CPAP Blog

Here’s a weird news item, from the States:

 ADRIAN — An Adrian woman reported to police Friday/Nov. 23 that she found a machine used by sleep apnea patients in her front yard. According to an Adrian Police Department report released Monday/Nov. 26, the woman, 60, found the continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine at about 1 p.m. in the front yard of her Vine Street home.

Source here - Lenawee Connection

I wonder, who looses their CPAP in the middle of the street? It’s not like it’ll fall through the whole in your pocket or something like that. Perhaps this CPAP user was sleep walking and dragged the machine along with him/her! Now that must have been a sight to behold.
If you live in that area and can’t find your CPAP, check with the police.

Loughborough Police announced this week they installed a Cell Occupant and Occupancy Monitoring System (COMS) into their refurbished cells. This monitoring system features radar equipment capable of detection breathing trouble such as experienced by someone choking on their vomit after a night out or by a sleep apnoea patient.

InLoughborough.com reports how the police custody suit was expanded and upgraded, including this fancy new system which allows one police officer to monitor up to four people instead of having assume a one on one position. Four new cells have been built each fitted with radar transmitters that can detect whether the person in the cell is breathing and sound an alarm if it detects a problem. Inspector Clive Thorpe, from the Criminal Justice Unit, said;

“The life signs monitoring system is projected to pay for itself within a year because it will save officer time and free up resources to be used elsewhere.”

Cosatt is the company behind the development of this system. You can read about the technology and principles here. Up to 40 cells can be monitored with one PC and it can be integrated with CCTV and other database systems. Each cell has to be treated to not leak microwaves so the detection system can work optimally. With the WiFi and mobile phone radiation controversy of recent years, I wonder how safe this is in itself. It’s a shame they don’t have specific information on how breathing cessation is detected.

The Leicestershire Constabulary has more information on their website here.

You can land yourself a hi-tech overnight stay from Monday onwards so if you’re curious, you know what to do where… 

Sleep Apnea is a complex disorder and even though I think I understand it all pretty well, there’s nothing like hearing about it from a real doctor (which I’m not). For that reason, I read Michael Rack’s blog, Steven Poceta’s site and Michael Breus’ blog on WebMD. They kow what they are talking about as they have studied these topics for years.

I found another doctor entering the sleep apnea blogosphere today. Dr. Jonathan Greenburg’s Sleep Apnea and Snoring blog is off to a promising start with plenty of useful info in terms we can all understand. Dr. Greenburg has a dentistry background and runs a clinic for sleep apnea patients in California. He recognizes CPAP as the number one form of treatment but also realizes that for some patients, oral solutions may be a good choice too. By offering both solutions he can cater for the entire spectrum of patients.

On his blog you can read why baby boomers are at risk and a guide to sleep apnea with suitable solutions for this disorder.

This blog is a good candidate to be added to the blogroll here, it’s in my feedreader alongside a dozen others I’ll discuss later. Let’s keep an eye on it!