OSA and the DMV

[BlackSpinner]

Big Brother is getting bigger every year. I would expect to see more and more requirements for doctors to report everything to the government as part of socialized medicine, and for Big Brother to start using this against the peasants more and more often.

Requiring doctors to report OSA would be an incredibly bad idea. Once the word gets out, anyone who thinks they may have apnea will have a strong incentive to conceal it and not get tested. You'll end up with many more untreated apnea patients driving around. "Dear patient, please take this expensive uncomfortable test so I can take away your driver's license."

Since it's such a bad idea, expect it to become law soon across the country.

It works fine everywhere else. Pilots, truckers, and others manage it everyday.

[Goofproof]

Big Brother is getting bigger every year. I would expect to see more and more requirements for doctors to report everything to the government as part of socialized medicine, and for Big Brother to start using this against the peasants more and more often.

Requiring doctors to report OSA would be an incredibly bad idea. Once the word gets out, anyone who thinks they may have apnea will have a strong incentive to conceal it and not get tested. You'll end up with many more untreated apnea patients driving around. "Dear patient, please take this expensive uncomfortable test so I can take away your driver's license."

Since it's such a bad idea, expect it to become law soon across the country.

It works fine everywhere else. Pilots, truckers, and others manage it everyday.

If you want a job exempt from government regulation, run for public office, it's almost as good as being illegal. Jim

[kteague]

Saw this in an article on the subject...

"Patients diagnosed with sleep apnea syndrome are 2 to 6 times as likely than healthy control subjects to be involved in a MVA."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1495589/

[BlackSpinner]

Saw this in an article on the subject...

"Patients diagnosed with sleep apnea syndrome are 2 to 6 times as likely than healthy control subjects to be involved in a MVA."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1495589/

Mythbusters did an episode on driving sleep deprived. It was horrifying the mistakes those guys made on a simple drive. It was worse then when they were drunk.

[chunkyfrog]

Mythbusters:

[flatag]

Saw this in an article on the subject...

"Patients diagnosed with sleep apnea syndrome are 2 to 6 times as likely than healthy control subjects to be involved in a MVA."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1495589/

Mythbusters did an episode on driving sleep deprived. It was horrifying the mistakes those guys made on a simple drive. It was worse then when they were drunk.

Do you use wikipedia as your source too.

[BlackSpinner]

Saw this in an article on the subject...

"Patients diagnosed with sleep apnea syndrome are 2 to 6 times as likely than healthy control subjects to be involved in a MVA."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1495589/

Mythbusters did an episode on driving sleep deprived. It was horrifying the mistakes those guys made on a simple drive. It was worse then when they were drunk.

Do you use wikipedia as your source too.

Sure and I asked my favourite crystal ball reader to speak to some ghosts too.

There are plenty of valid studies on the net - some going back 100 years. Some off them have been posted here in various threads. Mythbusters illustrated them by letting people actually SEE how people drive under the influence of sleep deprivation.

[Wonderbeastlett]

Well it looks like another obvious point here is whether you feel the DMV should have a right to know! I honestly can see both sides. I understand that driving is a priviledge not a right. If you drive drunk or without a seatbelt etc the government can take away your priviledge to drive! So driving safely is a must!

On the other hand there are tons of laws in place to keep private info private! You don't have to inform your employer of medical Issues, the army's don't ask don't tell law for homosexual soldiers etc. So this just seems to me to be under the privacy of each individual.

[chunkyfrog]

Options for voluntarily giving up one's license are few:
For an elderly person, losing one's car is a significant loss of independence
--especially where public transit is inadequate or unsafe.
And shysters prey on shut-ins. Anything delivered for a PRICE!
You can't carpool if no one has a car,
The grand kids only want to go to the mall--Putting gas in their tank is a good plan, if only it worked. . .
There used to be a volunteer drivers program here, but it was only available for doctor visits; it died years ago.

[BlackSpinner]

Well it looks like another obvious point here is whether you feel the DMV should have a right to know! I honestly can see both sides. I understand that driving is a priviledge not a right. If you drive drunk or without a seatbelt etc the government can take away your priviledge to drive! So driving safely is a must!

