The parents of a 13-year-old girl have filed a $17 million negligence lawsuit against Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) after doctors discovered that a heart valve implanted in their daughter during open-heart surgery had been implanted upside down, an error that left her critically ill for weeks and nearly cost her life.
Steven and Lori Stokes filed the complaint in Multnomah County Circuit Court against OHSU and the operating surgeon, Dr Ashok Muralidaran. The surgery was performed on August 15, 2025, and required doctors to temporarily stop the girl's heart while she was on cardiac bypass. When surgeons attempted to restart her heart after the procedure, it failed to respond.
She was placed on ECMO, a life-support machine that artificially circulates and oxygenates blood, while doctors ran repeated tests trying to determine why her heart wasn't working. For three days, she lay in the ICU with an open chest incision, her condition worsening. Doctors reportedly offered no concrete explanation and eventually raised the possibility of organ donation with her family.
OHSU ultimately told her parents she needed either a permanent artificial heart or a transplant, procedures the hospital said it couldn't perform, and that transferring her elsewhere could prove fatal given how grave her condition had become.
Her parents nevertheless chose to have her airlifted to Seattle Children's Hospital, where doctors discovered the implanted valve was positioned incorrectly. Surgery confirmed it had been placed upside down. Once replaced properly, her heart resumed normal function immediately. After over a month in critical care, she was eventually discharged.
The family's medical bills have already crossed $3.35 million. Under Oregon's tort liability cap, OHSU's maximum exposure is limited to approximately $5.27 million.
The Free Press Journal contacted OHSU seeking its response to the allegations in the lawsuit, but had not received a reply by the time this report was published.
Who Is Dr Ashok Muralidaran?
According to the OHSU website, Dr Ashok Muralidaran is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at OHSU. He serves as the Section Head of Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Surgery at Doernbecher Children's Hospital and holds the John C Hursh Endowed Chair in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery. His clinical work focuses on treating children and adults with congenital heart disease, while his research examines patient outcomes following congenital cardiac surgery.
Originally from India, Dr Muralidaran earned his medical degree from Madras Medical College before completing surgical training and fellowships in the United States. His advanced training included research fellowships in Chennai, the University of Southern California and Stanford University, along with clinical fellowships at Yale University/Yale New Haven Medical Center and Stanford University. Outside of medicine, he enjoys reading, hiking, working out, playing squash and spending time with his family.
