Woman sues Brigham and Women's over way her father died after a heart transplant from bacteria growing in the cardiac-unit water and ice system

A woman whose father died at Brigham and Women's Hospital after a heart transplant in 2017 blames the hospital and the as yet unknown company that made the water-filtration system the hospital used in the cardiac unit where he was supposed to be recovering but instead developed a fatal bacterial infection.

In her suit, filed today in Suffolk Superior Court, Ashley Munroe says she waited so long to sue because, she charges, the hospital only notified her and other family members of the problem with a drug-resistant bacteria, Mycobacterium abscessus, last year - when a team of hospital researchers published an article in a medical journal linking the deaths of three cardiac patients - and serious sickness in a fourth to the bacteria. The report said the likely source was from a water-filtration system that worked as designed to make water and ice more palatable to patients but inadvertently eliminated chlorine in the tap water fed into it, letting the particular bacterium proliferate.

Munroe's lawsuit, which also names specific hospital managers, identifies the manufacturer and maintainer of the filtration system as XYZ Corp., because the hospital has not revealed its name. The hospital says it no longer uses the system and has taken other steps to reduce the odds of a bacterial infection from drinking water and ice, including more frequent checks and cleaning of the machines that process water and ice.

According to the suit, Guy Munroe of Wellesley received a new heart at Brigham and Women's on March 24, 2017, and remained a patient at the hospital's Shapiro Cardiovascular Center until his death on Nov. 9 of that year.

In their study of the source of the infection that killed him, the hospital researchers said he and the other three patients were exposed over months of ingesting water - and in particular ice chips - that originated in the filtration system, which used carbon filters and UV lights to make the water taste better and to purify it, but which also removed all the chlorine in the MWRA/BWSC tap water that fed the system, allowing growth of the mycobacterium.

The researchers focused on the water filtration system after finding little or no mycobacterium contamination in regular taps, sinks and showers. They reported that even though the system was being maintained according to manufacturer specifications, there were "large amounts of biofilm" inside the filters and high counts of the bacteria in samples from the system.

Ashley Munroe blames the hospital and filter company for their "carelessness, negligence, and/or gross negligence," which she said meant her father "was caused to suffer great pain of body and anguish of mind, loss of enjoyment of life, his earning capacity was impaired for long periods of time, and he expended large sums of money for medical care and attendance."

The hospital has until May 29 to file a response.

Complete complaint (2.1M PDF, includes a copy of the medical-journal article and a Globe overview).