Did this father's sleep apnea contribute to the inadvertent death of his infant son?
Sleepiness impairs memory and concentration. We report a case of a patient who inadvertently left his infant son in a car, having forgotten to drop him off at day care. The infant died of heat exposure. There is credible evidence that sleepiness from a combination of sleep deprivation and previously undiagnosed severe obstructive sleep apnea contributed to this tragedy.
Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center, Hennepin County Medical Center, and Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 55145, USA. mahow002@tc.umn.edu
Mark W
MW
Mahowald
Michel
M
Cramer-Bornemann
Holly
H
Hannon
Tariq
T
Janjua
Constance
C
Ullevig
Andrea
A
Patterson