Catherine is 76 years old, she lives in Bordeaux and suffers from sleep apnea. As part of her treatment, validated following a medical diagnosis, she benefits from a contract with a service provider who rents her a breathing machine at night. Or a CPAP (continuous positive pressure) device that she plugs in every night when she goes to bed. Alas, the savior of his nights is one of the Philips devices singled out due to a design problem. It might be dangerous for his health. An evil for an evil.
“I have been fitted since 2012, and I have benefited from this Philips CPAP machine since 2016. I use it 8 hours a day, she begins in a strangled voice. A priori I was very happy with it, the first night with my machine, I finally slept and I woke up rested. My chronic fatigue is gone. In short, I learned 10 days ago from the news on TV that there were risks and immediately I was informed on the Philips site, I entered the references of my machine, and received an automatic email , confirming that it was defective. Last week, I received an email from my service provider to alert me to the situation, I called: number busy. »
Catherine immediately sent them a registered letter and joined a Facebook group of users like her. “I am worried, angry and relieved at the same time. Since last summer, I suffered from funny symptoms, I consulted my doctor three times, without ever finding the right treatment. Shortness of breath, headaches on waking and above all impressive crusts every morning in the nose, a crack at the bottom of the nostril, a cough of permanent irritation. All examinations have been carried out, including Covid. Without giving anything. Antibiotics, cortisone creams, nothing. And in fact, that was it! »
Since June 2021
Back to the case. On June 10, 2021, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) was informed by Philips of its desire to withdraw certain mechanical ventilation and continuous positive pressure (CPAP) devices worldwide, following the identification of a soundproofing foam design problem, source of adverse effects and potential carcinogenic risks. 5 million machines in the world are concerned, therefore as many patients, and in France, 370,000 devices in operation will be recalled. And so many patients. Including Catherine, who, like her French counterparts, was not informed.
Stopping treatment presents a proven short-term risk
On June 18, 2021, the ANSM launched an appeal indicating that “patients equipped with a Philips ventilator will be contacted by their home care provider to organize the change or repair of the equipment”. Whoops. Catherine and her companions will wait… winter 2021-2022 to be informed by the media. Undoubtedly, is the famous French bureaucratic slowness at the origin of this delay? In short, on February 11, the same ANSM denounced the laziness of the Philips company with regard to the replacement of defective devices: “The replacement plan for all the devices concerned announced by the manufacturer has made very little progress. Thus in mid-February, the Philips Respironics company replaced only 7% of defective devices. By the way, theANSM tells patients what to do. “In consultation with health professionals, we recall that stopping treatment presents a proven short-term risk, increased cardiovascular risk or worsening respiratory failure. According to the first data available, the risk of cancer associated with the use of these ventilators is not proven. »