Chicago man named Christmas dies two days before Christmas

[roster]

Chicago man named Christmas dies two days before Christmas

Chicago Sun-Times

December 24, 2008

FROM STNG WIRE REPORTS
A South Side man named Mark Christmas has died two days before the holiday sharing his name.

Christmas, 36, of the 6200 block of South Michigan Avenue, died of sleep apnea, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office reported. He was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday, said information from the office.

Sleep apnea is a condition where sufferers stop breathing repeatedly as they sleep, sometimes for a minute or longer, according to the American Sleep Apnea Association. The association estimates more than 12 million Americans have sleep apnea.

Further details of Christmas' death were unavailable.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1348 ... 08.article

[packitin]

That's sad. But how do you "die of sleep apnea". I thought that sleep apnea caused the death, but by some other means, such as the apnea causing a heart attack, or a stroke, Or a wife hitting the husband over the head with a frying pan for snoring. I don't really know how I could "die from apnea". Usually the body will eventually "tell" the person to start breathing again before you'd die.
Explain that, please.
Jay

[roster]

Jay, That's a good point, but consider it was in Cook County and I am guessing that showing sleep apnea as the cause of death will allow Mark Christmas to continue to vote.

[sleepycarol]

My thought -- and I am not a medical professional -- is that sleep apnea can cause death if for some strange reason you brain doesn't signal the body to start breathing again. Why wouldn't this be possible?

[Fredman]

Either way you dice it...at least the public is getting the message that sleep apnea is not a condition that you should ignore!

My wife knows of a fellow who had SA and decided to go hunting with his dad and brother. He decided to leave his CPAP at home....wrong. He died in his sleep!

[roster]

Either way you dice it...at least the public is getting the message that sleep apnea is not a condition that you should ignore!

My wife knows of a fellow who had SA and decided to go hunting with his dad and brother. He decided to leave his CPAP at home....wrong. He died in his sleep!

Interesting Fredman, I just posted this a few days back:

........One of our local gunshop owners tells the story of one of his customers who was a cpap user. The user and three of his friends drove to the Charlotte airport to fly to Colorado on a hunting trip. At the airport, the man realized he had forgotten to pack his cpap. Now he was faced with a decision, go home to get the machine and catch a flight the next day to rejoin his friends or go without the cpap.

He told his friends, "I will be ok without the cpap for a few days."

His friends had to make arrangements in Colorado to ship his body to Charlotte in a box.

.........

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37055&p=322569&hili ... do#p322569

[Fredman]

Either way you dice it...at least the public is getting the message that sleep apnea is not a condition that you should ignore!

My wife knows of a fellow who had SA and decided to go hunting with his dad and brother. He decided to leave his CPAP at home....wrong. He died in his sleep!

Interesting Fredman, I just posted this a few days back:

........One of our local gunshop owners tells the story of one of his customers who was a cpap user. The user and three of his friends drove to the Charlotte airport to fly to Colorado on a hunting trip. At the airport, the man realized he had forgotten to pack his cpap. Now he was faced with a decision, go home to get the machine and catch a flight the next day to rejoin his friends or go without the cpap.

He told his friends, "I will be ok without the cpap for a few days."

His friends had to make arrangements in Colorado to ship his body to Charlotte in a box.

.........

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37055&p=322569&hili ... do#p322569

This happened in Canada and was a few years back. So, I guess this can happen more commonly. I know someone posted something recently about camping and how they set up a their battery system with a solar charger. No excuses for power...as to forgetting to pack your CPAP I guess that happens, but my gawd, I would rather forget to take underwear than forget my pal CPAP! Sad story and not to make light of some family's loss, but that's got to be the first thing our packing list anytime we go on any kind of trip.

At the beginning of the month I flew to Vancouver, a day business trip...but I started to think what would happen if for some dumb reason I was stranded in that city without my CPAP! What would I do! What would you do?

[roster]

........ I started to think what would happen if for some dumb reason I was stranded in that city without my CPAP! What would I do! What would you do?

Frightening thought! I would never dare forget it but I guess someone could still it out of the rental car or hotel.

[junie]

Very weird that this happened

[roster]

Some quick and dirty probability calculations. The latest census estimates that there are 5204 people in the U.S. with the surname Christmas. The death rate for the U.S. is 12.5 deaths per 1000 population per year. Using these statistics (12.5 /1000 x 5204) we could assume that 65 people with the surname Christmas will die this year.

Assuming deaths are evenly distributed throughout the year let's estimate the probability of a person surnamed Christmas dying in the five days just before or on Christmas day. 5/365 x 65 = .89. There is nearly a 90% chance that someone named Christmas will die every year in these 5 days.

What are the odd that he will die of slee ... Never mind!

[goose]

Sheesh rooster, I suspected you were one sick dude, but now you've cemented it!!!!

I'm still laughing!!!!!

take care
cheers
goose

[sleepydoll]

That's sad. But how do you "die of sleep apnea". I don't really know how I could "die from apnea". Usually the body will eventually "tell" the person to start breathing again before you'd die. Explain that, please. Jay

Apnea, is a technical term for suspension of external breathing. During apnea there is no movement of the muscles of respiration and the volume of the lungs initially remains unchanged. Depending on the openness of the airways ( and we know that with OSA there isn't any...) there may not be a flow of gas between the lungs and the environment.
Under normal conditions, humans cannot store much oxygen in the body. Prolonged apnea leads to severe lack of oxygen in the blood circulation. Permanent brain damage can occur after as little as three minutes and death will inevitably ensue after a few more minutes unless ventilation is restored.
D.