It probably won’t happen at Hopkins, but last year I had what I thought would be a minor surgery performed at a back-water hospital (name with held) and I “flat-lined” on the operating table because of how I answered the Anesthesiologist’s question, “Do you have Sleep Apnea?”
I answered, “NO”, and my answer should have been, “I don’t know.”
The Anesthesiologist, instead of taking my word for it, should have asked, “How do you know you don’t have Sleep Apnea? Have you had a Sleep Study done to ensure you don’t have Sleep Apnea?”
As it happens, I have Sleep Apnea and didn’t know it, so I found out the hard way that if you have Sleep Apnea, some types of anesthesia will kill you. Obviously, the doctors managed to bring me back, but it could have just as easily gone the other way.
My prayers go out for your father.
DJ that is very interesting! I guess everyone should keep in mind “I don’t know” when they really haven’t had things checked!
My dad is a bad snorer, but he has never done a sleep study.
Of course, my husband is MUCH WORSE, horrible, but yet when he finally went to a study (including follow-up recently), he gets low marks (he also got up in the night alot and blamed his bladder). Thankfully he has been on a CPAP since that first time (for my sanity and our marriage), but by their measures he’s “not bad”! Like hell!