A common medical device may have been the cause of a Pennsylvania man’s infection after open heart surgery.

A husband and wife couple, Richard W. and Elizabeth W., has filed a lawsuit against the makers of a medical device commonly used in cardiac surgery rooms across the country after they discovered the husband had contracted a serious infection after open heart surgery.

They believe this infection after open heart surgerycould have been avoided had the medical device, a cardiac heater-cooler device, not been contaminated during its manufacture.

A cardiac heater cooler is a device that is often used in cardiac surgeries to help regulate the temperature of blood of the patient. It uses water to perform its function; however, water never comes into contact with the patient.

The contamination has been found in the water reservoirs of certain cardiac heater coolers made by LivaNova.

LivaNova, a European medical device company, manufactures the cardiac heater cooler device used in the surgery that Richard underwent in May 2015. Water in these cardiac heater coolers may contain a certain bacteria that can be aerosolized in the operating room. This bacteria may then enter open wounds and infect the patient.

In May 2015, Richard had an aortic valve replacement done which, reportedly, was an uneventful procedure.

According to his surgical infection lawsuit, about a year after his procedure, he began experiencing “night sweats, persistent fevers, dry heaving, lack of appetite, dehydration and unexplained weight loss.”

Several times, he claims, he went into his primary care physician as well as took trips to the emergency room. Doctors noted that his white blood cell count was dangerously low, but no doctor could discover what was wrong with him.

What Richard did not know at the time, was that in October 2015, just five months after his aortic valve replacement, his hospital announced that 1,300 of its patients were exposed to nontuberculous mycobacterium through its cardiac heater cooler devices.

He returned to the hospital where he had his original surgery and underwent a battery of 100 tests looking for bacterial infections, various autoimmune diseases, typhus, malaria and other conditions. A month later, he received a phone call explaining to him that he was experiencing a nontuberculous mycobacterium infection after open heart surgery. Doctors believed he was exposed to this during his heart surgery the year before.

During this time, Richard lost over 60 pounds, suffered acute renal failure, underwent left heart catheterization for aortic valve endocarditis and daily intravenous antibiotics.

He still suffered symptoms and then underwent a second surgery to remove and replace the contaminated aortic valve and aortic root. He is currently on a two-year antibiotic regime to combat his infection after open heart surgery.

Because of his infection after open heart surgery, Richard and his wife have brought claims of design defect, manufacturing defect, negligence and loss of spousal consortium.

This Infection After Open Heart Surgery Lawsuit is Case No.1:17-cv-01233-JEJ, in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.