The Montreal Heart Institute has filed a $345,000 lawsuit against the company that sold it a piece of medical equipment which resulted in a major health scare two years ago.
In 2016, the hospital had to contact about 8000 people who had undergone open-heart surgery to inform them that they were at risk of contracting a potentially fatal infection ( Mycobacterium chimaera ) because of a design fault with a heater-cooler machine that is used to regulate a patient’s body temperature during surgery.
The Journal de Montreal says the suit alleges the company that manufacturers the device, Livanova Canada, should have known about the defect.
The hospital says it launched the lawsuit to recover the cost of managing the patient follow-up, implementing new procedures for the machines which eventually proved ineffective and the purchase of a new heater-cooler.
The suit claims $200,000 has already been spent as a result of the problem and anticipates at least another ten years of associated costs.