Benjamin Brett Braun

With Every Breath

This collaborative project between the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, ProPublica, and the NRC was made possible by the following reporters: Michael D. Sallah / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Debbie Cenziper/ ProPublica, Michael Korsh / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Evan Robinson-Johnson / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Monica Sager / Northwestern University.

(Click the image above to watch With Every Breath)

The first complaints landed at the offices of Philips Respironics in 2010, soon after the company made a fateful decision to redesign its bestselling breathing machines used in homes and hospitals around the world.

To silence the irritating rattle that kept users awake at night, Philips packed the devices with an industrial foam — the same kind used in sofas and mattresses.

It quickly became clear that something had gone terribly wrong.

The reports coming into Philips described “black particles” or “dirt and dust” inside machines that pump air to those who struggle to breathe. One noted an “oily-like” substance. Others simply warned of “contamination.”

The complaints targeted some of the company’s most-celebrated devices built in two factories near Pittsburgh, including ventilators for the sick and dying and the popular DreamStation for patients who suffer from sleep apnea, a chronic disorder that causes breathing to stop and start through the night.

Yet Philips withheld the vast majority of the warnings from the Food and Drug Administration, even as their numbers grew from dozens to hundreds to thousands and became more alarming each year.

“Black shavings in the chamber,” said one 2011 report that was kept from the government. “Contaminated with unknown sticky substance,” noted another three years later. By 2015, the year Philips launched the DreamStation, the company had amassed at least 25 complaints that pointed to a specific cause — the foam was falling apart.

Mark Edwards sits in a bed at the Sarasota Memorial Hospital after having his second benign tumor removed during a procedure on Thursday, April 11, 2023, in Sarasota Florida.

Cindy Pogyor stands inside of her home on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, in Elizabeth.

Cindy Pogyor holds her husband, Bruce’s, urn inside of their home on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, in Elizabeth.

Former Lower Burrell Mayor Rich Callender sits in his bedroom for a portrait on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023, in Lower Burrell. Mr. Callender has had both of his lungs and kidneys transplanted and used two recalled Philips Respironics CPAC machines for over a decade. He waited for over a year for a replacement parts for his CPAC from Philips.