No. The lithium battery is working as designed but the pump designers have created an unsafe design by using lithium and not engineering around its cliff-edge voltage function.I'm assuming the warning is based on voltage from the battery, so if that is the case, then it's the discharge cycle of the battery that is the issue, not the pump.
I should not need to check a vital medical device by inspection every night before I go to bed to see if it's going to fail. This is why it has an ALARM of impending failure and I would very much expect that its FDA approval as a medical device depends on it emitting this alarm. The alarm is useless if it occurs during sleep with insufficient time to deal with the alarm before waking, and the device then completely fails, losing pump basal as well as CGM function, without even repeating the alarm.
If I was NICE, in addition to the patient safety risk, I would be ****** off that the workaround is to throw away very expensive batteries at the first sign of depletion, rather than using them through their useful life.
One alarm in the middle of the night, followed by no further alarms followed by total failure of functionality is not acceptable.
If you had a car where the fuel warning light flashed once, and an hour later the car just ran out of fuel, would you say "well keep checking the gauge"? Of course not. You'd report the car to the manufacturer as faulty.
What about times like mine last night? It was showing full battery on the screen when I went to bed, next thing the alarm sounded?As to needing to sleep perhaps think like a female and check your battery status before you go to bed.
It would be unacceptable to have to check the tubing in my sleep, and if that was required, the device never would have received approval for use as a consumer medical device.So are you saying then that is totally unacceptable to have to check the tubing of your pump twice a day to make sure there are no bubbles? I ask this question because checking the battery is exactly the same principle. Simple safety checks like this take less than 30 seconds of your time and can save you a sleepless night or DKA. Why is the alarm useless, it takes less than 3 mins to change the battery whether it be day or night. Loss of CGM! that lasts the same amount of time as the battery is out/removed.
Simple solution though for the battery is check and change it if needed before a meal so no IOB is missing.
I've been pumping for over 7 years and have never had any of the problems you have described in your very short pumping experience.
You seem to agree that the battery alarm is ineffective and a manual daily check as a workaround is needed. I agree. I think that is poor design. I suspect the manufacturer put the (ineffective) battery alarm on the pump in order to gain consumer medical device approval. You are right to highlight the risk of DKA. It's the only elevated risk (vs MDI) with a pump. And it's a very serious one.So are you saying then that is totally unacceptable to have to check the tubing of your pump twice a day to make sure there are no bubbles? I ask this question because checking the battery is exactly the same principle. Simple safety checks like this take less than 30 seconds of your time and can save you a sleepless night or DKA. Why is the alarm useless, it takes less than 3 mins to change the battery whether it be day or night. Loss of CGM! that lasts the same amount of time as the battery is out/removed.
Simple solution though for the battery is check and change it if needed before a meal so no IOB is missing.
I've been pumping for over 7 years and have never had any of the problems you have described in your very short pumping experience.
Err no I am not agreeing that the battery alarm is faulty. What I am saying and this is going to sound very blunt......... Use your pump properly and do the safety checks required to maintain your own well being.You seem to agree that the battery alarm is ineffective and a manual daily check as a workaround is needed. I agree. I think that is poor design. I suspect the manufacturer put the (ineffective) battery alarm on the pump in order to gain consumer medical device approval. You are right to highlight the risk of DKA. It's the only elevated risk (vs MDI) with a pump. And it's a very serious one.
I think you are being a tad obtuse regarding the above comment. I suggested to you that you are meant to check your tubing twice a day, I made no comment about checking it during the night.It would be unacceptable to have to check the tubing in my sleep, and if that was required, the device never would have received approval for use as a consumer medical device.
There's nothing wrong with the alarms, spikers problem is known as user errorIf your manufacturer doesn't take the battery alarms seriously and patients have problems they have to report to NICE.
Cheers I will do as you suggest.Have you teported to NICE?
When my alarm for an occlusion did not go off for 10hours, Accuchek not only wanted the used set and unused sets but they took the non alarm very seriously and wanted the pump back for inspection too!!
