Stress Fractures in the Plastic Cases of Insulin Pumps seems to be not uncommon. Google the Internet and you’ll find instances with both Medtronic and Animas. I have never dropped my Pump or bounced off of walls with it. I’ve bounced off of shoppers in Wal-Mart but I always adopt the Pump Protection Stance.
Medtronic FedEx’d me a refurbished Pump. Would have got here same day, but it was a Friday and they missed the last flight to the Island. So it didn’t arrive until Monday morning.
Tell us your experiences with Pumps not being what they’re cracked up to be!
I used to get stress fractures with my Medtronic pumps and had several pumps replaced for cracks in the exact same place. Mine were always at the corner of the reservoir window up towards the Esc button. I had always used the clip attachment provided by Medtronic and for whatever reason, once I stopped using the clip on the advice of a Medtronic rep, I haven’t had a crack since. They gave me a free replacement case to try something different. I don’t like wearing a case, but just keep my pump in my pocket. No more cracks.
I will say that I never had a problem getting a replacement pump due to the cracks. But since I always had a perfectly working pump, I was a little nervous about gettng a replacement pump. But I’ve been lucky and never had a pump operational problem in all my years with Medtronic.
The timing of this thread is uncanning as I just received my replacement pump yesterday. No cracking involved as it was a pump malfunction. I wrote about it here: Pump Error - Motor Error The pump alarmed last week with "motor error" and had stopped pumping. I was able to clear the alarm and prime it and get it to function. I called medtronic who had me run some tests on the pump and it passed. They told me if it alerts with motor error within 30 days, then I am entitled to a newly refurbished pump. Less than 5 days later it "motor error"ed again. I received my newly refurbished pump that "has the newest software installed and goes through a 23 point inspection" via UPS last night.
Medtronic handled my claim prety well (besides the fact that I wanted a new pump the first time it malfunctioned). They apologized profusely and worked quickly to make the situation right. I am sure I am not the only one that can become crazy when something is getting between me and my insulin. It was no fun.