Rodney Thomas was just 51 years old when he died from aggressive nasopharyngeal cancer, a rare type of head and neck cancer, after using a Philips sleep apnea machine.
His family was confused by his diagnosis at the time- Mr Thomas was not a smoker or heavy drinker and was in perfect health aside from being diagnosed with the sleeping disorder.
To treat it, Mr Thomas had started using a Philips continuous positive airway pressure – CPAP – machine, which would later be found to expel carcinogenic materials into users’ airways, according to claims in lawsuits filed against the company.
His wife, Shawne Thomas, – just one of many people suing the medtech manufacturer – is claiming its machine led to her husband’s cancer and eventual death.
She told DailyMail.com: ‘My husband didn’t need to die. This was totally unnecessary. We’ve lost our world.’
Ms Thomas, from Louisiana, told this website Rodney began using his sleep apnea machine in 2019 and the couple would repeatedly see black specks in the tubing and mask but thought nothing of it at the time.
It would later be claimed in class-action lawsuits those specks were actually carcinogenic materials degrading inside the machine and blowing into Rodney’s airways.
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Alexa Lardieri 