Our hospital purchased two cardioquip mch-1000(i) heater/cooler machines to use in our cardiac surgery practice.We have been having consistent issues with malfunctions of the machines since purchase.On (b)(6) 2021, both of the machines malfunctioned.One of the malfunctions was that the control screen froze and we were no longer able to control it.This happened while we were on cardiopulmonary bypass.They machine had to be restarted several times before it would work again.During the startup process, the heater/cooler machine dropped the temperature of our bypass circuit to 25 c which could of caused cardiac fibrillation among other potential issues.I believe the temperature drop is part of the startup process of the machine which i was unaware of at the time.However, the initial freezing of the control screen is what caused the need to restart.The control screen froze again shortly after and we were again unable to control patient temperature.Fortunately, we were able to finish the procedure without harm but we came dangerously close.We have had multiple malfunctions of the machine in the one year that we have owned it and the company has been unable to find the source of the problems.Previous malfunctions have occurred and patient harm was averted only due to clinician vigilance and intervention.The machines have failed on several occasions to circulate cold water through the cardioplegia channel which is used to control the temperature of the patient's heart.The machine has also failed to maintain a stable set point on the hot water tank which is used to control the patient's body temperature.Fda safety report id # (b)(4).
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