Seven Diabetes Patients Die Due to Undisclosed Bug in Abbott's Continuous Glucose Monitors
sfconservancy.org
I wrote last month about my diabetes diagnosis this year and my difficult choice to wear a proprietary device (called a CGM) on my arm 24/7 to continuously monitor my glucose levels. Like my friend and colleague, Karen M. Sandler — who previously made a much higher-stakes choice to receive a proprietary implanted defibrillator to keep her safe given her genetic heart condition — I reluctantly chose to attach proprietary hardware and software to my body.
  • sramder@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    16 minutes ago

    How?

    Granted everyone’s diabetes seems to be different, but how did 7 people eat themselves to death? Over the course of years?

    IDK a friends niece has apparently been hospitalized more than one with sugars over 800mg/dl… apparently she’s just ignoring it.

    I’m not doubting numbers… just morbidly curious.

    And yeah, finger-stick meters suck too… how’s +-50 sound? Optimal being somewhere in the 80-140 range, 0 is basically dead… seizures while chewing off your own tongue. IIRC, the accuracy is allowed to get worse the further from optimal you get… oh and the U.S. didn’t even have a standard 20 years ago.

    Had 2 Dexcom G6’s going at the same time a few months ago… that was eye opening. They were briefly over 100mg/dl apart.

    It’s doable though, I fucked mine off for years… A1Cs routinely in the 11s even when I thought I was trying. But 10+ years of Dexcom/Tandem and my doctors have stopped pestering me :-)

  • ramenshaman@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 hours ago

    Don’t assume your CGM will always work perfectly. ALWAYS have a backup finger-prick glucometer. Source: I have a Dexcom G6 and used to use a Freestyle Libre.