A Miami Gardens woman says she faced a life-threatening situation after a medical supply company didn’t deliver. She called NBC 6 Responds when the company stopped returning her calls.
Angella Lewis suffers from sleep apnea.
"I wake up and I am sleepy. I wake up and I am tired," Angella said.
The condition causes her to wake up throughout the night gasping for air.
"I could die from sleep apnea, it is a disease I could die from," she told us.
Angella typically uses a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Machine known as a CPAP device to help her breathe at night, but she says she was forced to go weeks without it.
"I am at their discretion I feel real terrified, I feel real scared," said Angella.
In September, Angella was given a prescription for an updated CPAP machine with new tubing.
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She says the same day, paperwork was sent to American Home Patient, Inc. to start the process to fulfill it. But when she called to confirm the order, she says she was notified the company merged with another company called Lincare.
She says she called and spoke with a Lincare representative who she says told her they didn't have information for her but thought the recent merger may be delaying the processing of the order.
For weeks she said she waited on an update.
"Not the same time, but consistently called every day," Angella said.
She says in December she was asked by a Lincare employee to drop off her old machine and that a new machine would be ready in a week.
Weeks later, when she still didn't have a machine, she wrote NBC 6 Responds.
"I'm getting scared, and scared, I say you know what I am going to write a letter to the media," she said.
We sent an email to Lincare and three hours later, a new CPAP machine was delivered to Lewis.
"I felt like a big burden come off of me, I felt like I was not alone," she said.
At the time we did the interview, she had her new machine but the tubing and face mask requested in her prescription was still missing.
"I would like to start using my machine like yesterday," she said.
We went to the Lincare location where she dropped off her machine.
A representative told us he couldn't comment but two days later, the medical supplies were delivered to her home. A Lincare representative told us they couldn't comment on any aspect of Angella's situation because of privacy laws.
