Is there anyone here who's pump shut off automatically while they were unconscious due to hypoglycemia? Any known cases? Outcomes?
Mini Med makes one that is avail in Europe but not in Canada or the US yet. There are posts about it on here.
Thanks, but I am not talking about the new technology that turns off, in response to a low from your CGM. Rather, an existing safety feature which completely stops your pump if you haven't pressed a button for a set amount of time. My Revel has it.
Oh yes I think they all have that, It will alarm.
I have CGM so I turn that option off. I have enough alarms already. Besides I can not imagine not touching my pump for 12 hours.
I think I even do it in my sleep.
I called MM about how to do this last week and they told me that it wasn't here and yes u needed a CGM with it
The MM pump has had this feature for a long time. It's called Auto off.
Press ACT, press Utilities, press Alarm, press Auto Off and set how much
time the pump will run without you pressing one of the buttons.
I have never used this feature.
I've always had it turned on, but I've never had to use it. Curious if it could save someone's life, but not curious enough to put myself in insulin shock.
Being devil's advocate here: say you go really low and lose consciousness in your sleep, and your cgm doesn't wake you. Having Auto-Off set may let you get enough glycogen to bring you back. I haven't been able to find any examples of this, though.
I don't use it. I can't imagine that feature being that useful but maybe overnight or something.
I'd think this feature would be useful if you live alone, or have a history of severe hypoglycemia. I find it amazing that almost everyone's pump has it, but apparently no one knows if it works.
I have my Auto-Off on my Medtronic pump set to 12 hours. I have never been unconscious from a hypo long enough to test it for that. However, I have been known not to push any buttons for 12 hours and have it beep and turn off. So it does work.
I have mine set for 12 hours I have a mm revel
Dumb question. To those of you like me who use Pings, does that "no button pushed" apply to the meter/remote as well as the pump itself? I use my meter/remote for all my bolusing and only use the pump to change settings. I believe that's why I decided not to bother with the auto off setting, though I will have to check that - as someone who lives alone, if it applies to both it wouldn't be a bad idea to use it. The only time I was unconscious from a low (pre-pump) my liver did kick in and rouse me enough to treat. The other thing that makes the auto-off seem not as useful as it sounds is the randomness of how things happen. Let's say, for example I bolus for dinner or for a correction at bedtime and then go dangerously low during the night. A life threatening crisis could easily occur within that 12 hour window and it wouldn't shut off. Also, obviously the .400 per hour which is I believe distributed in 10 minute increments is so little I'm not sure how much difference it would make in the small window of urgency. I'm not trying to quibble with the auto-off idea,(and still plan on checking my settings when I put my battery back in my pump - long story) I just see a lot of "what-ifs" to its use.
The meter to pump communication resets the timer with the Ping system, it was activated when we did my initial pump setup, I believe mine is 14 or 15 hours.
I have my MM set on, for 12 hours.
I think of it like a seat belt. Always use it, 'just in case'..
I wonder if when meter BG is sent via link, if that counts as a button press ??.
I was wondering about the usefulness of auto-off a while ago. I stumbled upon an article in the Seattle Times about a young pregnant woman who suffered brain damage and lost her pregnancy due to insulin shock. She was discovered 3 days later, still alive, with the pump still running. Here family won a $5 million settlement. It sounds like a big part of the case against Medtronic was that the pump trainer hadn't activated Auto-Off.
http://www.seattlemalpracticelawyers.com/archives/our_results/5-2-million-settlement
I hesitate to link to the original article, because it is very upsetting.
I'm inclined to agree, but plenty of people get in accidents and many survive due to their seatbelt. I have yet to hear about a single case of someone surviving due to Auto-Off.
the omni pod also has this feature...but the defult is that it is deactivated you have to know to turn it on.
Re the Seattle case, I'd be curious to know what percentage of fault was found to lie with the hospital and what percentage came from Medtronic?
Re the 12 hour safety device, unless I'm asleep, I don't think I ever go much more than 45 minutes without fiddling with something on my pump/ CGM? "what's my BG now?" "how much IOB?" "when's the next calibration?", etc.
WOW you can actually go 45 MIN?
I think I might have P.R.O.C.D. PUMP RELATED OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER.
I think 30 min is my max.