A mother-of-six who lost her lips and several limbs after a hysterectomy went badly wrong has opened up about the devastating impact the ordeal has had on her life.
Trisha Stevens, 46, from Boring, Oregon, had her legs and left hand amputated and lost her lips to necrosis after developing post-surgery sepsis in October 2024.
She has sued three doctors and two Portland-area hospitals for allegedly delaying crucial treatment by failing to diagnose infection symptoms in time to save her limbs.
Speaking with the Daily Mail through her lawyer Rhett Fraser this week, Stevens detailed how she has been left unable to eat solid foods or care for her children since.
Fraser said his client has been dealing with ‘chronic pain, wounds, recurring infections, bowel and bladder problems, and the lasting effects of multi-organ failure,’ while also enduring ‘major skin-grafting procedures’.
‘Activities that most people do without thinking – getting dressed, getting into a car, moving through her home, caring for their body, speaking clearly, or helping their children – now take planning, equipment, and help,’ he told the Daily Mail in an email.
‘Eating is still difficult for Ms Stevens. Because she lost part of her tongue and lips, has facial scarring, and has lasting changes to her mouth, she cannot eat normal solid foods the way she once was able.’
The homemaker, who has been supported by her firefighter husband Brian during the last two years of brutal recovery, also lost her favorite tattoo, which was an ode to her Christian faith, during the first amputation.
Oregon mother-of-six Trisha Stevens has lost her hands, legs, and lips after her hysterectomy surgery went badly wrong, according to a new $68.5 million lawsuit
Stevens, 46, has sued three doctors and two Portland-area hospitals for allegedly delaying crucial treatment for sepsis by failing to properly diagnose sepsis symptoms which required urgent surgery. She is pictured fighting for her life in hospital surrounded by her children
‘Before this happened, Ms. Stevens had a tattoo on her right foot that said, ‘Walk By Faith’,’ Fraser told the Daily Mail.
‘That tattoo was lost when her legs were amputated, but those words were not. Those words have become the way the family lives.’
The attorney added that Stevens’ children, who were aged between seven and 21 at the time of her hysterectomy, have had to come to terms with the horror at a young age ‘and grow up a lot faster’ as a result.
‘They know that their mom is paralyzed and cannot simply get up and run to them or hold them in the same easy way she once did,’ he said.
‘When they come close to her and wrap their arms around her, those hugs remind her why she keeps fighting.’
Amid the horrors, what Stevens misses most of all is simply ‘the ordinary life she never knew she would come to grieve,’ her lawyer said.
‘She misses being the strong, capable, independent wife and mother who could get up and care for her children,’ he wrote.
Stevens is pictured following her amputations with her firefighter husband Brian and six kids
Stevens, whose children were aged between seven and 21 at the time of her operation, almost died from the infection. She is pictured above with her firefighter husband, Brian Stevens
Stevens’s lawsuit, seen by the Daily Mail, states that she suffered ‘catastrophic’ injuries after contracting sepsis following the removal of her fallopian tubes and a hysterectomy at Bridgetown Medical Group’s Portland center on October 4, 2024.
It takes aim at the surgeon, Dr Alvin Nakamura, for allegedly failing to review pathology results which showed inflammation four days later.
Instead of this being flagged and treated, Stevens endured increasing pain in her abdomen over the next two weeks, according to her lawsuit.
Stevens said this came to a head when she suffered a ‘sudden tearing and popping sensation’ while walking down the bleacher stairs at her son’s football game.
She called Nakamura’s clinic on October 22 to report continued bleeding at the site of her surgery, passing a blood clot ‘the size of a baseball,’ fever, diarrhea and stomach cramping, according to the lawsuit.
A nurse picked up her call and advised her to ‘rest and hydrate.’ Nakamura told the nurse to instruct Stevens to monitor her bleeding at home and only come in to the hospital if she passed another clot, the filing alleges.
However, roughly 13 hours after the call, at 11.10pm, Stevens’s condition worsened, and she was rushed to the emergency department at Legacy Mount Hood.
Stevens has been supported by her firefighter husband Brian during the last two years of brutal recovery. Their children were aged between seven and 21 at the time of her surgery
The lawsuit takes aim at the surgeon, Dr Alvin Nakamura (pictured) for allegedly failing to review pathology results which showed inflammation four days later
Her lawsuit states that she was suffering with a very high heart rate, low blood pressure, rapid breathing, and was ‘saturating vaginal pads with blood at a rate of three per hour.’
Stevens was diagnosed with peritonitis, an inflammation of the abdominal lining; lactic acidosis, a buildup of acid in the blood; and acute kidney injury.
Medics later found bacteria in her bloodstream, and said she had gone into septic shock – a rare and often deadly condition.
On-call doctor Gregory Eilers found that the edges of her hysterectomy wound had separated and looked raw, and diagnosed an infection at the site at about 3.24am, according to the lawsuit.
Stevens has sued Eilers in the suit for allegedly failing to recommend surgery at this point, or test for infection inside her abdomen despite her symptoms suggesting she had this.
Several hours later, the on-call general surgeon, Dr Robert Azar, assessed Stevens’s case, and recommended antibiotics, per the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Stevens’s infection spread throughout her body, causing several of her organs to fail, according to the lawsuit. Dr Azar is also named as a defendant in the suit for allegedly also failing to recommend surgery to clear out the infection.
