According to a report by ABC News, at least a dozen children who have undergone heart surgery at Children’s Hospital New Orleans have contracted a heart surgery incision infection allegedly due to unsanitary and unsterile equipment.

The heart surgery incision infections, according to the report, are linked to a device known as a cardiac heater-cooler, one that regulates a patient’s body temperature throughout heart surgery.

Fifty-five children who had undergone heart surgery between May and July were potentially impacted.  The hospital announced the likelihood or potential of the heart surgery incision infection by telephone and written notice to all the families.

According to Dr. John Heaton, the hospital’s senior vice president and chief medical officer,  seven of the twelve impacted children were identified through the telephone calls or written notices. The children who only received a telephone screening will be seeing their physicians later this week in northwest Louisiana.

The ABC News report asserts that physicians first realized the potential risk of contracting a heart surgery incision infection after three incision infections were reported within 72 hours. These children all had their heart surgeries performed at Children’s Hospital.

According Dr.Heaton, the machines were replaced and the children with the infection are responding to intravenous antibiotics.The report purports that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the bacteria responsible for the infection is common in soil, dust, and water.

Heaton asserts the bacteria identified is a mycobacterium. In the past, mycobacteria have been linked to cardiac heater-cooler units, allowing investigators to quickly identify the bacteria’s origin. A contamination of a cardiac heater-cooler can infect the soft tissues beneath the skin and the skin’s outer surface layers.

Dr. Heaton states that tap water was used in the cardiac heater-cooler unit, instead of sterilized or filtered water which is suggested by FDA guidelines. In addition, the cardiac heater-cooler unit has now been replaced with a different model.

According to the report, Children’s Hospital is paying for the treatment of the children’s infections among other costs. Expenses include things such as the parent’s hotel rooms and meals.

Heaton further alleges that since the infection was transmitted from the hospital’s cardiac heater-cooler unit, neither the insurance companies or the parents should pay any alleged fees and expenses.

Physicians at Duke University Hospital, located in Durham, North Carolina, have reported similar situations.  According to the physicians, 12 of 24 patients who had undergone heart surgery between December 2014 and June 2015 were infected with the bacterial infection. The Mycobacterium abscessus is the same strain as the one causing the heart surgery incision infection at Children’s Hospital. Allegedly, the outbreak that had affected 12 of 24 patients undergoing heart surgery ended once sterile water was inserted and used in the cardiac heater-cooler unit.

The ABC News article also reports that according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in October of 2016, a related infection, known as Mycobacterium chimaera, was linked to a particular model of the cardiac heater-cooler unit. That model same one that was the one used at Children’s Hospital.