This was not a straight forward occlusion... This was having big problems everyday for 3 days.
They took the non sounding of the alarm very seriously....
If your manufacturer doesn't take the battery alarms seriously and patients have problems they have to report to NICE. I didn't report this incident to NICE as Accuchek were so on the ball..
Err no I am not agreeing that the battery alarm is faulty. What I am saying and this is going to sound very blunt......... Use your pump properly and do the safety checks required to maintain your own well being.
I think you are being a tad obtuse regarding the above comment. I suggested to you that you are meant to check your tubing twice a day, I made no comment about checking it during the night.
Each time you go to the main menu the battery symbol is on display so again no problem about checking it.
No matter what pump you have you as a pump user are required to make these basic checks. Bottom line is, if you can not be bothered and due to your own negligence you become ill then it's your fault and your pump team have every right to question your ability to operate a pump safely.
There are a couple of very good sayings.................... The pump is only as good as the user and it's not plug and play. Both are very true.
There's nothing wrong with the alarms, spikers problem is known as user errorIf there was a problem then the pump would not be on the market.
And my error is what exactly? Being asleep when the one alarm went off prior to total pump and CGM failure??Err no I am not agreeing that the battery alarm is faulty. What I am saying and this is going to sound very blunt......... Use your pump properly and do the safety checks required to maintain your own well being.
I think you are being a tad obtuse regarding the above comment. I suggested to you that you are meant to check your tubing twice a day, I made no comment about checking it during the night.
Each time you go to the main menu the battery symbol is on display so again no problem about checking it.
No matter what pump you have you as a pump user are required to make these basic checks. Bottom line is, if you can not be bothered and due to your own negligence you become ill then it's your fault and your pump team have every right to question your ability to operate a pump safely.
There are a couple of very good sayings.................... The pump is only as good as the user and it's not plug and play. Both are very true.
There's nothing wrong with the alarms, spikers problem is known as user errorIf there was a problem then the pump would not be on the market.
There is no personal attack I can assure you and I'm sorry you have taken it this way.@CarbsRok, are you finished with the personal attacks on me yet?
The pump and cgm will stop when you change the battery anyway. Put a new battery in and problem solved. This happens on all pumps. No power due to battery change timeClick to expand...
And my error is what exactly? Being asleep when the one alarm went off prior to total pump and CGM failure??
Erm if it's due to battery running out because you didn't change it then it's hardly the pump companies fault is it?
By your flawed logic, never report any medical device issue, because if there was a problem "it wouldn't be on the market". So the US and UK and EU can just close their reporting agencies and go home can they?
Well I spoke to Animas on this. They said the expectation is that from Low Battery warning to Replace Battery warning is 30 minutes and from Replace Battery to system shutdown is an expectation of 3 minutes. They were not aware that these timings/windows are hugely increased with alkaline batteries. They advised keeping spare batteries by the side of the bed, which I already do. They accepted that the narrow window of warning on the lithium batteries means there is a significant likelihood of the warning and failure all occurring during sleep. They accepted that doing a full cycle of battery change, detach canula, rewind, load, prime, reattach canula is not ideal while asleep in the middle of the night. They are asking R & D to see if it is possible to set a more sensitive battery alarm threshold when a lithium battery is in use, and vice versa for an alkaline battery. They supported the approach of using alkaline batteries to avoid this problem. When asked, they had no other suggestions. They did not make the suggestion of changing batteries early (ie at 2 bars), as was suggested here.
@Engineer88 I don't know why you think I am "making this too difficult"? I'm not "doing" anything. I'm reporting a problem I had with my pump - on the forum, and to Animas. I don't have a problem "changing the **** batteries", but I'd rather not have to do so in the middle of the night, and I particularly don't want the risk of sleeping through a pump shutdown. Of course there are workarounds. There are always workarounds. But I would rather have a pump that engineered around this problem so that users didn't have to come up with undocumented workarounds.
As #donnellysdogs said, this is how the devices get improved, when we give feedback. And Animas has taken it on board, which is good.
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