This morning, we come in to work to discover that the husband of a young woman colleague is dead. He was twenty-eight and she’s twenty-five.
She says that during the night, she woke to find him thrashing about, and then he quickly became unconscious. She called 911 and then tried CPR, but he was dead by the time the paramedics arrived. I learned that he was quite chubby, and that the early theories are that chronic sleep apnea contributed to his death, but that won’t be confirmed for awhile.
So now this nice young woman, mother to a one year old and about to become a mother again in two weeks, is a widow of very limited means. Her husband was a temporary worker and had no insurance. We’re taking up a collection to help her out, as she’s a great person and hard worker and very well liked here.
Wow… that’s terrible. My heart goes out to your friend.
I had no idea sleep apnea could kill people. Both my parents have it, and have those forced-air blower things (I call them their “superchargers”), and are quite a bit more rested and energetic nowadays.
I’d have been on their asses much earlier if I thought that they could possibly have had that!
I’m convinced my dad’s sleep apnea was, at the least, a major contributing factor to his death eleven years ago. I don’t know if he’d still be here if he’d had a CPAP, but I don’t think those had been invented yet (or, at least, used outside a hospital setting) so it’s probably a non-issue.
If you think you have sleep apnea, people, GET SOME HELP. Please.
I’ve been using one for almost 10 years, and we didn’t have to go through hoops to get it (just went to a home med supply place with my prescription and my insurance), so I’m pretty sure they were commercially available around that time.
Well, everyone at the firm kicked in, and the widow will be given a $4,000 money order to help her out during this time.
I’m told her husband wasn’t even “quite chubby”; he was a fit but stout Samoan guy. That’s scary!
One of my bosses was rather shaken. He has chronic sleep apnea, but he’s quite lean, even skinny. I thought sleep apnea only hit those of us who need to lose a few pounds.
That´s darn sad, reminded me of a class mate I had in HS, after the summer holidays we went back to school for the final exams and I was told that he died in his sleep afew days ago, an aneurism or something like that.
He went to sleep like every night and never woke up; he was 17.
Sad story, but just wanted to pick up on this; I just learned CPR this week, taught by an ambulance technician… When you are doing CPR, the person is already technically dead - after all, the heart has stopped beating.
With CPR what you are doing is giving oxygen to keep the brain alive and the heart ready to be reanimated for when the ambulance gets there - by the defibrillator, not the CPR itself. Otherwise, after 10 minutes without oxygen, the person is brain dead and there is NOTHING that the paramedics can do to bring the person back.
So I’m a bit surprised that the paramedics gave up upon arriving - if she was doing CPR, his brain and heart should have been ok - especially considering his age. Althought I also remember that our CPR instructor told us that as a paramedic, he intervened in 32 cases of cardiac arrest with only 1 person being revived… But how many of those cases was the victim being given CPR before they arrived? two - with the person they revived being one of those two of course!!
It does. It’s…not convenient. I find taking a short midday nap on the weekends more work than it’s worth with having to get the mask on and adjusted and everything. And cuddling with your loved one while sleeping is difficult. But the alternative is a nightmare, so it’s acceptable.
I hate to express my gross ignorance, but a lot of attention has been given to the fact that people can have life-threatening heart problems without knowing it until they keel over. If someone has sleep apnea, does he usually know it? Or does he just wake up tired every day without knowing why? Is this something else that could kill us by surprise?
It kind of depends on whether you live with someone else or not (roommate or more than that). Usually, people don’t realize they snore unless someone else tells them. And the snoring is the major sign of sleep apnea. However, if you do live alone, or you live with someone who sleeps so soundly that even they don’t realize you snore badly, not being able to get through the day without nodding off, all the time, regardless of how long you slept the night before, is a really good sign of it. So is waking up a lot in the night, or the feeling that the night is REALLY long because it seems like every time you do wake up, it’s only a few minutes later than it was before. I personally had one car accident and several near-misses because I fell asleep at the wheel before I was diagnosed.
Of just plain snoring? Probably. Of sleep apnea? Nope. Sleep apnea involves the pharyngeal area of the throat, not the nose. Those little strips can’t keep your airway open.
I had been trying to get my fiancee to see our doctor about this for some time. He snores so loudly most nights that he can drown out the C-5’s flying over our house. He used to stop breathing during the night and then he’d start gasping for breath. It scared the crap out of me. He was always tired and would fall asleep at the computer or on the couch a lot.
Then, about 2 years ago, our doctor started treating him for some mysterious breathing problem. He doesn’t seem to have asthma but he had a very low blood oxygen level. He now has an inhaler (which he rarely needs) and he takes Advair every day. Ever since then, his sleep breathing is normal. He still snores like a friggen freight train but so do all the males in his family - even the 5 year old. He doesn’t stop breathing anymore. He’s also more awake during the day.
I can tell you that sleeping with someone who may have sleep apnea is a truly frightening experience. I’m not nearly as worried anymore but I think that after reading the OP, I’m going to mention the snoring to our doctor. Sometimes, going behind his back is the only way to let the good Doc know what’s going on.
I also have to say that you and your coworkers are awesome. That you raised so much money in such a short amount of time is amazing.
