An Iowa man is suing the makers of a medical device used in his open heart surgery claiming that they are responsible for his infection after open heart surgery.

Plaintiff Matthew A. says he underwent open heart surgery at University of Iowa Health Care to have an LVAD procedure on June 25, 2015.

An LVAD, or left ventricular assist device, is essentially an artificial heart pump. When the left ventricle needs help pumping blood, an LVAD procedure is performed. This can greatly aid a patient’s health.

Just a month later, on July 29, 2015, Matthew underwent an LVAD exchange, a procedure that exchanged the original device with another one. He underwent this procedure because of “complications that lead to heart failure.”

Later that year, in October, the plaintiff began experiencing symptoms such as “fatigue, joint pain, drenching night sweats, unexplained weight loss, persistent fever and increased pain at his LVAD site.”

He returned to the hospital in April of the following year and was seen in a clinic that specialized in recovering heart surgery patients. The clinic also looks at possible infections from cardiac heater cooler devices used in surgeries. His doctors determined that Matthew was experiencing a possible NTM infection after open heart surgery.

Allegedly, he was exposed to bacteria from a medical device known as a cardiac heater cooler during his initial open heart surgery.

A heater cooler device is a medical device used during open heart surgery to help regulate a patients blood and body temperature. It uses water to heat or cool the blood. While water inside the machine never comes in contact with any bodily fluids, it may aerosolize during the procedure and can enter surgical sites.

One of the main manufacturers of cardiac heater cooler devices is a German company, LivaNova. Many of the cardiac heater coolers they manufacture had been exposed to a bacteria called M. chimaera. This bacteria, while usually not deadly to humans, can cause serious illness in patients who are already vulnerable.

In February 2016, just two months before Matthew had been readmitted to the hospital clinic, the University of Iowa announced that 1,500 heart surgery patients had possibly been exposed to the M. chimaera bacteria through cardiac heater cooler devices.

After his visit to the clinic, Matthew underwent a series of tests, including blood tests and a bone marrow biopsy, to determine accurately if his infection after open heart surgery was the result of exposure to the bacteria.

Matthew saw doctors again in June 2016 who believed that his symptoms were most likely caused by an infection after open heart surgery due to exposure to bacteria from the cardiac heater cooler. The bone marrow biopsy results determined that he indeed was suffering from M. chimaera infection after open heart surgery and he was placed on a powerful antibiotic regimen.

Essentially, Matthew has been suffering from symptoms from his infection after open heart surgery for close to two years. He claims he still continues to suffer symptoms and has been forced to remain on a powerful antibiotic regimen. He claims he still suffers from “chronic pain, nausea, low appetite, night sweats and fatigue.”

This Open Heart Surgery Infection Lawsuit is Case No. 4:17-cv-00237-JAJ-SBJ in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.