Louisiana Sheriff, 62, Claims His Sleep Apnea Mask Gave Him Kidney Cancer

A 62-year-old man from Louisiana fought kidney cancer, which he claims was brought on by Philips sleep apnea breathing equipment.

For four years, Sheriff Brett Stassi had been treating his sleep apnea with a Philips DreamStation CPAP mask every night. Occasionally, he would discover little black particles on his pillow from the machine.

He didn’t find that the particles were anything but innocuous until a June 2021 equipment recall.

He said: ‘You’re worried about dying in your sleep, and you come to find out that the machine might be doing more damage than the apnea.’

Mr Stassi was taken into emergency surgery one month before the recall following a regular visit to the doctor, which revealed he had kidney cancer. ProPublica reports that he had to have surgery to remove his right kidney.

Amidst an increasing number of cases where long-term users have been diagnosed with cancer, pneumonia, asthma, and other serious health issues, Philips has withdrawn millions of defective sleep apnea ventilators from the market.

The Food and Drug Administration now reports that thousands of CPAP users are facing additional serious health concerns, and 561 CPAP users have died as a consequence of diseases tied to defective machines since the recall of almost 15 million devices began in 2021.

The FDA’s database for reporting adverse effects has 116,000 medical device complaints, which include fatalities. During the short period of July to September 2023, 111 fatalities were reported out of the over 7,000 medical device reports that were filed during that time.

Sleep apnea, which affects millions of individuals, is characterised by shallow or paused breathing during sleep. Over time, this disorder greatly raises the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Given that Philips leads the CPAP device market, a significant portion of the eight million Americans who depend on CPAP machines for uninterrupted sleep are probably included in the recall.

The sort of foam used in the machine’s helmet, which is fastened around the head and attached to a snorkel-like device, is the source of the issue. Its purpose is to reduce noise and vibrations produced by the machine.

However, it has been demonstrated that the foam, which is composed of polyester-based polyurethane, degrades and breaks apart into minute particles, releasing toxic chemical gases like formaldehyde, benzene, methylene chloride, volatile organic compounds, and solvents—all of which have been connected to various cancers and respiratory issues.

The issue is that hazardous plastic outgassing from a vast number of items is a problem that is significantly more common than it has ever been, and now taking care of ourselves is making us sick; it just sucks.

Even more frustrating is the fact that these companies were aware of it for years yet kept quiet about it. All those fatalities and grievances went unanswered.

We put our lives in the hands of these companies. They don’t care about us; all they care about is making money off us.

These companies use people like guinea pigs to test their products before they’re released to the rest of the world. Then they see how many people die from the product and then upgrade and improve the product significantly before it’s made for sale, probably at a lower cost than everywhere else.