They sue Philips collectively for deaths in the pandemic

Sanjuana Martínez

La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, October 12, 2025, p. 8

The phrase was lapidary and ran through the hallways of Mexico’s hospitals during the covid pandemic: “If they intubate you, you die.” And, indeed, years later it was found that thousands of people – more than 80 percent of the patients – died within a few days of being intubated with Philips respirators. For this reason, now, a group of 43 relatives of those who died due to defects in these devices have filed a class action lawsuit to demand that the Dutch multinational repair the damage.

This is an unprecedented event in the judicial history of Mexico. For the first time, a group of altruistic lawyers led by Eduardo Fuentes Celestrin, Alejandro Rojas Pruneda and Luis Miguel Velasco Lizárraga, presented on the 6th of the current month a pro bono lawsuit (free of charge) to demand that Philips México Commercial, SA de CV repair the damage caused by the distribution, marketing and omission to withdraw its 3,500 defective ventilators or respirators, which In other countries they were removed more than four years ago, while in Mexico they continue in public and private hospitals.

The judicial feat goes further. In addition to the civil lawsuit, lawyers and victims have filed a criminal complaint against Philips for homicide and injuries resulting from the use of 5,000 respirators models E30, V60, V680, Trilogy 100, Trilogy 200, Trilogy Evo and EV300. According to the complainants, the foam used in these defective devices has the risk of releasing toxic particles, affecting oxygenation parameters and even causing these ventilation instruments to turn off unexpectedly.

“I lost my two pillars”

Andrea González Valderrama cries. He cannot stop crying when remembering “the pillars” of his life. Four years have passed since his parents, Luis González y Lobo, 76, and Elizabeth Valderrama Correa, 71, died days after being intubated at the General Hospital of Mexico, in January 2021. “I did everything possible to save them,” he says in an interview with The Day.

A journalist based in Los Angeles, California, says that her parents died in Mexico City at the height of the Covid pandemic when there were still no vaccines, oxygen tanks or ambulances. He says that both had not eaten and were in bed for two days; Her cousin went to her house and brought an oximeter: “That’s when we realized it was Covid and it was an emergency.”

They got a private ambulance to take them to the hospital, while Andrea prepared to host two news programs on Univision, at 6 in the afternoon and 11 at night. Her father arrived in intensive care, and on January 18 he was intubated, while her mother waited for a bed in the hospital and spoke to her by video call: “She told me that she was very sleepy and that they gave her a sandwich. I saw her well, I never imagined that it would be the last time I spoke to her. I have a video, my mom looked fine.”

His mother was conscious, only wearing an oxygen mask, while his intubated father was already in a coma and the doctor warned him that he could die. He was intubated from January 18 to 27, 2021; The latter died between six and seven at night.

Before, on the 23rd of that month, the doctor told him that his mother also had to be intubated: “The day my father died, my mother was already intubated and in a coma; a day and a half later, she also died.”

He adds: “There are people who keep telling me why we intubated them, that intubating them was like killing them; but, the truth is, it was trying to save them. Now we know that those respirators that were going to give them life were taken away from them. It torments me to think that a defect in those devices could have stolen their oxygen, instead of providing it. Philips knew that those devices were defective. It is criminal negligence and also from the government. An absolute mockery. My parents could have been saved if other equipment had been used. “We want justice and for them to pay!”

Jesús Ramírez Olvera lost his wife María Teresa Enríquez Salazar. Both lawyers, she is 40 years old, began to feel bad on January 13, 2021. “Many families went through the pandemic. Of the nine people we were there on December 31, seven got sick, two died. One was my wife.”

It took 12 days to find a hospital. On January 12, they took her to Ángeles in the Roma neighborhood: “It was crazy, there was no oxygen, there was nothing. When she was admitted, she was in bad shape and they intubated her. I saw her for the last time. I told her that we were going to see each other when she got out, but she didn’t come out. Deep down, you know what’s going to happen.