Stevens said her firefighter husband, Brian, has been her ‘rock’ through two years of recovery
Stevens’ lawsuit, seen by the Daily Mail, states that she suffered ‘catastrophic’ injuries after contracting sepsis following the removal of her fallopian tubes and a hysterectomy at Bridgetown Medical Group’s Portland center (pictured above) on October 4, 2024
On November 6, both of Stevens’s legs were amputated above the knee, followed by her right hand, left thumb, and portions of her left fingers.
Tissue necrosis, the death of cells due to infection, also took away portions of her lips and tongue, while spinal cord damage left her paralyzed from the waist down.
Stevens’s lawsuit claims that the doctors and hospitals involved prior to surgery were negligent for delaying treatment of the abdominal infection.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Stevens, and contacted Bridgetown Medical Group, Dr Alvin Nakamura, Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center, Legacy Health, Dr Gregory Eilers and Dr Robert Azar for comment.
In full: Lawyer shares how hysterectomy ruined woman’s life
Since Ms. Steven’s surgery and the critical illness that followed, almost every part of daily life has changed. She has quadruple amputations and is partially paralyzed. She lives with chronic pain, wounds, recurring infections, bowel and bladder problems, and the lasting effects of the multi-organ failure. Ms. Stevens underwent major skin-grafting procedures and has areas of hair that will never grow back. Activities that most people do without thinking -getting dressed, getting into a car, moving through her home, caring for their body, speaking clearly, or helping their children – now take planning, equipment, and help.
Eating is still difficult for Ms. Stevens. Because she lost part of her tongue and lips, has facial scarring, and has lasting changes to her mouth, she cannot eat normal solid foods the way she once was able. She must be careful about texture, chewing, swallowing, and how much she can manage. Speaking can also be difficult. These losses shape every day of her life, even when people cannot see those challenges.
What people may not see is the trauma that lives beneath her scars. Ms. Stevens’s experience is that her mind can tell her body to move, to get up, or to reach for one of her children, but her body cannot respond the way it once did. A new wound, an infection, pain, or even a difficult transfer can bring fear rushing back. She has to stay vigilant about her skin, wounds, pain, infections, bowel and bladder care, and the possibility of another complication. The emotional toll of living inside a body that changed so completely is hard for her to put into words.
Stevens’s home was not built for someone who is paralyzed and uses a wheelchair. Doorways, bathrooms, reaching parts of her home, and joining her family in ordinary activities can become another barrier. The financial burden of medical care, equipment, prosthetics, caregiving, transportation, home changes, and ongoing treatment is obvious. But what hurts Ms. Stevens the most is the fear of being left out of the life she helped create. She does not want to watch her own life from the sidelines, nor the lives of her husband and children. She wants to be included in their memories, their activities, and the everyday moments that make a family’s life together. That keeps her going.
Her children have had to learn things no child should have to understand so young and grow up a lot faster. They know that their mom is paralyzed and cannot simply get up and run to them or hold them in the same easy way she once did. When they come close to her and wrap their arms around her, those hugs remind her why she keeps fighting. Even when her body cannot respond the way her heart wants it to, she would tell you that she feels their love completely. Their hugs give her strength on the days when she feels empty, and remind her that she is still their mom – still here to love them, encourage them, and show up for them in every way she can.
What Ms. Stevens’s misses most is the ordinary life she never knew she would come to grieve. She misses being the strong, capable, independent wife and mother who could get up and care for her children. She misses driving them where they needed to go, cooking dinner, keeping their home running, playing with them, attending their events, and saying ‘yes’ without first having to think about pain, equipment, accessibility, caregiving, or whether her body can manage it.
Ms. Stevens misses the freedom she and her husband used to have as best friends and teammates building a life together: being spontaneous, making plans, going places, and sharing the simple closeness and ease that a strong marriage has. Brian has been her rock through every part of this journey—her husband, best friend, and the person who has stood beside her through fear, grief, medical crises, and changes neither of them could have imagined. They have not lost each other, but they have had to grieve so much of the life they thought they would share.
Ms. Stevens believes that some of her deepest scars are invisible. Every day brings reminders of what she has lost, and depression can be a darkness that cuts deep for her. There are days she is hurting more than she knows how to explain, but she tries to put a smile on her face because it hurts her husband and children to see her hurting. She does not want her pain to take their joy, their childhood, their hopes, or their dreams. She will do everything she can to keep their dreams and aspirations alive, even on the days when she is fighting to keep hope alive for herself.
Finally, the family believes that their religious faith has carried them through the moments that felt impossible. Before this happened, Ms. Stevens had a tattoo on her right foot that said, ‘Walk By Faith.’ That tattoo was lost when her legs were amputated, but those words were not. Those words have become the way the family lives. Ms. Stevens would say that her faith does not mean she is never afraid or that she does not grieve what was lost. It means that when the family cannot see the road ahead, they pray, lean on each other, and then take the next step anyway. Ms. Stevens keeps fighting because she loves her husband and children more than she can put into words, and because she wants to be here for every piece of life that remains to her.
