[News] RECALL THREAD-- IMPORTANT PHILIPS DREAMSTATION & SYSTEM ONE USERS

[Sleeprider]

WakeUpTime, thanks for copying relevant parts of the article.

[kingwillard]

I'm not having any problems with mine but I have been told that either the seller or Philips will replace my bipap. I called Philips and they said it would take up to a year before they do anything with my case. I called the seller and they referred me to Philips. Should I just wait to hear from Philips? And does it usually take a whole year to get action on a recall of this nature? Thanks and Merry Christmas to all!

[S. Manz]

There's a big thread about this subject. I think your post will eventually move there.
Right now no one will do anything about it and we just have to wait, but safe replacement foam kits are already available on Amazon, even though they are by independent manufacturers, not OEM.

[ST Dog]

but safe replacement foam kits are already available on Amazon, even though they are by independent manufacturers, not OEM.

Safe? Based on what, some fly-by-night company's claim that it passed some test? The company doesn't even list a real address, just a mail forwarding company.

[ST Dog]

Should I just wait to hear from Philips? And does it usually take a whole year to get action on a recall of this nature?

Did you register with Phillips?

It's the manufacturer's responsibility not the retailer's.

As for timeline, many have received replacements, more every day. But it takes time to replace that many machines (millions). There really is nothing to compare with.

Philips estimated completing the recall in 12 months.

[Gideon]

I'm a bit confused. Your profile states a ResMed BiPap, in your post you are talking about a Phillips BiPap, which is it?

PR seemed to be concentrating on CPAP/APAP replacement with DS2 and recently with "new" or refurbished DS1s.

To my knowledge there are no DS2 BiPaps yet. Thus these higher level consumer machines seem to have a lower priority for PR.

[VolvoFan]

In the UK, Phillips seem to have no sense of urgency, probably because the regulator deemed the risks associated with the Phillips equipment to be "low". All the NHS services using the fixed pressure dreamstations wrote to patients and told them to carry on using them and that they would be replaced / repaired "in due course".
My Dreamstation was privately purchased not NHS, but the same applies - no urgency from Phillips to do anything in the UK as yet. I registered mine with them within a few days of the recall becoming known and this was acknowledged, but not heard anything else.

My machine coincidentally didn't seem quite right at the time and went in under warranty for repair, returned a few weeks later. But not been writing data to the SD card as I discovered today after setting my new Resmed up last night and downloading data this morning to compare...........

Glad I was able to buy a new Resmed set up, not everyone affected has been that fortunate.........

There is a UK Ebay seller offering foam removal and replacement for £190...........not sure I would risk it though.

I get that Phillips have a huge mountain to climb with this one, but it doesn't solve the issues for millions of users who trusted the brand and bought into it........

[ST Dog]

To my knowledge there are no DS2 BiPaps yet.  Thus these higher level  consumer machines seem to have a lower priority for PR.

Most of the replacement DS1s I've seen posted were BiPAP machines.

The DS1 BiPAP was still in production when the recall hit. The changed the part and restarted production of those machines for both new sales and replacements.

[btreger]

December 15, 2021


Summary of MDL Hearing with Judge Joy Flowers Conti
MDL = multi-district lawsuit.

Over 100 class action lawsuits from across the country were combined into one under the jurisdiction of Judge Joy Flowers Conti.

Background

Below is a summary of the first hearing with Judge Joy Flowers Conti (Pittsburg), a Senior Federal Judge who was selected to hear the Philips case. In physical and Zoom attendance were attorneys from multiple class action lawsuits as well as attorneys representing Philips.
  
Judge Conti has handled 4 MDL’s in the past, but admits this is by far her largest and most complex to which she admitted.  She asked attorneys on both sides to recognize this.

She emphasized getting to mediation vs a jury trial in order to move more quickly. Her expectation is to finish the case in 2-3 years - referring to this timetable as being speedy.  She stated that some cases take up to 10 years.

Some cases are financial, some are medical monitoring, some are personal injury and some have to do with SoClean.  Some will likely include more than one claim.

Judge Conti said a plaintiff registry will be established and a leader for this will be decided later.  One attorney from Houston, Texas has 800+ cases asked to be appointed to the registry and the Judge agreed.

