 Sleep isn't a luxury. It isn't optional. When I go to bed, I'm thinking about this tube that I'm connecting, wondering what's in the machine. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think a CPAP machine would hurt me. It was like a catch-22. If I don't use the machine, I could die the first night. It doesn't matter how much I scream, nobody hears it. The company knew it for years, didn't say a damn thing. I was seven years old when I started playing drums. I used to take out my frustrations and life on the drums and beat the hell out of them. It's too early for you breakfast. It's too early, okay? It's too early. Alright? Your brother wants to play with you. I started a music store. I did that for like 15 years. We had a lot of bands that are touring the world out of that. See you guys later, alright? When I come back, I'll give you guys ice cream, okay? I have sleep apnea very badly. I wake up choking. Thank you. Initially, I thought that the CPAP machine was kind of like a gimmick, so I just thought, come on. What happened to people in the Chlorial Tons when they didn't have a CPAP machine and my lung doctor said they died. I was like, well, that makes sense. I've been sleeping next to Alan for 52 years. Science majors. We became lab partners. We had frogs that we were going to be dissecting. We made friends with our frog and released it. Anybody who likes frogs is a good person. So we started dating. I woke up one night going, ugh, and I knew what that meant. I was fitted with a CPAP. I mean, I'll never forget that day. I wanted to do things I could think better. It was like I was young. You know, Carol said I need to do something about my snoring. If you were my 3 o'clock patients, you would probably see me going like, you know. I've been seeing Carol and Alan Stark for at least 8 to 10 years. Okay, alright. Come on back. Until I got the CPAP adjusted right, I just realized I'm awake. Your apnea index is beautiful at 3.1 per hour. A CPAP machine is a motor that generates air pressure. That gentle air pressure is keeping the airway from collapsing during the night. Every time that airway collapses, the body thinks that an emergency is about to happen. So if this is happening every night, every week, every month, every year, this is associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, and a number of other complications. Headaches, palpitations, daytime drowsiness, lack of focus, concentration issues, memory issues. When we diagnose sleep apnea and you see the beautiful REM sleep that they get into, to me that's more beautiful than a Picasso. It's just the most stunning, gorgeous thing in the world. I looked at it as like an ally. It saved my life. In 2018, I got the second machine, the dream station. How much time? My sleep apnea doctor said, you have to get this machine. It's much better. I noticed it right away. I started having a really scratchy throat. And then I went to my doctor and he said, oh my god, you sound horrible. And then I noticed at work, I just was coughing constantly. I can't breathe when I close my eyes. I feel like I breathe through a straw. I actually thought my sore throat just came back, and when I went back for all the tests and all the blood work, he said, you're in remission right now. It's not that. Aggressively, my lungs just got worse and worse and worse to the point where after a show, it would take me 20 minutes to get off stage. I just couldn't breathe. So I had to give up drawing, teaching the whole day. Everybody, Cleveland Clinic said there's something missing in the puzzle. Foam, muddy foam. This foam was meant to keep the machine as quiet as possible. That stuff is flaking off. It's like disintegrated. I've been inhaling this. It was a Monday, I believe. I got an email that said, Resperonix is having this nationwide recall. Then everything just hit. The phones are just lighting up and everything and people are calling and people are angry. We don't know what to do and what should we do and what's going on. Looking into a massive recall of millions of sleep apnea machines. Due to sound abatement foam used inside that could degrade. They had identified tiny particles of the insulation could get into the machine and into the tubing and the particles put lungs at risk. They had patients who had black particles over the years. We didn't know what it was. The DreamStation was one of the most commonly used positive airway pressure devices in the United States, if not the world. Nearly 100% of our patients were on DreamStation devices at the time of the recall. I feel betrayed. I'm angrier on behalf of those patients. There were patients who had just started on CPAP who reported really significant sinus irritation, respiratory irritation, cough issues. We adjusted pressure settings. We thought maybe they had allergy issues. Never occurred to us that oh there could be something going on in a respironics machine. They said we will have a website up for everyone to submit their serial numbers. So Monday at 8 a.m. I said okay we've gotten our serial numbers in. Our patients are going to be first in line. It's all going to be done. It's all