Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/02/02/561-deaths-tied-to-recalled-philips-sleep-apnea-machines.html
…
3 Likes
CPAP user here. It’s not just the deaths, many more people are permanently disabled as if they’d been smoking for 40 years.
ProPublica and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette teamed up on a documentary showing the real people who were affected (those that survived anyway):
Philips exiting the market also leaves Resmed with a monopoly on the medical-grade machines in the US. Expect prices to double because hey, 'merica can always use less regulation.
19 Likes
Yikes. I’m trying to get on a waiting list for a CPAP machine; but I’ll be getting mine though the NHS, so, hopefully they have done some safety testing.
12 Likes
“show Philips suppressed mounting evidence that its profitable breathing machines threatened the health of the people relying on them”
I’m not holding out much hope; but it would be really nice if someone on the regulatory side ends up doing some veil-piercing.
“Philips” didn’t suppress evidence. Specific people did; with the sort of cold-blooded indifference to the consequences that you’d really want to see them put away for.
12 Likes
I don’t know man… but maybe instead of coming in all hostile, you can helpfully point out the problem, maybe with an @ to someone who can do something about it, like @beschizza? 
I don’t understand how you think posting a hostile comment about a grammar issue (or whatever the issue was, I don’t know, since you declined to point out any specifics) will help anyone fix it?
Shit happens, man, we’re all human and we make mistakes, and given the amount of just awful shit happening the world, maybe we can save a bit of grace for people not being entire perfect all the fucking time on the internet when it’s not something that is life or death?
17 Likes
Minor fix needed, I believe.
Philips-brand CPAP machines, supposed to help sleep apnea machines breath patients breathe at night, was instead killing them.
9 Likes
This part too:
would break down over time break free and be send into the user’s body.
4 Likes
Don’t understand why that’s so difficult for some people to do, if they notice a mistake?
8 Likes
Yep. And we got here because Philips undercut everyone for decades to consolidate the market. This isn’t just a regulatory failure, it’s a failure to enforce anti-trust laws.
13 Likes
12 Likes
Working in the medical product field, I had a former company purchase another company out of near bankruptcy as they decided to “leave the market”…mainly because their product was causing a lot of harm. They’re not leaving the market because there isn’t one, or everything is all butterflies and rainbows; it’s because it’s costing them more to be in it (because it’s not safe).
I have a CPAP but I don’t use it - I can’t handle the airflow (Resmed, so I guess that’s ok) but I do know people who all but depend on this thing to keep them alive while sleeping. This is just shockingly scary to read about.
7 Likes
When people are polled about how they would like to die, most people say “I would like to go peacefully in my sleep.” Now Philips is actually delivering on that dream and people are all getting upset about it!
/s
7 Likes
the FDA about this;
The polyester-based polyurethane (PE-PUR) foam used in these devices to reduce sound and vibration can break down
are you fucking shitting me? because philips used cheap pu-foam instead of, say, rubber for noise-reduction, possible thousands were killed? jfc.
6 Likes
The invisible hand of the market, smothering you in your sleep.
Though there’s the terrible possibility that it’s correct and the machines people use to help them breathe also need help to breathe. It’s definitely a metaphor for our crapsack present.
4 Likes
and while that failure isn’t responsible for all the ills of the US, it’s a contributing effect in a huge swathe of them.
5 Likes
Resmed doesn’t seem to (yet) be gouging.
I picked up a backup Resmed 10 AirSense for $200 on a black friday sale last fall (Best Slick Deals find ever.)
2 Likes
I snore. If I need a CPAP machine, my choices are pay what the market will bear, get a substandard machine that may harm me, or tough it out? 
5 Likes
This is a sad example of what microplastics and nanoplastics can do to living things.
Normally it’s not us; it’s a bunch of fish, birds, insects, etc., that suffer and die from these pollutants. This tragedy helps spotlight that we’re no more immune than any other animals.
That the death count is higher is the result of capitalism will hopefully put extra attention on that as a second problem.
1 Like
