Diabetics who rely on Abbott glucose monitors are alarmed by recall linked to 7 deaths

Michael Ford was not in good health, but his type 2 diabetes was manageable. His son, Davonte Ford, was his full-time caregiver: bathing Michael, administering his medications, and dutifully responding to Michael’s blood sugar dips and spikes.

When father and son woke up one November morning in Oakland, Calif., to a hypoglycemia alert coming from Michael’s FreeStyle Libre 3 Plus sensor, part of a leading blood sugar monitoring system from medical manufacturer Abbott, Davonte didn’t question the reading. Instead, he followed the doctors’ instructions: he gave his father fast-acting carbohydrates.

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Davonte had no way of knowing that eight days later, Abbott would issue an urgent warning informing U.S. consumers that approximately 3 million FreeStyle Libre 3 and Libre 3 Plus sensors were at risk of producing falsely low readings, and that the company had received reports of seven deaths and more than 730 serious injuries worldwide. He also didn’t know that the number that appeared on Michael’s device that morning was “catastrophically inaccurate,” according to a complaint filed by Davonte, 25, last month.

So when a cup of coffee with two spoonfuls of sugar barely raised Michael’s blood sugar, Davonte brought him another. The number on Michael’s monitor went up slightly, then went back down.

A normal blood sugar range is between 70 and 180 milligrams per deciliter, with lower levels expected during fasting. Mystified that Michael’s level kept hovering around 68 mg/dL, Davonte gave him a cup of sweet tea and a cookie, hoping to raise the number.

Instead, Michael’s speech slows down. His eyelids became heavy. Panicked, Davonte called an ambulance. When the paramedics arrived, Davonte was stunned to see Michael’s blood sugar reading on their equipment: 551 mg/dL, more than triple what it should have been.

“My heart just dropped,” Davonte said. “Obviously there’s a problem here.”

The discovery that Michael’s blood sugar was not as low as his glucometer indicated came too late, according to the lawsuit. The next day, in a hospital intensive care unit, Michael, 68, died following multiple cardiac arrests.

Diabetes, a disease in which the body does not produce enough insulin or cannot use it properly, requires patients to monitor their blood sugar levels vigilantly. It affects approximately 40.1 million people in the United States. If left uncontrolled, it can lead to serious complications, ranging from blindness to heart and kidney damage.

Abbott’s recall highlighted the growing dependence of diabetes patients on technology intended to help them and the threat it can pose to their physical and psychological health when that technology malfunctions. The recall gave rise to at least three class-action lawsuits in the United States, as well as Davonte’s wrongful death lawsuit. Three other people in California, Washington and North Carolina plan to sue for damages they say they suffered because of incorrect readings, their lawyers told NBC News.

Patients and advocates also raised questions about whether the recall was comprehensive enough and whether the actual number of injuries could be higher than the 860 cited by Abbott in his latest tally. Michael’s death is not counted in Abbott’s tally; while its sensor came from one of the recalled lots, Abbott did not include its particular serial number in the recall.

Abbott spokeswoman Lindsy Delco told NBC News the company was “deeply saddened” by Michael’s death and said it takes all reports of adverse events seriously, documenting and investigating them.

Delco said not all sensors in each batch were affected by the issue and not all adverse events are related to the recent recall, adding that anyone experiencing issues should contact Abbott customer service.

She said the erroneous readings that led to the recall were due to a problem on the production line that was quickly resolved. The company has not yet responded in court to Davonte’s lawsuit.

When continuous glucose monitors debuted more than two decades ago, they were a “complete game changer” for diabetes patients, said Dr. Amy Warriner, an endocrinologist and professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. An alternative to reliable but tedious sampling, in which diabetics draw small amounts of blood throughout the day to check their sugar levels, continuous glucose monitors automatically detect blood sugar levels in the fluid just below the surface of the skin using tiny filaments on sensors attached to patients’ arms. Abbott’s sensors, the size of a nickel battery, typically cost up to $20 a month for patients whose commercial insurance covers the system, and they offer 24/7 data that doctors find reliable.

“But it’s about technology,” Warriner said, “and unfortunately, technology can fail. And when it does, it’s a life and death situation.”

There have been small recalls related to continuous glucose monitors. In 2024, Abbott recalled several lots of Libre 3 sensors due to inaccurate readings. Another major manufacturer, Dexcom, recalled hundreds of thousands of receivers connected to its monitors in 2016 and again in 2025 following dozens of injuries due to audio problems that could lead to missed alerts. A Dexcom spokesperson said in an email this week that the issues had been resolved.

Some diabetic patients who have used Abbott sensors say discovering faults in a device they rely on to stay alive is terrifying. Before receiving a recall notice from her pharmacy, Angela Ivery, 71, who lives in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, said she went to the emergency room several times following alerts from her Libre 3 that her blood sugar was low. At the hospital, a finger prick showed her glucose levels were normal, she said.

She began having nightmares in which her late parents gave her warnings about her health, and she feared she would die in her sleep. She now uses finger prick readings, but says she suffers from persistent anxiety.

“I don’t go out and mingle like I used to,” she said. “I’m paranoid when I go out. I think my sugar is getting low.”

Late last year, Cathy Bennett, 67, of Statham, Ga., started getting alerts from her Abbott continuous glucose monitor that her blood sugar was in the 60s. But when she checked it with a finger, it was in the 170s or 180s. The serial numbers for her sensors weren’t listed on Abbott’s recall website, but she thinks they should have been. She met others on social media who said the same thing.

“It’s very disappointing,” she said, adding that she loved the device and plans to try using it again. “It motivated me to make better food choices.”

The recall also highlighted the risk of dangerous mix-up after a product is withdrawn, even in large hospitals. An endocrinologist who works at a mid-Atlantic regional trauma center mentioned in an interview with NBC News that he had just sent a patient home from the hospital with an Abbott device. He then called back to share a surprising discovery: He checked the serial number of the sensor he had given his patient and realized it was part of the recall. He immediately called the patient to arrange a replacement and told the hospital to throw away the box of recalled sensors.

Although continuous glucose monitors are generally considered accurate, the American Diabetes Association said in an email that finger sticks should be available as a backup, particularly if symptoms don’t match the monitor reading.

In Miramar, Fla., Philip Myers, a Navy veteran, relied solely on his FreeStyle Libre, until the readings jumped from the 50s to more than 200 one evening in June. He stopped using it.

Six months later, he received a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs informing him that his sensor had been recalled. The letter did not mention the deaths associated with the recall, and when he and his wife heard about it from a reporter, they became emotional.

“When I was in the military, I was in control and I made the decisions,” Myers, 80, said. Trying to manage your diabetes, especially with a device that has proven inaccurate, “seems very hopeless, frankly, because you have no control at all,” he said.

Delco, the Abbott spokesperson, did not respond to questions about specific cases and said in an email that the manufacturer cares “deeply about the safety and quality of our products and the people who use them.”

“That’s why we continually check their performance and if we identify a problem, we take action to resolve it,” she said.

Davonte and Michael Ford relied entirely on Michael’s continuous glucose monitor, not knowing from Abbott’s “woefully inadequate” warnings that the sensor might malfunction, Davonte’s lawsuit says.

Davonte tries to remember his father as he was – a selfless man who loved playing the piano – rather than his father’s painful final moments, which he says traumatized him and left him empty. He said he also struggled with feelings of guilt.

“I felt like I was at fault,” he said. “Everything was always going well, until it wasn’t.”