A mother of six who underwent partial or full amputations to her legs, hands, lips and tongue filed a $68.5 million lawsuit last week — claiming that doctors failed to provide proper post-surgery care and promptly treat an infection that tore across her body weeks later.
Trisha Stevens, the 46-year-old wife of a Portland firefighter, also is paralyzed from the lower back down two years after undergoing a hysterectomy, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit describes Stevens’ “catastrophic” injuries as “profound and permanent.” She and her family live in Boring. The couple’s children were ages 7 to 21 at the time of the surgery.
“Before becoming ill, she was a full-time mother and an active, independent partner in her household,” said her Portland attorney, Rhett Fraser, in an email. “She cared for their family, managed daily life at home, drove, cooked, cleaned, attended the children’s activities, and was fully engaged in the life she and her husband had built.”
Today, Fraser said, Stevens can’t care for her own needs, reposition her body or eat independently, and she has difficulty enunciating certain sounds when she speaks. The suit says she requires daily wound care for pressure ulcers on her skin.
The lawsuit lists as defendants: Bridgetown Medical Group and Dr. Alvin Nakamura, whom the suit says performed her surgery and offered after-care. The suit also lists Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center, Legacy Health and Dr. Gregory Eilers and Dr. Robert Azar, whom the suit says treated Stevens after she went to the emergency room 18 days after surgery.
Legacy Health declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. The other defendants either couldn’t be reached or didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The suit was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
According to the suit, on Oct. 4, 2024, Stevens was 44 when she went in for surgery to have her fallopian tubes removed, as well as “a planned robotic-assisted total laparoscopic hysterectomy.”
On Oct. 17 of that year, she went to see Nakamura again for a post-operative visit, the suit says. Then on Oct. 19, the suit says, she was walking down the bleachers at her son’s football game when she “experienced a sudden tearing and popping sensation in her lower abdomen.” Fraser said Stevens went to bed early and thought she might have an apparent “stomach bug” when one of her children fell ill the next day.
But by Oct. 22, Stevens was suffering from stomach cramping, a low-grade fever, diarrhea and had passed a “blood clot the size of a baseball,” according to the suit. The suit says Stevens called Bridgetown Medical Group, and a nurse told her to rest and hydrate and to visit the office only if she passed another clot.
But, the suit says, approximately 13 hours later, Stevens’ symptoms had worsened to the point that she went to the emergency room at Mount Hood Medical Center with “signs of developing sepsis,” which is a life-threatening, chain-reaction response throughout the body.
The suit faults doctors there for allegedly not identifying the problem and acting fast enough, initially thinking Stevens’ infection could be treated with antibiotics and not surgery, and then performing one type of surgery when another type was better suited for her needs.
The suit says tests showed Stevens had a group A streptococcus infection, and she continued to deteriorate — suffering septic shock and multi-organ failure. A reduction of blood flow or blockage to her spinal cord during the ordeal also ultimately left her paralyzed, according to the suit.
Over several weeks, doctors performed a series of surgeries: amputating her legs above the knee, amputating her right hand at the wrist, amputating much of her left hand and removing portions of her lips and tongue, the suit says.
Stevens was hospitalized for more than three months.
Two years later, Stevens’ husband, Brian Stevens, is working again as a firefighter and caring for his wife as a primary caregiver when he’s off duty, said Fraser, the couple’s attorney.
The suit seeks $2.5 million for past medical costs, $6 million for future costs, $55 million for the “profound and permanent diminution” of Trisha Stevens’ enjoyment of her life and $5 million for Brian Stevens’ “loss of consortium” with his wife.
Fraser said the couple have been heartened by support, including meal trains, from their family, church, friends and Brian Stevens’ Portland Fire & Rescue colleagues.
“She feels she has lost so much, and there are days when the future feels heavier than she knows how to carry,” Fraser said.
Fraser added that Stevens’ husband and their children have been a big inspiration.
“She wants to be here for their lives: the ordinary days, the milestones, and every chance she has to love them,” Fraser said. “Brian is her husband, best friend, and he has stood beside her through every unimaginable day.”
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