going to be done. Little did I know. Medical device recall notification. We are so backed up on devices. There are so many devices that still have to go out. So we're kind of at a minimum now. Is there an outlet on that side Carol? You're just sitting at home waiting for your CPAP that never comes. So we've used old machines that we had and discovered that we've actually used machines that had also been recalled. If your two choices are not breathing at night and getting terrible sleep and falling asleep talking to a patient in the afternoon or driving home at 5 o'clock at night or risking toxic chemical exposure, it's an impossible choice. He always falls asleep before me but I go to sleep listening to his deep rhythmic breathing. And that's as comforting to me I think as a heartbeat is to a baby. The way I heard about the recall was through Facebook. My wife Pat saw an ad for a law firm that said have you had complications? Do you use this machine? I just started thinking to myself oh my gosh this is the missing piece of the puzzle. If I don't use the machine I would choke to death. And I couldn't afford a new machine it was like $950. I thought I had episodes that were like seizures but they said no. They look like seizures but they're oxygen deprivation. I'm Mark Edwards here to register. And if you'll just take a peek at them and just make sure everything's correct on there. It's going to be a little tight. Yeah it's okay. I had three top specialists tell me that the Royal Phillips CPAP machine destroyed the walls of my lungs. So I went to this guy and he recommended Dr. Candace Hurlick. And she looked down my throat and she found this huge growth in my throat. She did surgery on me. Once the walls of your lungs are shot it's a matter of time. Alright you ready to take a look? Breathe through your nose for me. I'm not seeing any masses lesions cancer and a regrowth. You're now dealing with symptoms of oxygen deprivation which is making you pass out. That needs to be investigated further. I can't even see your vocal cords because you're squeezing down again so much. Yes, yes. We have many patients who have been diagnosed with cancer and respiratory issues during the time that they have been on these machines. I can't know how much is attributable. If everybody got some level of breakdown then we don't know what the cumulative facts are going to be over time. I was just searching your chart to say have we gotten any communication from respironics and the answer is no we have not. I have reservations because I can't be sure I'll be informed if there are future problems. There are many people who have lost trust because of what's happened. It's very, very sad. When I prescribed CPAP I thought I was prescribing air. My name is on those CPAP machine prescriptions and there was nothing that I was ever given to say to patients, yes you are giving air but these are the risks. I've refilled out their forms online several times. Yes, I agreed with the auto setting, please send me my CPAP. New letter, same letter. I got an email saying that they were shipping it and the tracking number that I copied and pasted was invalid. I want a new device. I want the device I wanted soon because it's been two and a half years. This is one of my favorite places. I didn't feel like I had any particular risk factors for cancer before. I realized that despite my best efforts to live a healthy life I could have been exposed to things that would shorten my life. It was a shocking revelation to me. Luke should be further than that from Elwin. And Lulu should be further than that from Elwin. It was a feeling of being out of control and I realized that I might not be able to be in my grandchildren's lives. I might not be able to be there for them in a way that I wanted to be and love them and let them know they could grow up to be whoever they were. Elwin, can you tip it over all the way? Yes. I've had a little long time. There is definitely a certain unfairness in it that you can do everything right and the people who should be taking care of things are not. Well, the Dream Station arrived. They came in a very battered box. It is totally non-functional. Dream Station humidifier kit. Frankly, I feel like it's too little, too late. I'd say let's call this good, okay? Yes, perfect. If you have a recall, you need to have a plan to give them something so they can breathe. It's not trivial. Phillips has agreed to pay $479 million to compensate users. But as part of the settlement, it admits no wrongdoing. I don't know how that settlement is going to care for future cases of complications for patients. It's certainly not going to account for all of the misery and stress and anxiety. I'm still feeling that they're not helping to take care of patients as well as they should be. I haven't seen these in four years. My dad picked out the call before he passed away. I would have gotten black. And I said to him, are you sure? And he's like, I'm sure, son. I have one foot in the next life. From one foot in this life. I just cannot fathom how a human being could do that to not just one person, but thousands and thousands of people.