Health Risks of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Devices?

From time to time the issue is raised about the risks of using these devices, and if the user makes adjustments to them, what the consequences could be. My thoughts have been that I self medicate with two types of insulin several times a day, and that the risk of that is far higher. It turns out that my casual thinking may be more accurate than I thought. CBC our Canadian news outlet has been doing an expose on the risks of medical devices. Here is a link to today's article. When a database of medical device risks was checked the #1 risk was insulin pumps. Over the last 10 years 103 deaths have been linked to insulin pumps. CPAP devices did not even make the top 10 list. And when I did a search of the data base they have using Device Category "UNIT; CONTINUOUS POSITIVE AIRWAY PRESSURE" it came back with two deaths. Both were in the hospital. One was post surgery and apnea was not a factor in the death. The other was with a terminally ill patient. My conclusion is that CPAP devices are very safe, and not a death risk. There is no reason to fear them! There are other medical devices that one should be concerned about though...

In mi case too much pressure caused me CSA now ☹️

Once again Sierra you are right in the details but in this case I do wonder about the bigger picture.

We mere humans tend to misunderstand, misuse and often abuse developing technologies so my first query would revolve around those issues.

The other query is a much more difficult area to get a handle on. Dependence.

Yes it's a ludicrous argument on the surface but is it something we can safely dismiss?

I really do love numbers and statistics.

They are the ultimate tool for the twisted. (that's me) And they are the fastest way to invoke chaos or destroy any opposition yet they still maintain the illusion of respectability.

So what do the numbers say. Two people died with their masks on. Is there a historical precedent?

It is widely accepted that most cowboys died with their boots on.
If they had banned the sale of cowboy boots what would have been the effect?
Barefoot cowboys would have been less inclined to be standing on the hot surface of main street at high noon. Leading to a rapid drop in the death rate of cowboys without boots. The logical conclusion is that cowboy boots were dangerous.
We needn't mention that barefoot cowboys would now be dying of snakebite or gangrene instead.

So is a CPAP machine dangerous?

The jury is out but in the meantime not using one might have worse odds.

In the 3 years since this thread was lost amongst the cobwebs, I have formed the view that CPAP machines may in fact be much more dangerous than I first realized.

It is possible that there are numerous deaths, caused by suffocation, that are currently being attributed to natural causes, especially amongst the elderly and dysfunctional.

How we could know or prove or prevent this I do not know.

Machine Shuts Off

I recently had an event with my ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet. According to the SleepyHead Daily report screen, I was comatose for about 1 hour during the night. Have a look at the screenshot for that night below. I got up at about 6:45 to visit the dunny. I didn't notice anything amiss with the machine. As is my usual routine, I turn it off manually and then remove the mask. Went back to bed about 5-10 minutes later, and put the mask back on again. It then autostarts. If I did not use SleepyHead I would not have known there could be an issue. But in the morning when I got up and checked my results as I usually do, I noticed that there was about a 1 hour gap where no data was recorded. It was as if I had my mask on, but the machine was not running at all. It was in the hour before I got up.

So I wonder what really happened. I am pretty sure I would not tolerate having the mask on and the machine not running. I'm thinking it was a data collection issue with the machine or the transfer of data to SleepyHead. Not sure.... All I am pretty sure about is that I am no longer comatose!

Daylight saving! Of course! It's so obvious now!

History of Time

According to that Canadian article, daylight saving causes heart attacks and traffic accidents! Maybe that's the end result of deleting data.

Cows can be pretty dumb and all Queenslanders (Aussie State) swear that daylight saving stops the cows from milking.

All of these indisputable scientific facts make it highly probable that daylight saving would also glitch the CPAPs!

I read something to the effect that the best thing about ending daylight saving in Tasmania is that you get to watch the sunset over lunch. I guess that's even more true in Canada.