“We knew what was happening. They intubated you and you died. Just as they intubated them they died. They just put them to sleep and they killed them. Over time you process it and reason that it was like that. Thousands died, the number was infinite; and surely many more died than what the statistics say. The probability that a large percentage used Philips respirators is very high. Furthermore, these devices arrived without any filter or inspection from the health authority; They were direct awards. Therefore, Philips and the government have shared responsibility.”

Jesús is moved when he remembers how his eight and nine year old daughters saw their mother for the last time: “It changes your life completely. My daughters saw when their mother left the house on a stretcher and in an ambulance. You learn to live with that, but you don’t get over it.”

Responsibilities

He adds: “Here there is both a responsibility of the transnational company Philips and of the Mexican government that allowed these respirators to be in hospitals. Cofepris should have endorsed these devices and did not do so; this resulted in the death of many people that could have been avoided; there is a lot of negligence and omission. That is what this lawsuit is for. It is not acceptable that people lose their lives in this way.”

He says that every day he talks to his wife: “There is not a day that he does not do it: at dawn, at another time, always. I talk to her, I tell her I love you. I already told her about the lawsuit. It is to vindicate her death, although it is irreparable to leave two girls without their mother. The dead live with us; they are dead when you stop thinking about them.”

Meanwhile, Miriam Vivanco is a chemist and works at the IMSS. In April 2021, his father, Gabriel Vivanco López, 62 years old and father of nine children, was infected with covid. He was a little overweight and prediabetes, he says. He remembers that he was admitted in Puebla to the IMSS La Margarita hospital, where he stayed for five days, “but they told me that he was not bad. They transferred him to clinic 5 in Plaza San Pedro, where he stayed for seven days. Then he was taken to the specialty hospital to intubate him. “I transferred my father by my own means. He was doing well, he even told me that his Andrés Manuel Welfare pension was due; I told him to recover first. They intubated him, but I saw that he was getting sick, with fever. He lasted 12 days on a respirator. “There was a lot of negligence, they didn’t give it due attention.”

He says that the last time he saw him was to say goodbye: “No matter how hard he fought, he was no longer going to have a choice. He was sedated. He moved his eyes, he listened to me. That day at dawn they notified me that he had suffered a cardiac arrest. I couldn’t recognize him, it was his brother; I had already seen him for a long time and I didn’t want to see him like that anymore. We buried him in Acajete, where he was born.”

Remember that on his death certificate they noted a five-minute difference in the time. “I did not know that in other countries they had already sued Philips for the defect of the respirators. Here in Mexico they did know, but, unfortunately, there is a lot of corruption. They know what they buy and the damage they do. They should not profit from health, and now Philips is acting offended and suing the Mexican State. Everything is upside down and bad. I will no longer get my father’s life back, but with this lawsuit I hope they have more awareness on people’s health. These are lives, they should not put business first instead of health.”

The editor Luis Dariel Acosta Velázquez, 26, lost his mother, Maritza Velázquez Ibáñez, 49. She was a receptionist at a company in Santa Fe. He says she was surely infected on the way from home to work, and on June 25, 2020, he rushed her to the IMSS zone 27 general hospital in Mexico City.

“They told us that they had to give him serum and oxygen, and we saw how he improved. Then, all the communication we had was through video call and they asked us if we authorized the use of a respirator; we agreed because they told us that if not, he could stop breathing and die. Through the page we checked the status. Five days later they called us to tell us that he had already died.”

He adds: “I can’t believe what Philips did. Many people continued using those defective respirators. That was the reason why my mother died. If the equipment was in bad condition, it is incredible that the government has allowed those devices to be there; even worse, in such a serious situation, in the pandemic. It is a total irresponsibility of the authorities and of Philips. It is not fair that a multinational does that. I am very angry and “very sad.”

He says he will always wonder what would have happened if his mother had used a different brand of equipment. “I feel a lot of guilt, but we didn’t know what to do. It hurts me a lot. I hope that with this lawsuit they remove all the respirators from the hospitals. I want justice, I know that what they did is irreparable, but at least that they pay, that they take responsibility. We need a public apology and financial reparation.”