Across America, patients are being harmed by a device intended to protect them but instead infecting them. That device may be a “Bair Hugger” (not a “bear hugger” or “bar hugger”), a hot-air warming blanket used for anesthetized surgical patients to control body temperature and avoid hypothermia, or abnormally low body temperature.
Such devices force warm air via a hose into a blanket placed on top of the patient. But in doing so, they can cause infections to arise by blowing air that’s been contaminated with germs and bacteria into the open surgical wounds of the patient beneath the blanket.
Such infection dangers are exceptionally dire for patients who are having hip replacement surgery or knee replacement surgery, or who are having heart surgery for implanting artificial valves.
Anesthesia & Analgesia, published by the International Anesthesia Research Society, has reported that while patient warming “has become a standard of care for the prevention of unintentional hypothermia” during surgery, such devices “release excess heat that may disrupt the intended ceiling-to-floor ventilation airflows and expose the surgical site to added contamination.”
In other words, forced-air warming devices can move air from nonsterile areas into the surgical site, thus causing an infection.
Another study conducted by orthopedic surgeons and published in Bone and Joint Journal showed a increased dangers of implant surgery infection via airborne contaminants perhaps delivered by a Bair Hugger device employed to warm patients.
3M subsidiary Arizant raised airflow safety concerns significant enough to convince the firm to begin accepting contaminated joint claims.
Bair Hugger Lawsuit May Be Needed
Already, such infections are leading to severe injuries. Corresponding Bair Hugger lawsuits may be needed after that device was used. These can be filed against Arizant Healthcare Inc., an arm of 3M, which is the manufacturer of the device.
Arizant is based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, which is a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Timothy Johnson had to have his leg amputated when it became infected during knee replacement surgery in 2010 at the University of Kansas Hospital. A Bair Hugger was applied to Johnson during surgery, and it created “warm, rising air-flow currents” that placed bacteria from the surgical room floor on the surgical site, his lawsuit contended.
As a result, Johnson’s leg became infected, and antibiotics could not stop it, forcing amputation of his leg.
Get Free Legal Advice
If someone in your family suffered deep joint infection contamination of germs or bacteria during joint replacement surgery for a knee or hip, notify the Willis Law Firm immediately for a free legal evaluation of your case. Infected joint replacements in patients who had a warming device such as the Bair Hugger applied during surgery may spur an injury lawsuit to claim financial compensation.
Such deep knee infections or hip replacement surgery can require multiple surgeries — sometime called “revision surgeries” — to remove the infection, perhaps by removing the joint itself. Eventually, these infections even may necessitate amputation of a limb.
A patient’s horrible costs for such an injury due to a defective medical device are the responsibility of the manufacturer. Victims can claim economic recovery by means of an injury lawsuit.
Notify the Willis Law Firm today and get your free case review. Let us help you claim payments — and justice — for your surgery infection.