Fay Sherret’s heart operation was supposed to extend her life. Instead, a machine used during the routine elective procedure cut it short.

A serious design flaw , known to the manufacturer, allowed the water tanks in the 3T Heater-Cooler, a device that cooled her blood during the surgery, to fill with Mycobacterium chimaera, a lethal bacterium.

A second flaw, not understood until later, then caused the device to spray the contaminated water as a deadly mist into the chest of the 83-year-old former nurse during her heart valve replacement surgery.

Eighteen months later, Sherret was dead, after the bacteria took hold in her heart and ravaged her…

Read the full article at SMH.COM.AU