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Self-administered pumps that hospital patients use to manage pain often fail or are misused by patients who are in pain and affected by their meds. We investigated after finding multiple reports of patients overdosing using pain pumps - in one recent case, resulting in death. The issue becomes even more of a concern because opioids are more powerful and addictive. We found that even “smart pumps,” which are supposed to signal when dosages exceed recommended levels, fail. Finally, we found that reports of pump failure represent a small percentage of actual cases.