The public health department of the Paris public prosecutor’s office has since June taken up several complaints for aggravated deception and endangering the lives of others, filed by patients denouncing defective breathing apparatus for sleep apnea from the Philips group, according to the floor.
These complaints were filed for aggravated deception, involuntary attacks on physical integrity, endangering the lives of others and administration of harmful substances, the prosecution told Agence France-Presse on Thursday, September 8, confirming information from France info.
Since 2021, Philips has been forced to hire internationally a massive recall campaign of several defective models of respirators used in particular by patients suffering from sleep apnea.
These devices, used by some 350,000 patients in France and 1.5 million across Europe, contain sound-absorbing foam. It is this that is in question: the group noticed that particles came out of certain devices and could therefore be inhaled or ingested by the patient. This can cause irritation, such as headaches. The group had also mentioned in June 2021 a risk ” potential “ long-term cancers.
However, since then, Philips has been slow to replace defective devices. In this context, patients are torn between the – uncertain – risks represented by their respirator and the – well-known – risks of endangering their health by ceasing to use it.
” A public health problem »
Following a committee of experts meeting in June, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) ruled that Philips’ strategy for assessing the potential risks associated with defective respirators does not was “not understandable”and asked for it to be clarified.
Before the ANSM, the representatives of Philips had emphasized the fact that this recall campaign had been initiated as a pure precaution and had been followed by more in-depth tests to find out at what point these devices give off potentially dangerous particles.erous.
Justice “understood that it was a national serial problem, the case becomes a public health problem”welcomed Me Christophe Lèguevaques, lawyer for the French Federation of Associations and Friends of Insufficient or Respiratory Disabled Patients.