With millions of patients struggling with long delays in getting replacements for night-breathing devices recalled by their manufacturer over the machines’ potential health risks, a seasoned health journalist has reported an intriguing, personal counterpoint on the growing prevalence of the problem of sleep apnea and its routine, costly, inconvenient care.
Jay Hancock, who has been a senior correspondent for the independent, nonpartisan Kaiser Health News service (KHN) for a decade and has reported on health care, business, finance, and the U.S. State Department for the Baltimore Sun and the Virginian Pilot, penned his piece in admitted self-interest. That’s because he suffered bouts of drowsiness during the day and his wife told him he snored.
He decided to undergo exams to see if he had sleep disorders. Tests gave him a diagnosis of moderate apnea. Because of his journalistic background, he wrote that he decided he needed to learn more, reporting: