26-year Old Man Dies During Sleep Study

[roster]

.... On January 22, Lewis said, her son's physician arranged for him to be admitted to Emory Healthcare at Wesley Woods on Clifton Rd., NE, for tests as part of Emory's on-going study of sleep apnea. .... "He was fine before he got there," said Renee "Sunshine" Lewis, the mother of the patient who died, 26 year old Brandon Harris. .... "Blood was coming out, and was all over his face and his head. And that's not consistent with a sleep study." .... " his attempts to call for help were ignored while a nurse stood idly by as he struggled to free himself from the equipment he was attached to."

Full article: http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story ... 86&catid=3

[sleepsalot]

Yikes! Can you say "Manslaughter"? I imagine that is what may come out of this. Wonderful! Now all those people freaked out by sleep studies (who isn't?) may decide not to go! Sleep apnea already has a hard time getting noticed by the media, but this certainly will not help. That is frightening to think of the possibilities about what actually happened that night. Thanks for posting this, as it really is interesting seeing as one of my degrees is in criminal justice.

[grady61]

You know...my first sleep study they had an oxygen concentrator generating a lot of heat in the room with me, which was a very small room and in the midde of august. Things were fine until they shut the door. It got so hot I couldnt stand it. The thing is Im waving my arms around and stuff, yelling and nobody came in for close to 45 mins. I got angry and left and filed a complaint. Imagine if that were somebody having a heart attack etc? Good chance they would have died.

[Billy6]

I don't think I'm buying that a nurse was standing by watching this go on, while doing nothing. There has to be more to this tragedy

[grady61]

I don't think I'm buying that a nurse was standing by watching this go on, while doing nothing. There has to be more to this tragedy

Might be they assumed they were watching via monitors but who knows

[Tielman]

Anyone else thinking of Bon Scott (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Scott - See Death section)???

This guy had several other medical issues, and the corner ruled out: Stroke, Heart Attack, and he had no marks on his face or neck. I'd trust the coroner a lot farther than the Mom.

[Hawthorne]

When I had my titration study (7 years ago), there was a middle aged man in for his PSG. He seemed relatively calm and not overly bothered by the prospect of this procedure. I was getting settled in with all my wires, etc and another tech came to get my tech.

I heard a lot of talking to the man in attempts to get him to relax. We were in a hospital sleep lab and, within a very short time (probably minutes), he was wheeled off in a wheelchair, to the ER I suspect. My tech returned and told me that the man seemed to be having some sort of heart issues so they got him off to the ER right away and did not attempt to continue with his test.

The techs, of course, did the right thing! I have no idea what the outcome was but I know that he was immediatley taken where he would get care for whatever was happening to him! The facilities were terrible but the staff was great!

If I had been there for my PSG, I might have been a little more upset by this but I had been through my PSG a couple of months before and had been told that the titration was the same but with a mask and machine.

It would have been unnerving for anyone there for the first time!

[kteague]

What a tragedy. Have to think that early intervention might have changed the outcome. I'm wondering, if family hasn't seen the videos yet how they knew about him struggling for 45 mins with a nurse watching. The way people on here report horrendously low oxygen levels and very long apneas during their diagnostic studies makes me surprised that there aren't quite a good number of crises in sleep clinics, just the odds since the risk is always there. Guess I'm wondering if the blood reportedly seen could have happened during the rescusitation attempts. I do hope that the video and data recording is all made available to the family's legal representatives, although I hope they won't demand to see them personally. Those images will stay with them forever, and it's the knowledge they need, not the visuals. Many years ago when there was a situation where I knew the local police department had been negligent, my attorney got permission for me to hear the recording of the incoming calls prior to my husband's death. The facts speak for themselves, so I hope this family gets the facts, not some PR person's prepared response. Transparency, that's what needed. 100% transparency, and let the chips fall either way. I can say I had one sleep study where I sat on the edge of the bed for 45 minutes calling for the tech and crying and no one came. The tech was also doing some research sleep studies and due to their rigid protocol, the study patients got priority. Had I been in crisis, I'd have gone the way of this young man. If anyone hears the follow-up on this, I hope it gets posted.
EDIT: Another article stated that his uncle and pastor did view the video.

[torontoCPAPguy]

I can tell you that there is no way in the world that it was a nurse that set up my sleep study nor a nurse that watched it all night.... it was MacDonalds burger flipping teens. Period. End of story.

Next time I even think about a sleep study I will ask questions and make sure it is indeed a nurse. It is indeed in a hospital setting. Etc.

Sleep study is a generally benign procedure; my guess is that there was another issue that was simply exacerbated by the sleep study (an aneurism?).

Without all the facts everything is speculation. I can't imagine what a sleep study could do that would kill someone. A tragedy nontheless.