On the other hand there are tons of laws in place to keep private info private! You don't have to inform your employer of medical Issues, the army's don't ask don't tell law for homosexual soldiers etc. So this just seems to me to be under the privacy of each individual.

So you think it is a good idea for some sleepy dude with 2 tons of steal to drive into a school bus at 50 mph? To protect his privacy while he kills people?

[BlackSpinner]

Options for voluntarily giving up one's license are few:
For an elderly person, losing one's car is a significant loss of independence
--especially where public transit is inadequate or unsafe.
And shysters prey on shut-ins. Anything delivered for a PRICE!
You can't carpool if no one has a car,
The grand kids only want to go to the mall--Putting gas in their tank is a good plan, if only it worked. . .
There used to be a volunteer drivers program here, but it was only available for doctor visits; it died years ago.

Ah yes. We took away moms drivers license when she decided that red lights were a personal insults she could ignore. For some reason Dad is starting to feel the same way. Which is one of the reasons I moved here. Yep these people should be allowed to drive anyway because it might inconvenience there kids.

My groceries in Montreal were delivered to my home for $3 by the grocery store. The drug store delivered for free.

[Wonderbeastlett]

This is not so much what I think but what the government thinks. There are no laws stopping a person with insomnia from driving whether they have treatment or not. I completely understand why a trucker/school bus driver/plane would have to report sleep apnea. That's putting not just him or others in danger but it's also a lawsuit for the company.

I feel there's no need to share OSA. If you're getting treatment and being compliant why should you tell? It's a persons choice to make whether their going to drive safely or not! People choose to drive drunk/high and laws are in place to stop that yet it still happens. Why? Because we are humans who have choices! I never want to see drunk drivers kill kids but even laws can't stop that! So does that mean people now should lose the right to even have a choice?

[flatag]

So you think it is a good idea for some sleepy dude with 2 tons of steal to drive into a school bus at 50 mph? To protect his privacy while he kills people?

It's obvious you cannot discuss this topic in a rational manner. I guess if you had your way every medical record would be public knowledge. Also, every collage aged male would be denied a drivers licence because they are ALL sleepy dudes.

[chunkyfrog]

I've worked in retail: the $3 charge gets to be a lot more,
because the 'shopper' puts only the high profit items in the basket.
It's part of the instructions the manager gives him.
I like the senior price bus ride to the discount stores a lot better.
Shopping locally online might be an option--giving the car-less citizen some choices.
Not offered here, though. It's pretty much,"drive or die" here.

[WearyOne]

Let’s see, maybe it should be required that things such as these be reported so they can yank licenses:

- People who have IC (interstitial cystitis) because during a flare they might cause a wreck rushing to the nearest McDonald’s to use the bathroom. (I have this, so I know what I’m talking about regarding the sudden, painful have-to-go-now. And it’s not an infection, but a health problem that has flare- and non-flare times, and is basically incurable.)

- People with IBS-D for basically the same reason above.

- Students in college during exam times because they’re pulling all-nighters and might fall asleep driving to class.

- Mothers who’ve recently had a baby because we all know how sleep-deprived you become caring for a newborn. (And dad’s, too, sometimes.)

- People who show other issues during a sleep study besides OSA, even if they’re being successfully treated for OSA.

- People whose numbers show they’re being successfully treated for OSA, but they’re still sleepy during the day and the docs don’t have a clue as to why.

…and the list could go on.

Or better yet, you have to blow into some new gadget on your car that can tell whether you’re “awake” enough to drive. (Wait, that won’t work; you could have someone else do that for you, just like my BIL did for the real ones they have to test for alcohol on your breath.) Or cars that know what the speed limit is and won’t let the car go over that, therefore eliminating speeding and the wrecks that causes.

In case someone thinks I’m serious, I’m definitely not.

I believe the truckers that have the strict requirements are those with a CDL, and those, I believe, are mostly reserved for the huge trucks that can cause much more damage/injury/loss of life. I could be wrong on that, though. Pilots—not totally related since they’re not driving on the roads.

And actually, there are people with mild OSA that even untreated they are not really that sleepy during the day.