A jury has awarded nearly $8 million in damages to the family of a US Navy veteran who died from a rare infection following open-heart surgery at a Kansas hospital. The lawsuit, filed in 2021 by the family of Stephen Nolte, named the University of Kansas Hospital Authority and medical device company LivaNova as defendants. The infection, Mycobacterium chimaera, is commonly contracted after heart surgeries from contaminated heater-cooler units, which are used during bypass procedures to regulate a patient's temperature.
During the trial, LivaNova argued that if hospital staff had followed proper cleaning instructions, patients would not have contracted the infections. The University of Kansas Medical Center (KU Med) settled with the Nolte family before the trial. The jury attributed 88 percent of the fault to KU Med and 12 percent to LivaNova, which paid the Nolte family $918,000. Neither defendant admitted liability.
Lynn Johnson, the Nolte family's attorney, argued that KU Med's chief perfusionist, Jamie Newberry, stopped disinfecting the heater-cooler devices as recommended. Instead of bleaching the devices every two weeks and adding hydrogen peroxide to the water tanks, Newberry directed staff to drain the tanks daily. The hospital saw an uptick in infections after staff stopped bleaching the units in October 2018. Nolte's surgery was in March 2019. Johnson said the policy change resulted in 29 infections, with all patients having the device in the operating room.
The plaintiffs accused KU Med of failing to properly disinfect the units and argued that LivaNova had a responsibility to ensure the hospital followed proper instructions. Nolte's family argued that the failure caused his death. Johnson described the veteran's suffering: 'He was doing well until the disseminated M chimaera started eating away at his organs.' By the time blood tests confirmed the infection, Nolte was already in hospice care.
Nolte's wife, Christine, testified that doctors struggled to diagnose her husband's condition after his procedure. They received a letter from the hospital in April 2020 informing them of the M chimaera outbreak. Nolte died on July 8, 2020, at age 71. She said she pushed doctors about his health problems, but they attributed them to his thyroid, kidneys, or liver. Nolte's son, Christopher, testified: 'Every day it was a new diagnosis. It was very frustrating.' By the time tests confirmed the infection, it had spread to his brain, and antibiotics could not help. Christopher said his father 'felt amazing' after surgery and seemed to have 'a new lease on life,' but watching him 'wither away' was very difficult.
KU Med and LivaNova's lawyers argued that Nolte's sole cause of death was not M chimaera and that the contamination risk was rare. LivaNova's attorney, David Gross, argued that Nolte had 'extensive' medical problems and died 'with M chimaera,' not from it. Dr. Edward Dominguez, medical director of Organ Transplant Infectious Diseases at Methodist Health System, testified that after examining Nolte's records, he did not believe M chimaera contributed to his death.
As of now, there are 27 cases filed in Wyandotte County Court against KU Med and LivaNova from 2020 to 2025, most filed in 2021. The Daily Mail has reached out to lawyers for the family, KU Med, and LivaNova for comment.
