Nakamura and Bridgetown Medical were negligent in failing to evaluate her or send her to urgent care after she reported her symptoms following her hysterectomy.

The mother told KGW that one of the most difficult aspects of her complications was the loss of her independence.

“I didn’t fight that hard just to stay alive while life was happening around me,” Stevens said. “I survived because I desperately wanted to and God saved me!” »

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