Jury awards $7.65 million in damages in fatal KU Med heart surgery infection case
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- A Wyandotte County jury awarded $7.65 million to the wife and son of Stephen Nolte.
- The jury allocated 88% fault to KU Med and 12% to LivaNova.
- Nolte died of Mycobacterium chimaera after a 2019 aortic valve replacement at KU Med.
A Wyandotte County jury on Tuesday awarded $7.65 million in damages to the wife and son of a Raytown man who the family alleged contracted a fatal infection from a contaminated device used during his heart surgery at KU Med.
The jury attributed 88% of the fault to The University of Kansas Hospital Authority and 12% of the fault to LivaNova USA Inc., the medtech company that manufactured the heater-cooler device.
The verdict came after 3 ½ hours of deliberation on the 12th day of the trial in Wyandotte County District Court.
During closing arguments, Lynn Johnson, an attorney for Christine and Christopher Nolte, suggested the jury award $10 million in noneconomic damages and $5 million in economic damages.
“I think we all know that this is a shared responsibility,” Johnson told jurors. “A shared responsibility with the University of Kansas Hospital.”
LivaNova attorney David Gross said the company denied any fault in Nolte’s death, but told jurors if they believed it was necessary for the company to share some responsibility, they could assess 1% fault to LivaNova and 99% percent to The University of Kansas Hospital Authority.
Of the total damages, the jury awarded $3 million for noneconomic loss for the personal injury claim. On the wrongful-death claim, the jury awarded $650,000 for economic loss; $550,000 for future economic loss; $2.7 million for noneconomic loss to date; and $750,000 for future noneconomic loss.
Nolte — a U.S. Navy veteran and retired electrician — underwent an aortic valve replacement at The University of Kansas Hospital on March 6, 2019, and died of Mycobacterium chimaera, or M. chimaera, on July 8, 2020. He was 71.
Family files lawsuit in 2021
Nolte’s widow, Christine, and their son, Christopher, filed a lawsuit in 2021 against The University of Kansas Hospital Authority and LivaNova USA Inc.
The lawsuit alleged wrongful-death and personal injury claims against The University of Kansas Hospital Authority and negligence and product liability claims against LivaNova.
The University of Kansas Hospital Authority settled shortly before the trial, and District Court Judge Courtney Mikesic approved the confidential settlement on April 13, dismissing KU Med as a defendant. According to a court filing, no admission of liability was made.
Nolte’s case is among more than two dozen lawsuits filed in Wyandotte County District Court against The University of Kansas Hospital Authority and LivaNova.
The lawsuits allege that 25 patients at The University of Kansas Hospital contracted the M. chimaera infection after undergoing open-heart surgery involving heater-cooler devices 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. About 17 of the cases have resulted in confidential settlements with The University of Kansas Hospital Authority, court filings show.
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 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.
Testimony during the trial showed that in June 2017, five new “loaner” heater-cooler devices were delivered to KU Med to replace its older ones after contamination issues surfaced.
The Food and Drug Administration said M. chimaera infections from the devices were rare and hard to detect because a patient may not develop symptoms for years. But the safety agency said the devices were important for patient care and that their benefits outweighed the risks of infection transmission. The FDA also said that hospitals should continue to strictly adhere to maintenance and disinfection procedures.
From July 1, 2017, through Oct. 16, 2018, KU Med carefully followed the cleaning instructions. And during that period, there were no confirmed cases of M. chimaera infections from open-heart surgeries.
KU Med stops disinfecting heater-cooler devices
But on Oct. 16, 2018, the hospital’s chief perfusionist, Jamie Newberry, decided to stop disinfecting the heater-cooler devices with bleach every two weeks and putting hydrogen peroxide in the water tanks — instructions LivaNova had said should be strictly adhered to. Instead, he directed the staff to drain the water tanks every day.
After the hospital stopped disinfecting the units, it saw an outbreak of M. chimaera infections. Nolte’s was among them. At the time of Nolte’s March 2019 surgery, the heater-cooler unit hadn’t been disinfected in five months.
