More and more open heart surgery patients are filing lawsuits over complications, alleging that the use of a contaminated cardiac heater cooler device during surgery led to a serious infection. Plaintiffs allege that these infections are serious, and can even be life-threatening.

If you or someone you love has suffered an infection from open heart surgerywith the use of a cardiac heater cooler device, it may have been contaminated, and you may be able to file a surgical infection lawsuit.

Cardiac Heater Cooler Devices

The contaminated heart surgery devices involved in these lawsuits are commonly known as cardiac heater-cooler devices. Cardiac heater-cooler devices, including the popular Sorin 3T system, are used during open heart surgery to help regulate a patient’s body temperature. These devices are used to warm and cool the blood and organs as deemed necessary. A number of different companies manufacture these devices.

Patients have reported experiencing serious infections after undergoing open heart surgery, and many have alleged in lawsuits that the infection was directly caused by the use of a contaminated cardiac heater cooler device. And it’s not just patients who have noted the risks of these contaminated heater cooler devices: the Center for Disease Control (CDC) shares this concern.

The CDC released a warning to consumers about these contaminated heater cooler devices and the associated risk of infection. The CDC warned that certain devices may have become contaminated during the manufacturing process, and that patients who undergo surgery with the use of a contaminated device may be at risk of developing a serious infection.

The infection of primary concern is nontuberculous mycobacterium, or NTM, which has specifically been linked as an infection from open heart surgery.

While the CDC has stated that the “overall risk of (mycobacterium) infection is low relative to other complications following surgery,” affecting between one in 100 and one in 1,000 patients, it may quickly become fatal when it does occur.

Risk of Infection from Open Heart Surgery

Patients who have undergone surgery using a contaminated heart surgery device may be at risk of an NTM infection from open heart surgery.

An NTM infection comes with several distinct symptoms including night sweats, aching muscles, joint pain, weight loss, fatigue, and fever. Symptoms of an NTM infection from open heart surgery may not appear immediately after the use of a contaminated heart surgery device. Instead, these symptoms may actually remain dormant for quite some time, even months after surgery and the initial infection to surface.

This delayed time of onset can prevent patients from connecting the dots between the use of a contaminated device and subsequent infection from open heart surgery, leading to a delayed diagnosis of months or, in some cases, even years.

Filing a Contaminated Heater Cooler Lawsuit

If you or someone you love has suffered from an NTM infection from open heart surgery with the use of a heater cooler device, you may be able to file a heater cooler lawsuit. Filing a lawsuit cannot take away the physical and emotional effects of such a serious infection, but it can help to alleviate the financial burden caused by medical expenses and lost wages.