That's Parker Schmidt.
He may not look like it
but he is suffering from a mysterious, insidious
and potentially deadly illness.
It's been a ride just really thankful
that I'm still able to be here with my beautiful wife
and two kids and stuff.
In June of 2015, Schmidt had surgery
at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute
to fix a congenitally defective heart valve.
The procedure was a success
but just over a year later things started to go wrong.
I was starting to get some like night sweats and muscle aches.
Doctors suspected an infection
but nothing showed up in blood tests.
He underwent a second emergency heart surgery
that is when doctors finally found the problem.
Schmidt's heart tissue was being attacked
by a mycobacterium called M. chimaera.
It's an incredibly serious infection
and it can be incredibly difficult to treat and to cure.
M. chimaera occurs naturally all around us
in soil, in water but it is incredibly rare for it to infect humans
because it needs a way inside the body.
In Parker Schmidt's case it found one
during his first heart operation.
So, there's a particular machine that is used
in the operating theatres for cardiopulmonary bypass.
It's called a heater-cooler unit.
They're used to regulate the temperature of fluids
during open-heart surgeries.
During the manufacturing and testing process
the units became contaminated with M. chimaera.
You can see some of the biofilm buildup in photo evidence
from a U.S. class action.
The heater-cooler units don't come in contact with the patient during surgery
but on the back of the device there's a fan.
And so that M. chimaera was then aerosolized by the fan
and basically, the fan then blew this air
you know throughout the operating theatre
and basically landed kind of in the open chest of a patient.
Paul Johnson had his heart surgery in October of 2015
M. chimaera spread into his bloodstream, his spleen, his brain, and his spine.
He's had a second heart surgery multiple spinal surgeries but the infection is still there.
If I've woken up and I can't seem to curb the pain
then it's very it's emotionally hard
and you know Kathy has to put up with a lot.
For Johnson, it's now a daily cocktail of antibiotics and narcotics
And questions, so many questions
Just feels like somebody should have known that.
Somebody did know.
The heater-cooler units were made in Germany by a company now called LivaNova.
In January of 2014, a Swiss study found LivaNova's devices
were contaminated with M. chimaera
that it was released into the air during surgery
and that it infected patients.
But LivaNova didn't warn hospitals or healthcare regulators
until six months later.
It took another year after that
before the company issued a safety notice
and it blamed users of the machines for not following
its maintenance and disinfection procedures properly.
Margaret Waddell is counsel
for a Canadian class action lawsuit against LivaNova.
They breached their duty to warn
by underplaying the risks of harms
by saying you're not cleaning the machines properly.
It's not us it's you.
When they found out about the possibility of infection
many hospitals and health regions asked for information
and guidance from Health Canada.
Some said they were having trouble finding labs to test for M. chimaera.
Internal Health Canada emails and documents
show a level of frustration from health care providers
who felt they weren't getting the answers they needed.
Alberta Health Services wrote we are left to decide what to tell patients, future and past.
And are struggling with how to proceed.
This issue has
real potential for placing Albertans and all Canadians at serious risk.
Health Canada certainly in this case was not proactive
in the same way that the FDA was.
As early as October 2015
U.S. regulators said LivaNova devices should be removed from service
if they showed signs of bacterial growth.
FDA inspectors found violations in LivaNova's cleaning and disinfection procedures
at its manufacturing facility in Germany.
By June 2016, the FDA confirmed the link
between the infections and LivaNova's machines
and said patients should be informed of the possibility of infection.
During this entire time the only information available on Health Canada's website
was the original notice sent out by LivaNova.
It did kind of set off some alarm bells
and really you know when we went to Health Canada
to try to figure out exactly what the issues were
we really didn't get a lot of answers.
In a statement, Health Canada said directing health regions
to the manufacturer was necessary to ensure that the manufacturer
could investigate customers concerns and support them
in resolving contamination issues.
LivaNova said it has implemented a device remediation plan
to further mitigate the already low risk of contamination.
The chances of being infected are rare.
Between 0.1 and 1 percent of patients who've undergone open-heart surgery.
That would put the possible number of people infected in Canada
at between eighty and eight hundred.
It was absolutely tragic for me
this was my soul mate.
Sheila Hagan-Bloxham's husband John had surgery in Edmonton in 2016.
The infection spread into his bone marrow.
Two years later he died.
I am very angry.
John was not a person who had a vengeful body, bone in his body
he would not like the idea of being involved in a lawsuit
But he would be adamant that he did not want this to happen to anybody else.
Of the 10 people in Alberta
known to have been infected with M. chimaera through heart surgery
eight have died.
Paul Johnson and Parker Schmidt are the only two still alive.
Both have joined the class action.
You know like we're not wanting the world or anything like that
I can't get approved for life insurance and
like no insurance company will touch me with a 10-foot pole you know
if I were to die tomorrow you know Jill's you know not left with anything really
and our kids aren't left with nothing.
The last of the contaminated LivaNova machines
in Canada was taken out of service four years ago
but it can take five years for symptoms to appear
so there may be others out there like Parker Schmidt
living with this infection, they just don't know it yet.
Aaron Saltzman, CBC News, near Barrhead, Alberta.