Patients May Have Picked Up A Deadly Bug From Contaminated Medical Equipment

Product liability experts at law firm Irwin Mitchell call for urgent measures to recall medical equipment used in open heart surgery which is putting the lives of patients at risk. The machinery is reported to have been contaminated causing nearly 50,000 patients to carry a deadly bug.

The alert, which could affect up to 47,000 patients, follows the deaths of at least 15 patients from the deadly Mycobacterium chimaera, while another nine are reported to be fighting for their lives.

Health officials are preparing to write to patients who have undergone heart valve operations since January 2013 who may be at risk of infection, with a list of symptoms and advise to see their GP if they are concerned. 

The medical equipment at the source of the infection is a machine used to heat and cool blood when circulated outside of the body during heart surgery. Mycobacterium can develop in heater-cooler units if they are not thoroughly sterilised, and can then be dispersed in tiny water droplets landing on any exposed tissue. 

Almost all known cases involve patients who have undergone heart valve replacement or repair. Public Health England have confirmed twenty-six people who had operations between 2007-2015, and that 15 have died, nine are still ill, and just two have recovered. 

Manufacturers of the machine thought to have posed the risk, Sorin 3T, said it introduced a revised disinfection process for new machines in August 2014.

Sallie Booth, expert product liability lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, who has been instructed by a family to investigate the Sorin medical equipment used, said: 

Expert Opinion

“The potential scale of this problem is only now emerging; and on a piecemeal basis even though it appears that the manufacturers of the equipment and the health professionals have much more data available to themselves than they have so far chosen to make public.

“Patients who already have to cope with the stress of managing serious heart problems are being exposed to an even more deadly health risk.”

Sallie Booth - Partner

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