The American company Medtronic stops today, Tuesday June 30, the production of insulin pumps which maintain 350 people in life. Sabine Guérin has been implanted for 27 years and created the “Collective of implanted people”. She tells us what stopping production of these pumps actually means for patients.
Sabine Guérin, 49, has been established for 27 years. The resident of Villalier (Aude) is the founder of the Collective of the implanted, whose objective is to defend the interests of the 350 patients, of which 250 are French, who need these internal mini-pumps to survive. As of Tuesday, June 30, the world leader in medical technologies, Medtronic, will cease production of these pumps. Two buyers are in the running but they will not be able to manufacture them before at least 2023. In the meantime, patients, like Sabine Guérin, find themselves without a solution.
What changes from today?
Today marks the final cessation of insulin pump production by Medtronic. For our daily life, it is catastrophic. Since the September meeting, the list of patients in need of equipment has grown. Many implanted people will find themselves in serious situations. Some will suffer from hypoglycemia, which can lead to comas, others from constant hyperglycemia, which is my case. I will be spending my time in the hospital on an IV with very high risk of complications. In the short or medium term it is catastrophic. What Medtronic is doing is unethical. They know that this treatment is vital for us. In addition, it will be expensive for Social Security when we have a treatment that has been proven for 30 years. We will find ourselves on dialysis, blind, amputated… Overnight, we will find ourselves in a catastrophic situation.
What does this mean for your daily life?
Daily life will become very complicated. For example, for someone who has hypoglycemic comas, he can no longer take the car because it becomes very dangerous. For those who suffer from hyperglycemia, like me, this means a lot of fatigue, headaches or very frequent urges to urinate. We spend our days lying in a comatose state. It’s not just for us that it’s going to be complicated, there is also the entourage which is collateral damage. When you have a family life, it’s everyone who lives around who suffers. There are pains that are daily and penalizing. I can no longer go to work. We will be cut off from the social world. Everything becomes an effort. At the time, before the pump, I had repeated hospitalizations, I returned every 15 days to the hospital as if nothing had been done before. The hospital, for me, is a bit like a prison when you have to go there so often. I want to continue to have an active life, to play sports, to see my friends, to spend time with my family.
Is there a significant risk of mortality for implanted patients?
We are 250 patients concerned. There are 80% who cannot go back to conventional treatment. It’s a lot. On mortality, I cannot tell you but very severe complications are possible. Stopping pumps will cause complications for many people. You can die of these complications, go into comas.
What would you like to see this situation improve?
What we want is for Medtronic to prolong the manufacture of the pumps until the next company is able to produce these pumps. At the meeting that took place yesterday [lundi 29 juin, NDLR] at the Directorate General for Health (DGS), two agreements have been signed between Medtronic and Ipadic [la société hollandaise qui se propose de reprendre la production, NDLR]and between Medtronic and Physiologic Devices Inc. [la société américaine sur les rangs pour fabriquer ces pompes, NDLR]. If Medtronic makes a move so that both companies can get the motor that powers our pumps, it will move a lot faster. Knowing that Physiologic Devices Inc. has a little pump which is a gem and they are only missing that motor. They’ve already made 15 and they’re just missing that. It would make it possible to bridge the gap, to get out of this situation.
On the other side, we would like to be more supported by the State, which only gave us news last week to inform us of the holding of yesterday’s meeting. Following this, the only thing that came out of their side was a new meeting in September. The goal for us is not to get into a legal battle, whether against the state or Medtronic. The only thing we want is our pumps. The State has its share of responsibility since even if we are not many, it is still 250 lives and doing nothing is akin to not helping anyone in danger. When I see the state release funds for the health crisis linked to the coronavirus, which is completely normal and logical, and that we have been asking it for help for 3 years and it does nothing, I ask myself questions. If it continues like this, we are heading for a third health crisis.
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