Can OSA directly kill you?

rooster wrote:

....... a long fall off a tall building .........

You will live longer falling off a 100-story building compared to a 50-story building.

guest wrote:It's not the long fall. It's the sudden stop.. Shocked

I think the above quotes answer the question.

It's like asking: "Will jumping off a building kill me?"

Answer: "Not necessarily, but it's often a contributing factor to that final stop at the end of the fall."

Untreated apnea is like taking a leap, then waiting to see how fast your life ends when you make that sudden stop. Some may get lucky, like the guy who fell out of a Minnesota hotel and only broke a bone or two, but most of us will land in a bloody mess at the bottom.

So why take the risk?

We heard of someone we knew that passed away in his sleep earlier this week.....he was 55. Haven't heard many details, but a rumor was that he had had heart problems sometime back.....may have had some stents installed.

Naturally, the first thought that came to my mind was "apnea?". Who knows?

Den (not too emotional about it.....he was one of my wife's ex-husbands)

Ask him for permission to take out some additional life insurance on him...If he asks why, you just tell him that you need the money, and you'll have it soon.....
One never knows what will work!!!

Keep at it Christy -- It's a freak out, I know, but so far you've made it through and are waking up each morning.....take it one night at a time. For a full face option you might want to try a Hybrid or Liberty as it doesn't cover the whole face like the others, just the mouth and uses pillows for the nose....Just a thought.
For me, I just keep telling myself that the phobia is "silly".....it's just a plastic mask. I try to make it a mental game that I insist on winning......

Good luck -- Take care
cheers
goose

goose wrote:Ask him for permission to take out some additional life insurance on him...If he asks why, you just tell him that you need the money, and you'll have it soon.....
One never knows what will work!!!

Keep at it Christy -- It's a freak out, I know, but so far you've made it through and are waking up each morning.....take it one night at a time. For a full face option you might want to try a Hybrid or Liberty as it doesn't cover the whole face like the others, just the mouth and uses pillows for the nose....Just a thought.
For me, I just keep telling myself that the phobia is "silly".....it's just a plastic mask. I try to make it a mental game that I insist on winning......

Good luck -- Take care
cheers
goose

Yeah I think those would be loverly if they didn't have to sit on the top of my upper lip (At least I'm assuming since I've never actually physically seen one...) But as I've discovered with both the F&P 406, and the ComfortGel it doesn't take much pressure on my upper lip to cause severe tooth pain. And my teeth are still recovering from them after getting the OptiLife just over a week ago. I did see a post about the Hans Rudolph 7600 VIP Full Face Mask, and I could probably be able to stand that it would probably take a lot more self convincing each night, but I would sure try. I don't know if I can get one of those through the Hospital DME though, and I definitely can't afford to purchase one out of pocket at the present time.

Thanks for the encouragement,
Christy

Yeah -- the ComfortGel caused me the same problem. I'm going to try a smaller gel and silicon to see if it fits better -- I don't need my teeth moved around (one thing I DON'T have problems with ). It also caused a deep ridge in the bridge of my nose - I wear pad-less glasses so they sit right where the sore ridge was.....That's the reason I changed to the EVO Headrest (Aura).

If you do the Hans Rudolph, be aware of the size issue. I'm going to invest the $14 in the size calipers just to be sure. I believe it's socknitster has one and she said that the size is very important and that if you size in between sizes, go for the smaller mask....I'm going to try that one as well when I can afford another mask.....(Unemployed presently so it'll be a while).....

take care
cheers
goose

johnnygoodman wrote:I think the simple direct answer to your question is no, Sleep Apnea will not kill you directly like a bullet, a long fall off a tall building or anything equally as morbid and sudden. Your body will always force you to wake up enough to breathe if it has the strength left to do it.

I vehemently disagree. While the only way to know for sure would be monitoring the patient at the moment of the catastrophic event, the incidence of significant arrhythmia during apneic events is clearly documented. And statistically

Conclusions
People with obstructive sleep apnea have a peak in sudden death from cardiac causes during the sleeping hours, which contrasts strikingly with the nadir of sudden death from cardiac causes during this period in people without obstructive sleep apnea and in the general population.

Day–Night Pattern of Sudden Death in Obstructive Sleep Apnea

SAG

The untreated Sleep Apnea sufferer died quietly in his sleep.......
Unlike his three passengers who died screaming !!!!!!

(Anon)

StillAnotherGuest wrote:While the only way to know for sure would be monitoring the patient at the moment of the catastrophic event...

Like this one, for instance:



SAG

My brother had OSA and died from a heart attack caused by it. He harldy worn his mask and when he died he didn't have his mask on.

So absolutely it can kill you.

Bamalady wrote:Conclusions People with obstructive sleep apnea have a peak in sudden death from cardiac causes during the sleeping hours, which contrasts strikingly with the nadir of sudden death from cardiac causes during this period in people without obstructive sleep apnea and in the general population.

Whoops! I see Bamalady had noted this study earlier in this thread.

Please accept this gift as my apology, it's another patient suffering cardiac arrest following an apnea.



Now, these patients had pretty bad apnea, and the incidence of catastrophe is directly related to sleep apnea severity. The Yale Yaggi study showed the incidence of stroke or death from any cause to be 3.30 times greater in the AHI>36 group than control group (AHI 3 or less) vs about 1.75 times greater in the other groups.

What was disconcerting was the speed with which that happened, within a median of 3.4 years.

But it's not like simple EDS can create a problem.

Anon wrote:The untreated Sleep Apnea sufferer died quietly in his sleep.......
Unlike his three passengers who died screaming !!!!!!

OK, bad example. I guess getting properly diagnosed and treated isn't a "put off 'till tomorrow" kind of thing.
SAG

Oooh, that NEJM article appears to be available online (kinda back-door):

Yale Yaggi Study

A REAL interesting paragraph is

Finally, some of the hazard ratios for known cardiovascular risk factors did not achieve statistical significance in our modeling. There are several possible reasons. First, patients with previous cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events were excluded from our cohort and the median 3.4 years of follow-up may not have been long enough for new events related to these traditional risk factors to develop in this cohort. Second, the concurrent treatment of these conditions probably reduced their effect on the composite outcome. Third, deaths from noncardiovascular causes (which were included in our composite outcome) may have reduced the measurable effect of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.

I gotta dig up that old tracheostomy vs weight loss study, those figures were pretty astounding.
SAG

Wulfman... wrote:We heard of someone we knew that passed away in his sleep earlier this week.....he was 55. Haven't heard many details, but a rumor was that he had had heart problems sometime back.....may have had some stents installed.

Naturally, the first thought that came to my mind was "apnea?". Who knows?

Den (not too emotional about it.....he was one of my wife's ex-husbands)

I remembered making this post last fall, and felt the need to post some information I just found out yesterday (through my wife, who found out more from one of his sisters).

As it turned out, "the deceased" DID have severe sleep apnea and had been a CPAP user......but the night of his demise, he was called into work and it was late when he got home (or sometime in the morning) and he did NOT use his equipment when he went back to bed. He didn't wake up.


Den