What to Know
Steven and Lori Stokes took their 13-year-old daughter, Isabelle, to Oregon Health & Science University for open-heart surgery in August 2025. The team, led by Dr. Ashok Muralidaran, was to install a mechanical valve in her heart. It is a complex and major surgery, but the Stokes family felt confident with their daughter in Muralidaran’s care.
But on the day of surgery, things did not go well, and doctors could not restart Isabelle’s heart. Instead, they put her on an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, hoping that would help her heart recover from the “shock” of the surgery. The true shock came weeks later when doctors found Muralidaran had reportedly installed the valve upside down, nearly killing Isabelle.
The family filed a lawsuit against Muralidaran and OHSU.
According to court documents obtained by Law & Crime, Muralidaran, OHSU’s head of pediatric and congenital cardiac surgery, led the team that “initially stopped” Isabelle’s heart and put her on cardiac bypass during the surgery.
The plan was to install a mechanical mitral valve, but when they tried to revive her, her heart did not function on its own, per the lawsuit. Instead, Muralidaran and his team opted for ECMO to help Isabelle reoxygenate and circulate the teen’s blood into her body.
Isabelle wound up in the intensive care unit.
Much to the medical staff’s surprise, Isabelle’s condition continued to worsen.
“[The girl’s] parents were told by defendants, in substance, that the mitral valve implantation procedure had gone very well; that Isabelle’s heart was probably not functioning adequately because of the ‘shock’ of surgery; and that ECMO should allow her heart to rest, recover, and begin functioning properly,” according to the complaint.
Isabelle spent 18 days in the ICU and underwent an “exploratory surgery” to try to determine the reason for her deteriorating heart function. Doctors operated on her three times and claimed they could not find the source of the issue. At one point, staff reportedly began to discuss end-of-life care for Isabelle, per the lawsuit.
OHSU allegedly told the family that Isabelle would need a heart transplant or an artificial heart to live. She could not survive on ECMO indefinitely, but in order to save her, she’d have to go to another facility. The Stokeses chose to transfer their critically ill daughter to Seattle Children’s Hospital, “which had agreed to accept her as a patient, provided she survived the trip.”
Doctors in Seattle reportedly made a shocking discovery.
After multiple days of invasive procedures, a CT scan revealed Muralidaran and his team had made a horrific error.
“The prosthetic mitral valve implanted by defendants appeared to be improperly positioned inside her heart and was not functioning as it should,” according to the complaint.
Doctors performed open-heart surgery and confirmed their fears.
“Visual inspection by the surgical team confirmed that defendants had implanted the prosthetic mitral valve upside down, which is why [the girl’s] heart had not been functioning properly,” the complaint claims.
“The surgical team removed the malpositioned valve and replaced it with a different prosthetic mitral valve, properly positioned. [The girl’s] heart promptly began functioning sufficiently well that she was successfully removed from cardiac bypass and no longer required ECMO.”
Thanks to doctors in Seattle, Isabelle survived the harrowing ordeal and is recovering, the family’s attorney Robert Wager told The Oregonian. The Stokeses sued OSHU and Muralidaran for $17 million in damages.
READ NEXT: Insurance Denied NICU Stay for One of Dad’s Newborn Twins & Sent the Denial Letter to Baby
