Pump gone bust

Seacrow

Well-Known Member
Messages
496
Type of diabetes
LADA
I've been getting on really well with my pump (Medtronic 640), got the basal sorted, figured out what sort of carb:insulin ratio I need. Actually reduced the insulin I need by about 50%.

Yesterday morning, 3am, pump alarm beeped. Eventually I rolled over and found my glasses, "critical pump error" displayed. That time in the morning I pressed OK, removed infusion set and went back to sleep. At 4 am I gave up. THREE different alarm beep types and vibration alarm gave me no choice. I called the helpline, who were helpful, took my details and said they'd send a replacement. About halfway through the call I realised I was talking to someone in America. After I finished the call, I realised I don't know if the pump is being sent from America, or they have a UK/Europe storehouse.

Anyone have any idea how long/ where it's coming from? I'm fairly sure it's coming to my home address, because she offered to send it to my hospital which I declined.

Oh yeah, and I had to hold down the back button for FIFTEEN minutes to get the !#?£@# thing to shut up, after removing the battery.
 

Juicyj

Expert
Retired Moderator
Messages
9,016
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Dislikes
Hypos, rude people, ignorance and grey days.
Hello @Seacrow yes that’s happened to me too :banghead: the replacement came the next day though - customer service at Medtronic is excellent so have no worries there :)
 

Saffron26

Member
Messages
16
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi Seacrow, I have had 2 replacements from Medtronic, both came the next day and as Juicyj said, customer service at Medtronic is excellent.
If you call outside the UK office hours, the call is answered by the US office but the service is still great!
 

dancer

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,360
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
If your pump still hasn't arrived, call Medtronic.
I've only had to call them out of hours once and the girl I spoke to was rather vague about when the replacement pump would arrive. She said "maybe 2 days" which I thought was nonsense, considering what's happened with previous problems. I phoned Medtronic UK the following day and they had a pump delivered within 6 hours (I'm in Scotland).

Phone Medtronic to find out for sure what's happening.
 
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Seacrow

Well-Known Member
Messages
496
Type of diabetes
LADA
Oooh boy. I called the helpline again, and got the most useless specimen I've ever come across. I must have caught the UK/US switchover time wrong. I was trying to find out where my new pump was, and every answer I got, to multiple questions was 'I'm in America. I don't know". (Including 'is there a local Medtronic centre in the UK?')

So ok, I tried the e-mail form on the UK page. Almost immediate return e-mail gave me a phone number to ring, and that produced a promise of a pump delivered to my home address within six hours. If it comes (4hours left!), I will be seriously impressed.
 

Seacrow

Well-Known Member
Messages
496
Type of diabetes
LADA
Oh well, eight hours later and no pump. I thought it might be a bit too good to be true. Hopefully Saturday morning counts as business hours so when I ring tomorrow I don't get put through to the american phone staff.

It's beginning to be a bit urgent though, I've got insulin in vials for meal boluses, but I've got nothing for basal. I can keep the bg to reasonable numbers by 'over-bolusing' but I'm beginning to feel really weird. A bit fuzzy headed, and moving takes a real effort. I thought of getting a GP appointment (for a temp basal insulin prescription), but there weren't any available today. Not open tomorrow. Can a pharmacist prescribe an insulin, does anyone know?
 

Seacrow

Well-Known Member
Messages
496
Type of diabetes
LADA
Wow, cancel all that. Just had a phone call from the courier, he expects to be here in about an hour!!! (They work until 10pm????).

Yippee.
 
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