I can tell you one thing. I had to pay a visit during the night and all I had to do was lift my hand and they were in.

[packitin]

deleted

[rosacer]

It' terrible! Hope authorities will find the reason of this man's death.

Rooster could you please keep us informed about the follow up of this case. I would like to know how all this ends; been here in Canada we have no news about that. As somebody told, we don't hear speaking about OSA and there are a lot of preconceived ideas and ignorance about that.

Thanks

rosacer

[roster]

I can tell you that there is no way in the world that it was a nurse that set up my sleep study nor a nurse that watched it all night.... it was MacDonalds burger flipping teens. Period. End of story.

I am sure there will be more details in the press at some point.

Here is something that was posted anonymously as a comment to the news story.

sleeptechGA wrote:
You have to have to have a license to cut and do manicures but not to perform sleep studies in Georgia.

Governor Perdue Signs Legislation into Law on Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Governor Sonny Perdue announced that HB509 was signed into law today, May 12, 2009.

Legislation to revise the Medical Practice Act, HB 509, passed the Senate and House and was sent to the Governor for his signature on April 15. HB 509 includes language that exempts anyone performing polysomnography acts under the supervision of a physician from the necessity of licensure. The language was drafted by the Governor's Counsel and is meant as a temporary fix to the problem that was identified by the Attorney General with delegation of these acts to an unlicensed healthcare professional. They will need to come back in a future session of the legislature to pass a licensure bill for the profession. (SEE ARTICLE 6)

I have been working in a Sleep Lab for over 15 years, I have written The Georgia State Composite Medical Board, Georgia Association of Respiratory Care and the Georgia Association of Sleep Professionals for years about the problems in Georgia sleep labs. There are technicians working in sleep labs placing patients on CPAP/BIPAP, oxygen, and in some labs giving out medications with no training and no license. There are hundreds of sleep labs in metro Atlanta; most are not AASM sleep labs, which mean they can use anyone to perform the studies. This would be a great opportunity for 11 Alive to do some undercover investigation of metro sleep labs.

I will say with 90% undiagnosed, we don't need to be doing something to shut down large numbers of sleep labs.

[elg5cats]

There's most likely more to the story........anytime there is a unexpected death in a place where death isn't anticipated to occur, there's much to investigate. If facts are not provided to families, they may create a set of facts trying to understand what happened. I suspect the reported blood, trauma may be the result of attempts to revive as well. When I was nonresponsive when anesthesia should have ended, I received a sternal rub. My chest was colorfully bruised. I had several small unexplained bruises on my arms (not from BP cuff) and one large unexplained bruise on my forearm. I know how I got the bruises on my chest. I don't know how I got the ones on my arms. I believe I got the big bruise on my forearm from a pinch and twist motion. When I think that I sort of get mad, sort of understand because I know they were frantically trying to wake me up. But I really don't know if I was pinched or not. Since sleep techs are not nurses, it's unlikely a nurse was monitoring him. But it's possible a nurse came to the room after the crisis if the hospital's code team responded. It's not uncommon for staff to be referred to as nurse or physician because they work in a medical environment. Personally, I had a clear difference in experience between sleep labs. My first sleep lab was uneventful. Second, the room was extremely NOISY, I asked for the tech to come into my room every 30 minutes and it was 3 hours before he responded to my request for assistance as the sledgehammer banging noises continued in my room, this same tech was the only employee on site. He creeped me out.....his creepiness in the end was confined to his lack of responsive only. Third sleep lab..............I wish I could go there to sleep every night!!!! It was comfy, felt safe, and staff were excellent for my needs. I suspect this situation really emphasizes potential benefits when sleep labs are at a closer location to immediate emergency care for patients. Hopefully this family will learn all the known facts of the events, if maltreatment occured, it should be addressed. If family is grieving an unexpected death, they will receive helpful support.

elg5cats

[Hawthorne]

While the only sleep study facility I have been in so far was far from well appointed, it was in a hospital, as I said before in this thread. We slept in a hospital bed, complete with a "call button" hooked to the bedding. I was told it was there and to use it if I needed anything.

My last sleep study, the room was so cold I woke at least 3 times for a bathroom trip. Because of the wires, I used the call button. There was a prompt response every time! My PSG and my original titration were in the same facility and the same setup was in place.

I asked the tech, this last one, if the air conditioning was on (it was April) and she didn't know that??? but responded well to the call button!

She did provide me with extra blankets but they were certainly not the warming type of blanket!

It's sad that this happened but there must have been an underlying medical condition , known or unknown.

[bearded_two]

I thought that the sleep center where I did my most recent sleep study was bad because there was only one central bathroom and there was no hot water in the shower. There were two techs for four beds, and one of them always answered the call button immediately every time I had to go to the bathroom.