KU Med reaches settlement agreement in lawsuit over heart surgery device
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- KU Hospital Authority settles a wrongful-death suit over a heater‑cooler device.
- More than two dozen lawsuits have alleged M. chimaera infections; 16 settled.
- LivaNova remains a defendant; court denied its motion to unseal KU settlement agreement.
With a lengthy trial looming, The University of Kansas Hospital Authority has reached a settlement agreement in a wrongful-death lawsuit that alleges a contaminated device used during an open-heart surgery led to a fatal infection in a patient.
The confidential agreement was confirmed in court documents and during a hearing Wednesday in Wyandotte County District Court.
“Plaintiffs and UKHA have reached a settlement in this matter, as set forth in a Settlement Agreement and Release,” said a motion filed on Tuesday. “Plaintiffs have agreed to dismiss all claims against Defendant UKHA with prejudice pursuant to the terms of the Agreement. No admission of liability is made.”
Dismissing a case with prejudice means it is permanently closed and can’t be refiled.
The lawsuit was filed in 2021 by Christine Nolte, the wife of Stephen Nolte of Raytown, and their son, Christopher. In addition to the claims against The University of Kansas Hospital Authority, the Noltes allege negligence and product liability claims against LivaNova USA Inc., the company that manufactured the contaminated heater-cooler device.
A heater-cooler device contains pumps that circulate water during bypass procedures to regulate a patient’s temperature.
The units are used in conjunction with a heart-lung machine, which takes over the function of the heart and lungs during heart surgery. Studies found that in contaminated heater-cooler devices, the aerosolized vapor is pushed out of the water tanks by exhaust fans, spreading bacteria through the air in the operating room. That bacteria can then enter a patient’s open cavity, leading to infection.
Lynn Johnson and Matt Birch, attorneys with the Shamberg, Johnson & Bergman law firm in Kansas City, which is representing plaintiffs in eight ongoing infection cases in Wyandotte County District Court, declined to comment on the settlement agreement.
Jill Chadwick, spokeswoman for The University of Kansas Health System, said in an email that “we are not able to comment on this litigation.”
LivaNova remains a defendant in the Nolte case, with the trial scheduled to start on Monday.
More than 2 dozen lawsuits filed
The case is among the more than two dozen lawsuits that The Star reported last month have been filed in Wyandotte County District Court against The University of Kansas Hospital Authority and LivaNova. The Star found 31 lawsuits alleging that 25 patients at The University of Kansas Hospital contracted the infection — which is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium chimaera, or M. chimaera — after undergoing open-heart surgery involving a heater-cooler device that hadn’t been properly disinfected.
In those cases, 11 of the patients died and others are living with life-altering health problems, according to the lawsuits. Sixteen of the cases have resulted in confidential settlements with The University of Kansas Hospital Authority, court filings say.
An additional lawsuit was filed in January in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, against LivaNova and an employee at The University of Kansas Hospital called a perfusionist, who was in charge of the heater-cooler device during the surgery of a patient who later died.
A Navy veteran with “a love for the water”
Stephen Nolte grew up in Raytown and attended the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, according to his obituary. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1970 “and while home on his 30 day leave married his true love, Christine Elizabeth Stover,” the obituary says.
After receiving an honorable discharge in 1972, Nolte returned to Raytown to begin a career as an electrician. The couple’s only child, Christopher, was born in 1987.
Nolte underwent an aortic valve replacement at The University of Kansas Hospital on March 6, 2019, the lawsuit says. It alleges the heater-cooler device used in his surgery was contaminated with M. chimaera when it was loaned to and installed at the hospital on June 28, 2017.
The hospital failed to follow “the specific recommendations to minimize or eliminate the unreasonable risk of airborne transmission” of M. chimaera through the heater-cooler device used during Nolte’s surgery, the lawsuit says.
“As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ conduct,” it says, “Stephen W. Nolte developed disseminated M. chimaera infection causing him to endure pain, suffering, disability, mental anguish and the loss of enjoyment of life from fatigue, lethargy, liver disease, cirrhosis of the liver, acute kidney injury, pancytopenia, thyroiditis, shortness of breath, heart failure, sepsis, encephalopathy, and chorioretinitis” from the day of his surgery to his death.
Nolte died on July 8, 2020, at Kansas City Hospice House.
“Stephen’s greatest enjoyment was time with family and coaching his son’s various soccer teams,” his obituary says. “His years in the Navy gave him a love for the water which never went away.”
A flurry of last-minute court filings
In the past week alone, more than 1,000 pages of motions have been filed in the Nolte case.
Among them was a motion by LivaNova asking the court to compel the plaintiffs to produce the recent settlement agreement with The University of Kansas Hospital Authority.
The motion says that “the settlement agreement corroborates LivaNova’s position that if there is any liability in this case, UKHA is at fault or at least partially at fault.”
The court took up the issue at Wednesday’s hearing. Tim Grimsrud, a LivaNova attorney, said they were offered a copy of the settlement agreement, but with the numbers redacted. He argued that the monetary amounts could be relevant in showing comparative fault when two parties have been sued.
District Court Judge Courtney Mikesic noted that “KU has always stated that they are denying any negligence in this case.”
Both the plaintiffs’ attorneys and an attorney for The University of Kansas Hospital Authority strongly opposed the motion.
“We object to any production of the agreement,” said Perry Brandt, who was at the hearing on behalf of The University of Kansas Hospital Authority. “It was all bargained for, and confidentiality was one of those terms.
“I can’t think of any reason this would be relevant … It’s off limits.”
Birch said that “at this point, there is no possibility of any relevant evidence being generated by disclosure of the amount being paid by UKHA.”
Grimsrud commented that there appeared to be cooperation between the plaintiffs’ attorneys and the KU attorneys. That irked Brandt and Birch.
“There is no collusion going on here of any kind,” Brandt said.
Mikesic denied LivaNova’s motion to compel the release of the settlement agreement.
The hearing provided no indication that LivaNova might be considering a settlement.
In a statement to The Star last month, LivaNova said that “the Company stands firmly behind the 3T™ Heater-Cooler device, having worked closely with global regulators to mitigate risk and ensure continued clinician access to this critical technology for lifesaving cardiac surgery.”
“While we do not comment on the specifics of ongoing litigation,” it said, “we are vigorously defending the product and company actions in these cases.”
This story was originally published April 10, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline "KU Med reaches settlement agreement in lawsuit over heart surgery device."
