In Weekend Outage, Diabetes Monitors Fail to Send Crucial Alerts

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/well/live/Dexcom-G6-diabetes-monitor-outage.html

By Anahad O’Connor
The New York Times
December 2, 2019

For many parents of children with diabetes, the Dexcom G6 continuous glucose 
monitor is a lifesaver. The device tracks their children’s glucose levels and 
sends them an alert when their blood sugar climbs too high or falls too low, 
allowing them to take quick action to correct it.

But around midnight on Friday, Dexcom suffered a mysterious service outage, 
leaving thousands of people who rely on the device for critical information in 
the dark. Many parents who woke up on Saturday morning and learned about the 
outage hours after it began had to scramble to make sure their children were 
safe. The affected service, Dexcom Follow, had been partly restored by Monday 
morning, a company spokesman said.

In Connecticut, Virginia Coleman-Prisco’s son John, 10, a Type 1 diabetic, has 
worn a Dexcom glucose monitor for the past four years. Normally the device 
sends an alarm to her smartphone when John’s glucose levels require urgent 
action. But early Saturday morning his blood sugar plummeted to dangerously low 
levels while he was fast asleep and no alert was sent out.

At around 5 a.m., her other son, Michael, 6, heard John moaning in distress and 
screamed for help, prompting Dr. Coleman-Prisco and her husband to jump out of 
bed and run to John’s side. They were able to get his blood sugar back to a 
safe level by stirring him awake and feeding him apple juice and gummy candies 
meant to help restore glucose levels in diabetics.

[...]

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