FreeStyle Libre 3 Recall Linked to 7 Deaths Alarms Diabetics
Diabetics are alarmed by a recall of Abbott's FreeStyle Libre 3 Plus glucose monitor after inaccurate readings were linked to 7 deaths, including an Oakland man.
Michael Ford’s blood sugar kept dropping, or so the monitor said.
His son Davonte, 25, had been his full-time caregiver for years, handling medications, bathing, and responding to every alert from Michael’s FreeStyle Libre 3 Plus continuous glucose sensor. So when the device flashed a low blood sugar warning one November morning at their Oakland home, Davonte followed his father’s care instructions exactly. He gave Michael fast-acting carbohydrates. Then more, when the number barely budged.
A cup of coffee with two spoonfuls of sugar. Then sweetened tea. Then a cookie. The monitor showed Michael’s glucose hovering around 68 mg/dL, just below the normal range of roughly 70 to 180 milligrams per deciliter. Davonte kept treating what appeared to be a dangerous low.
Then Michael’s speech slowed. His eyelids drooped. Davonte called an ambulance.
When paramedics arrived and checked Michael’s blood sugar with their own equipment, the reading was 551 mg/dL. More than triple the high end of normal.
“My heart just dropped,” Davonte said. “Obviously, there’s a problem here.”
Michael, 68, died the next day in a hospital intensive care unit following multiple cardiac arrests. A lawsuit Davonte filed last month alleges the FreeStyle Libre 3 Plus sensor produced readings that were “catastrophically inaccurate,” flooding his father with sugar his body could not handle while the device showed the opposite of reality.
Eight days after that November morning, Abbott, the Illinois-based medical manufacturer that makes the FreeStyle Libre line, issued an urgent recall warning U.S. consumers that approximately 3 million FreeStyle Libre 3 and Libre 3 Plus sensors were at risk of producing false low readings. The company disclosed it had received reports of seven deaths and more than 730 serious injuries worldwide connected to the issue.
Davonte had no way of knowing any of that was coming.
The recall has alarmed the roughly 38 million Americans living with diabetes, millions of whom rely on continuous glucose monitors as a primary tool for managing their condition. CGMs like the FreeStyle Libre line have become central to modern diabetes care, offering real-time readings without the constant finger-stick testing that defined earlier treatment. For many patients and their caregivers, the devices have become a lifeline, precisely the kind of technology people trust without second-guessing.
That trust is now fractured for many users.
The FreeStyle Libre system works by using a small sensor worn on the arm that reads glucose levels in interstitial fluid, the fluid between cells, rather than directly from blood. That method is generally accurate but can lag behind blood glucose changes in certain conditions. A sensor producing systematically false lows, however, goes beyond typical lag and into a dangerous category of malfunction.
Abbott has not publicly detailed the specific technical cause of the false readings tied to the recall. The company has not been reached for comment on the lawsuit filed by Davonte Ford.
For families across the country managing Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, the recall raises practical and urgent questions. Patients and caregivers have been advised to confirm CGM readings with a traditional finger-stick blood glucose meter before treating any suspected low, particularly if symptoms don’t match what the device shows. Medical professionals stress that any reading prompting treatment should be verified when possible, a safeguard that is especially important while the full scope of the Abbott recall is assessed.
The FDA has classified the recall as Class I, its most serious designation, indicating that use of the affected sensors could cause serious injury or death.
For Davonte Ford, the warnings arrived too late to help his father. His lawsuit argues that Abbott knew or should have known about the sensor’s potential to produce dangerously inaccurate readings and failed to act quickly enough to protect patients. Michael Ford had managed his Type 2 diabetes with care, his son said. He was not in perfect health, but his condition was under control.
Until the morning a device his family had been told to trust told them exactly the wrong thing.