Botched Heart Valve Sparks $17M Showdown

An Oregon family says surgeons installed their 13-year-old daughter’s heart valve upside down — then told them she was dying — when the real fix was just a corrective surgery away.

Story Snapshot

Steven and Lori Stokes filed a $17 million lawsuit against Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and surgeon Dr. Ashok Muralidaran, alleging the valve was implanted upside down during open-heart surgery in August 2025.
The family says their daughter’s heart would not restart after the OHSU operation, and she spent 18 days on life-support machines with her chest left open.
Doctors at Seattle Children’s Hospital reportedly scanned the girl, found the valve was backward, corrected it, and say her heart responded right away.
OHSU has not publicly responded to the lawsuit, and the full medical records have not been released, so the hospital’s side of the story is not yet known.

What the Lawsuit Claims Happened

On August 15, 2025, surgeons at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital performed open-heart surgery on a 13-year-old girl to implant a prosthetic heart valve. According to a negligence complaint filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, the valve was installed upside down. The family says the girl’s heart would not restart properly after the operation. The suit names OHSU and surgeon Dr. Ashok Muralidaran as defendants.

After the failed surgery, the lawsuit says the girl was placed on machines to pump her blood and supply oxygen to her body for 18 days. Surgeons performed multiple follow-up procedures to remove blood, clots, and fluid. Her chest was left open during that time. The family says they were told their daughter was dying — a claim that makes this case especially hard to read without knowing what doctors knew at each step.

Seattle Doctors Allegedly Found the Problem

The family eventually transferred their daughter to Seattle Children’s Hospital. According to reporting on the lawsuit, Seattle doctors ordered imaging scans and found the valve had been placed in the wrong direction. They removed it, put it in correctly, and the girl’s heart reportedly began working right away. That quick turnaround is the core of the family’s argument — that the problem was fixable all along.

The lawsuit seeks $17 million in damages, covering medical costs and non-economic harm to the girl and her family. The suit’s specific claims — a named surgeon, a specific surgery date, and a corrective procedure with an immediate result — make this more than a vague complaint. Still, the underlying medical records, imaging, and operative notes have not been made public, so the full picture is not yet confirmed.

OHSU Has Not Responded Publicly

As of now, OHSU has not issued a public statement addressing the family’s claims. The hospital has a history of declining to comment on active lawsuits. That silence is standard legal practice, but it means the public is only hearing one side. Without the hospital’s response, it is impossible to know whether OHSU disputes the valve orientation, the cause of the complications, or the claim that the girl was told she was dying.

🔥 This is insane. OHSU surgeons installed a 13 year old girls new heart valve completely upside down during her open heart surgery. Then they told her parents she was dying and pushed them to start end of life decisions including organ donation.

Dr Ashok Muralidaran 🇮🇳🇮🇳 led… pic.twitter.com/78m01BuR1c

— iShowPoo (@iShowPooo) June 9, 2026

This case raises serious questions about patient safety and accountability at a major public university hospital. Every family trusts that surgeons will get the basics right — especially in a child’s open-heart surgery. If the allegations hold up in court, this would be a clear and devastating failure. But until medical records are reviewed and both sides are heard, the full truth remains in the hands of the legal process. Families deserve answers, and the courts are where those answers must be tested.