Pasadena’s Huntington Hospital has sent letters to all patients having open heart surgery in the last four years warning them that they may have been infected with a dangerous bacteria.
The hospital is one of many across the country using a device that has been linked to dozens of infections in heart surgery patients, including some who died.
Federal health officials have estimated that the risk of getting an infection from the device is very low — between about 1 in 100 and 1 in 1,000.
Huntington officials said Friday that they had not yet found a patient who was sickened. They said they sent the letters on the advice of federal health officials, who have urged hospitals using the device to inform all patients at risk.
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