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The backup battery Fernando Vargas' family frequently used appears to have failed, the Boston Globe reported Sunday, citing police.

Vargas' mother, Ilia Torres, and his stepfather, Ariel Acevedo, was waiting for information from authorities, the manufacturer and state healthcare providers who gave the family the ventilator in 2004, the newspaper said.

"I don't know if it's the power or the battery or what", Torres told the newspaper. "But I don't have my little angel."

Family members said the manufacturer of the ventilator was Pulmonetic Systems Inc. of Minnesota, which had a voluntary recall of its ventilators in 2004.

More than 10,000 Pulmonetic ventilator systems built before Sept. 1, 2003, had the potential to malfunction when switching to an internal battery when an external power source was inadequate or failed, a government press release said.

The newspaper said it was unclear whether Vargas relied on the same model that was voluntarily recalled.

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