Post-operative heart surgery infections related to the Stockert 3T heater cooler device can take time to develop.

The Stockert 3T heater cooler device made by LiveNova PLC, formerly known as Sorin Group, is used in open heart surgery to keep the temperature of a patient’s internal organs and blood at a proper homeostatic level during this invasive procedure.

This device has also been connected to bacterial heart surgery infections from Mycobacterium chimaera or M. chimaera, a bacterium normally found in soil and water. For healthy persons, M. chimaera doesn’t normally present a risk of infection.

But this nontuberculous bacterium can become a severe issue when it crosses the sterile field of an operating room and enters the chest cavity of a heart bypass patient whose immune system is likely compromised from the start.

The Stockert or Sorin 3T heater cooler device contains a water tank that feeds temperature-stabilized water to a heat exchanger or warming and cooling blankets. The interior of the machine was found to provide a breeding ground for M. chimaera in the absence of a very precise disinfection procedure.

The contamination leading to heart surgery infections was then determined to come from a process known as aerolizing. M. chimaera was being misted into the operating room via the venting system of the machine itself leading to heart surgery infections which would show up a month to several years after the fact.

Any agitation of the water through pumps or bubbling would only increase the likelihood of the aerolizing. Air bubbles tested from these machines had a higher density of these bacterium built up than the water in the depository itself.

Symptoms of post-operative heart surgery infections that can come weeks or years later can easily be mistaken for the flu. It is imperative that former heart surgery patients, the physicians that care for them, as well as family members become aware that these symptoms may point to a greater problem with significant threat. Be on the lookout for the following symptoms:

• Night Sweats
• Unexplained Fever that Comes and Goes
• Muscle and Joint Aches and Pains
• Unexplained Weight Loss
• General Fatigue and Weakness

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has linked the deaths of 12 people to heart surgery infections from M chimaera. Three states have had confirmed instances of heart surgery infections for a total of 28 cases. These states include Iowa, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Several individual lawsuits have been filed against the LiveNova Company as well as a class action lawsuit filed in February 2016. The heater-cooler class action lawsuit stipulated that the manufacturer should have known about the heater cooler device’s propensity to allow bacteria to grow and aerolize.

If you or a loved one has been exposed to this potentially fatal bacterium following heart surgery, you may qualify to join a heater-cooler infection lawsuit investigation.