More and more heart surgery patients are coming forward, saying that they have suffered from nontuberculous mycobacteria infection after undergoing surgery with a particular heater cooler device.

Patients claim that the use of a contaminated heater cooler device during surgery exposed them to the serious infection that, for some, can even be life-threatening.

Contaminated Heater Cooler Heart Surgery Devices

The contaminated heart surgery devices implicated in these lawsuits for causing nontuberculous mycobacteria infections include the Stockert 3T heater cooler system, manufactured by LivaNova.

These devices are used during heart surgeries to help regulate a patient’s blood and organ temperature, warming and cooling the blood and organs as deemed necessary.

Even when a heart surgery seems to have gone well, some patients are finding that weeks or even months after the surgery is over, they are left with a serious infection. Patients are reportedly suffering from nontuberculous mycobacteria infections, and some claim that this infection was brought on by contaminated heater cooler devices used during their operation.

And its not just patients who worry about the risk of nontuberculous mycobacteria after heart surgery with a potentially contaminated heater cooler device. In fact, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has released a warning to consumers about the possibility of a contaminated Stockert 3T heater cooler device being used during their heart surgery.

The CDC warns that some Stockert 3T heater cooler devices may have become contaminated during the manufacturing process, and patients who are exposed to this contamination during an operation like heart surgery may be at risk of developing nontuberculous mycobacteria infection, a dangerous and even life-threatening infection.

While the CDC has said 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 can quickly become fatal.

Risk of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Infection after Heart Surgery

A nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) infection comes with several distinct symptoms. These symptoms include the following:

• Night sweats
• Aching muscles
• Joint pain
• Weight loss
• Fatigue
• Fever

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

Filing a Heater Cooler Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Lawsuit

If you or someone you love has suffered from a nontuberculous mycobacteria infection after undergoing heart surgery, you may benefit from speaking with a medical products liability attorney. Filing a lawsuit cannot take away the physical and emotional effects of such a serious infection, but it can help to compensate for the financial costs inevitably incurred by medical expenses and lost wages.