OT -Sleep Apnea surgery

billt01

One of my wife's co-workers of 42 years died last week due to a sleep apnea surgery. The doctors implanted some device that stimulates the part of the throat that closes off. The widow of the deceased also stated they performed a "non-evasive" treatment that thinned some part of the throat. The gent came out of the surgery fine. He awoke to carry on a conversation with the doctor and his wife for ~ 10 minutes. The doctor left the room and he told his wife he was still groggy and wanted to rest a little longer. He went back to sleep and fell into a coma after something went horribly wrong. The widow stated the hospital did NOT have any pulse or oxygen sensors hooked to him after the surgery.

Damn shame...42 years and died because he snored and tried to fix it...

etherdome

Not defending the hospital or surgeon but it's not as simple as "he died because he snored and tried to fix it." Sleep apnea isn't just snoring . It the cessation of breathing countless times during sleep putting a terrible strain on your heart. This process alone will kill you over time. He must have had it terribly bad for them to want to do surgery . 
That being said , I'm sorry to hear this happened to someone. Terrible story.

DoubleEgger

Wow. So terribly sorry to hear that. Prayers for his wife and family. 

blasting

Bill, that is brutal

My chest aches every morning from trying to breathe at night.  Stories like the one you shared prompted me do do something about it, and I'm picking up my new machine on Monday.  It's thanks to people sharing these terrible stories that I did something about it.

nolaegghead

Apnea is hard to self-identify as you're sleeping when it happens.  I convinced SWMBO to get checked out and I think it may have saved her life.  I hope she would do the same for me (although not completely convinced sometimes )

RedSkip

@blasting. Glad you have received a new machine, improvements over the years hopefully will make this round more comfortable for you.  

DieselkW

I was diagnosed with "severe obstructed apnea" two months ago by a VA doctor - I use a cpap at night and the very first morning I noticed two things:

1. I felt rested
2. I had dreams

During the sleep study they told me I went from asleep to almost awake three times a minute. That gave me an uninterrupted sleep of about 20 seconds.

Imagine sleeping 20 seconds, wake up, 20 seconds, wake up, repeat all night. I was spending maybe 15 seconds at a time in REM and they counted one period of time, two hours without REM.

No wonder Apnea can kill you, stroke you out, stress your heart, increase irritability, etc... It's not like I was falling asleep behind the wheel, but I did fall asleep in front of the TV at night.

I was told that I snored in High School, didn't think anything of it.
Boot camp - they thought it was annoying, but mostly fun at my expense.
Early marriage, I would wake up alone many nights. Some nights I went to sleep alone just so she could get a full nights rest. 

I'm 57, a bit overweight at 6', 240 - it's not as much about that as physiology of my respiratory soft parts. Still have my tonsils. 

It's nice to dream again.

THEBuckeye

nolaegghead said:

Apnea is hard to self-identify as you're sleeping when it happens.  I convinced SWMBO to get checked out and I think it may have saved her life.  I hope she would do the same for me (although not completely convinced sometimes )

How did you convince her? I have the same problem. One of many as you know. 

Eggdicted_Dawgfan

Very sad story. 42 is just way too young to depart. Prayers for the family.