A 55-year-old construction worker from Vietnam has experienced four motorbike crashes within nine months due to excessive daytime sleepiness, which is attributed to undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This case, documented in the American Journal of Case Reports, is similar to the sleep disorder of U.S. President Joe Biden, who has been using a CPAP machine to manage his condition.
The patient reported frequent nighttime snoring and abrupt awakenings gasping for air, along with morning headaches and drowsiness. His weight had increased by 22 pounds over two years. On the day of his admission, he fell and bruised his right eye after collapsing from exhaustion.
Physicians from a Military Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City diagnosed him with OSA and obesity hypoventilation disorder (OHD). They prescribed a CPAP machine, which he used for six hours nightly. After three months, his sleep improved, he lost nearly 5 pounds, and his high blood pressure normalized. He also reported feeling alert enough to drive safely.
OSA is a condition where the upper airways become blocked during sleep, affecting roughly 39 million Americans annually. It is commonly associated with obesity and aging. In addition to increasing the risk of traffic accidents, OSA is linked to a higher likelihood of strokes, heart disease, and dementia.
The physicians highlighted the increased risk of accidents due to daytime sleepiness and called for greater awareness of this issue in Vietnam. They noted that approximately 328,000 crashes in the U.S. each year are linked to drowsiness, with a significant portion of the population not achieving the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep per night.