I have a daughter with type 1 diabetes, which means her pancreas no longer functions and she requires insulin on a continuous basis. Her insulin pump is her lifeline, a necessary component in her health management. She currently has an Animas Ping, Animas is no longer in the insulin pump business and all Animas customers were taken on by their competitor, Medtronic. It’s in that corporate shuffle that Medtronic is failing its insulin pump customers.
A year and a half ago my daughter started having problems with her insulin pump, although we didn’t know it at the time. She was away at college, trying to manage on her own, and she started having more and more frequent highs that became uncontrollable. By the time we knew the full scope of her health, she was so sick we had to withdraw her for the semester. Shortly thereafter, we were notified that the Animas Ping had a recall due to issues with cracks and leaking, resulting in inaccurate dosing and unexplained highs.
Because of a known issue with the Animas Ping, my daughter had to withdraw from a semester of college, costing her time and money, as well as putting her health at risk.
A replacement pump was sent out, a refurbished model – we thought they were sending a new pump, not a refurbished one. This worked fine for several months, then problems started to arise. The battery would die without warning, several times this happened in the middle of the night so she’d wake up with high blood sugars. It wasn’t dosing correctly, a couple of times causing extremely precipitous lows, including one time overnight when emergency services had to be called. It also wouldn’t hold its prime.
Even given this, Medtronic did not want to send a warranty replacement. Finally they relented, another refurbished Animas Ping was sent. At first things seemed great, a huge weight was lifted and my daughter felt like she could focus on college and just living life again. But only a few weeks later we started seeing familiar patterns. The battery failed without warning, so we changed it out and it happened again only 10 days later, again with no warning. Then there was delayed dosing, it sometimes takes over an hour for it to bolus, resulting in severe highs and a difficulty in managing her health ongoing.
That’s where we are right now and Medtronic has no interest in helping. They are the ones responsible for supporting the warranty, but because the Animas Ping is no longer in production, all they will send out is another dubious refurbished model.
It is clear that the Animas Ping has run its course. The product no longer exists and the technology is no longer being developed. The warranty replacements sent have been REFURBISHED models.
The problems with Animas Ping have cost my daughter a semester of college, numerous sleepless nights, a multitude of hours managing her pump malfunctions, and put her health and life at risk. High blood sugars over time cause organ damage and extreme highs or lows can result in death. These erratic blood sugars are happening SIMPLY DUE TO A FAILING TECHNOLOGY and Medtronic’s LACK OF INTEREST in fulfilling the warranty responsibilities that they took on. This makes us question Medtronic’s future product commitments as well.
It is our contention that, because Animas is no longer in business, product support is limited and warranty replacements are with refurbished models of this aged technology, that as the legally responsible party, Medtronic has a duty to replace this pump under the warranty with a NEW product that is completely functioning.
My daughter’s life hangs in the balance.
I am looking at what actions to take next. If you are having problems with support for an Animas pump, please contact me and let’s see what we can do together. Our health demands it.
2 Comments
I’ve been going through the same thing for the last year or so. For the last few months I’ve tried to obtain a new pump, hopefully the 670G w/CGM. Last week my Ping finally died, landing me at the doctor’s office feeling like death warmed over. My nurse practitioner literally had to call & complain to Minimed, not too pleasantly, I must add. They overnighted a 670G to me (for $1299.00) but without any CGM, infusion sets or reservoirs that match it. Thank Goodness my FNP has some supplies on hand. It’s been months of unreturned phone calls and missed deadlines. Minimed provided my original pump over 20 years ago & at that time had impeccable customer service. It is such a shame how they don’t seem to care about the customer anymore, but only the money they can make. The Ping’s warranty is useless at this point & it’s just providing Minimed with a way to make a lot of money.
I’m so sorry you are dealing with this – it’s really awful. This is important equipment! I was told that Medtronic was going to work on better warranty options for those with failed Animas Pings, since they only have refurbished units left (we tried 3 refurbished ones, they all failed). It sounds like they weren’t being honest with me – Surprise! We switched to the Omnipod with our Dexcom, Omnipod’s been awesome! I hope you find a good solution, stay healthy!