Judge Conti has two law clerks.  
Katie McGree
Mark Hall

There are 172 cases filed to date with more being filed from 72 districts.  About 100 cases are class actions.  All seek financial damages.
The recommended law firm of this group is Berger Montague and attorney Shannon Carson said he was representing other law firms as well as he spoke.  His said his firm has four other MDL cases that are similar (breast implants and Zantac to name two).  He provided the case management orders from these cases.  Shannon provided thoughts on simplifying the CMO (case management order).  
Shanon asked to be on the committee and the Judge Conti agreed.

Preservation order - for consumers to maintain their machines. This will be decided at a later date.

Competitor lawsuit by SoClean.  MDL for SoClean.  Judge Conti made a joke that with the SoClean suits, the timeline may be expanding beyond 2 to 3 years.

Judge Conti wants cooperation and mentioned ediscovery.  eDiscovery software allows legal professionals to process, review, tag, and produce electronic documents as part of a lawsuit or investigation. The right software can help attorneys discover valuable information regarding a matter while reducing costs, speeding up resolutions, and mitigating risks.
  
Judge Conti said there will likely be monthly meetings, ideally in person or second best, by Zoom among the attorneys.
Judge Conti made mention of the law suits website. 

Steering Committee and Lead Counsel.  An attorney said 12 on the Steering Committee might be light due to the complications of diseases and science (through discovery).  This case will take a lot of experts and a lot of funding and people to get the work done.  Judge Conti envisions a number of sub-committees under the Steering Committee.  The Steering Committee will be made up of attorneys the Judge feels can do the best job representing us.  Selection will be made through a deliberative process using a standard application and personal interviews.

One attorney said they have one of the best ‘Medical Monitoring’ attorneys - over 500 plaintiffs. Judge Conti said there will likely be a ‘Monitoring’ committee assigned.

One attorney suggested having a data analytics committee to better understand the injuries which are involved as well as a data warehouse to quickly and easily access all data generated in this case.  Judge Conti agreed.

Next Steps

Scheduling established by Judge Conti
Applications due - Jan 4 (lead counsel and steering committee); set a page limitation
Objections - Jan 11
Responses - ?
Interviews - Jan 27; 2 PM to ?; might overflow to the next day.  15-20 minute interviews
Need to establish protocols for electronically stored information.

Appointment of special masters; discovery, mediators, what do we do with people with 2-3 types of claims? Personal injury, financial, medical monitoring, SoClean.

Judge Conti said their will need to be a ‘science day’ sometime during Spring (early May mentioned).. There will likely be a need a separate science subcommittee working under the Steering Committee.  She emphasized that these sub-committees will be as important as the Steering Committee. One attorney commented that Science Day should begin with ‘what is in the foam’?  What is the chemical composition of the foam?

A comment by one of the Attorneys representing Philips was that advertising is driving the number of cases and some of the cases may not be valid. Need to define what disease(s) does this product cause.  
A Philips defense attorney said that a ‘Science Day’ would be an excellent idea.  He cited a Canadian study spanning 9 years of Respironics use by consumers and didn’t find any association with elevated cancer.  He further stated that this was aPeer reviewed study.
  
Special Master.  Set up discovery and e-discovery.  There is already some communication between Philips and consumers that…?
Communication between Philips and the plaintiffs.  Judge Conti will put on the agenda.

Note: This may not be 100% of what was said, but I think it is pretty close. If anyone notices that some information was left out, please feel free to correct it.

[btreger]

Regarding Summary of MDL Hearing 


Remember I am not a lawyer, but there were three items that came up in this hearing that stuck out to me:

1. Judge Conti
   
   Her expectation is to finish the case in 2-3 years - referring to this timetable as being speedy.  She stated that some cases take up to 10 years. 
   

         This thread was started on 05/23. It feels like every day since then we have all lived through the personal effects of this recall. Waiting 2-3 years for a verdict just seems so unfair to so many people

     2. Appointment of special masters; discovery, mediators, what do we do with people with 2-3 types of claims? Personal injury, financial, medical monitoring, SoClean.

        I do not understand how the Class Action SoClean case got combined into this case. What was even more noticeable was that there were no objections from any of the lawyers representing all the affected Philips users.

    3. A Philips defense attorney said that a ‘Science Day’ would be an excellent idea.  He cited a Canadian study spanning 9 years of Respironics use by consumers and didn’t find any association with elevated cancer.  He further stated that this was a peer-reviewed study.

      I have tried to find this study or any references to it without any luck. If this study even exists, you would think that by now one of us would have found and reported it. I would like to ask everyone, including Board Members to prove or disprove this claim.