During closing arguments, Johnson told jurors that the lack of disinfection, along with LivaNova’s defective manufacturing process and machine design and the company’s failure to install a vacuum seal upgrade in the five new loaner units it gave KU Med, all led to an outbreak of M. chimaera among 29 patients who underwent cardiothoracic surgery.
Johnson said the patients who contracted M. chimaera “had one and only one thing in common.”
A LivaNova heater-cooler device was in the operating room of every one, he said. No alternative point source of M. chimaera in cardiothoracic patients has ever been confirmed, he said.
Johnson said the problem stems from what he called LivaNova’s unique design, which allows the bacteria to go into the heater-cooler’s upper chamber, where it then is vented by a fan into the operating room.
Johnson also reminded jurors of testimony that the machines were contaminated with M. chimaera at LivaNova’s plant in Germany during the manufacturing process — something LivaNova denied. LivaNova’s suggestion that the bacteria could have come from the water at The University of Kansas Hospital, Johnson said, was flat-out wrong.
“Despite the innuendos, there has never been M. chimaera found in the water supply at KU,” he said.
While there is no question that KU Med is at fault for failing to disinfect the heater-cooler devices, Johnson said, LivaNova should have ensured that the hospital was strictly following its instructions for use, which would have reduced the risk of bacteria spreading.
Johnson said the failures cost Stephen Nolte his life.
“He went through hell,” Johnson said. “He went through hell, and it was well described by Christine. Christine probably could have talked for hours about what Steve went through.”
Johnson said Nolte’s heart surgery was a success.
“He was doing well until the disseminated M. chimaera started eating away at his organs,” he said.
By the time Nolte’s blood tests confirmed he had M. chimaera, “It was too late,” Johnson said. “He was already in hospice.”
Johnson said the suggested economic damages of $5 million were for items including loss of earnings, loss of marital care and loss of guidance. The $10 million in noneconomic damages were for issues including pain and suffering and mental anguish.
Of Nolte’s wife and son, Johnson said, “They want to see all parties (that are) responsible, held responsible.”
LivaNova says all fault lies with KU Med
LivaNova attorney Gross told jurors that the case was “exceptionally important” because the heater-cooler devices are life-saving machines. He said the company worked with the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so the surgeries could be continued.
Gross said the Noltes hadn’t provided enough evidence to support their claims against LivaNova.
“There is a failure of proof,” he said.
When the contamination issue arose, Gross said, “the risk was rare.”
He said the FDA and CDC repeatedly said the benefits outweighed the risks, but that the users must strictly adhere to the cleaning instructions.
“Everyone understood it’s reasonably safe, but you’ve got to clean,” he said.
The fault, Gross said, lies with KU Med. When the hospital followed the cleaning instructions, there were no infections. But after Newberry made the decision to stop disinfecting and merely drain the water tanks daily, Gross said, “29 infections arose at the hospital.”
“This was the sole cause of the outbreak,” he said.
Gross told jurors that “it is completely from outer space” that a chief perfusionist at a highly respected hospital would stop disinfecting the devices. He referred to the action as “a bacterial experiment.”
Gross also said there was no evidence that the machine used in Nolte’s surgery was contaminated with M. chimaera or that it was contaminated at the production plant. And he said the plaintiffs hadn’t ruled out KU Med as an infection source.
The hospital had multiple incidents involving expired ice machine filters, he said, and in one case, a patient who had undergone shoulder surgery and was not exposed to a heater-cooler device contracted M. chimaera.
“All of this suggests a need to rule out the hospital,” Gross said. “And they didn’t.”
He said that while “talking about damages is really, really sensitive,” the plaintiffs’ numbers “are grossly inflated.”
Nolte’s medical records showed he had “extensive” medical problems well before his heart valve surgery, Gross said, adding that “in Kansas, you don’t get money for problems that existed before the surgery.”
Nolte “died with M. chimaera,” he said, “not from M. chimaera.”
This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 7:57 PM.
