Carrie Fisher died from 'sleep apnea and other causes'

[Hydrangea]

Wreckless news. They just try to throw out every idea they can. :-/

Thank goodness sleep apnea can be treated.

[GoodnightWalter]

"Carrie Fisher drowned in the moonlight, strangled by her own bra.”

[Timur]

Yes, the news on this has been very sketchy and poor. I posted earlier that I was very skeptical about what led to this conclusion. 

I have now read the full autopsy report (24 pages long!) that is available online. 

She was admitted into ICU with an initial  diagnosis of respiratory and metabolic acidosis and was put on dialysis. She had already flat lined on the plane and her Glasgow Coma Score was 3. Abysmal. So her prognosis was pretty bad from the start after she was resuscitated. 

Maybe it was a blessing that she died several days later from another cardiac arrest because almost certainly she would have had some sort of brain damage. 

According to the full autopsy report, Fisher suffered from documented severe sleep apnea.

Obviously she was not using XPAP as she had multiple witnessed apneas while she was sleeping on the long flight back to the USA. 

Was this the tipping point in an already very unhealthy individual on multiple medications/drugs, dehydrated from a long flight, and with a significantly compromised respiratory system from recurrent pneumonia? 


In celebrity cases it is hard to know what is true and what is sensationalist reporting. For sure sleep apnea was a factor, along with many others. 

I thought Carrie Fisher was a remarkably talented person, and so can't but help be interested in this story.

[Newbee2016]

Was wondering if she traveled on 1st or business class where the seat has a nice incline? For those travelling in cattle economy class, pax sleeps almost straight up.

[Crustycabs]

After reading about Carrie Fisher this morning and her death attributed partially to sleep apnea has made very grateful that I am treating my illness.Thank you to all of you that have helped me get adapted and using a machine that will save my life.

well, hopefully you don't also have cocaine, heroin and exstacy in your system.

[personal111]

After reading about Carrie Fisher this morning and her death attributed partially to sleep apnea has made very grateful that I am treating my illness.Thank you to all of you that have helped me get adapted and using a machine that will save my life.

well, hopefully you don't also have cocaine, heroin and exstacy in your system.

Depends, that might just mean you had a good time  

This "news" is all balderdash. You don't die suddenly from sleep apnea, you die from sudden cardiac arrest. The sudden cardiac deaths are people that are 60 years old + with other major health problems. If SA killed that efficiently all the amazingly unhealthy people I see in the sleep clinic should be dropping like flies. They all have hypertension, diabetes and are extremely overweight, some to the point of immobility. They keep showing up at the clinic year after year. Sleep apnea damage is cumulative poison and certainly will help usher in that cardiac event and help it take you out, but the way they are reporting it is extremely misleading. SA is a chronic illness.

Fisher was a coke head, pure and simple.
JOHN BELUSHI told her she had a coke problem.
If JB said you have a coke problem, you had a major coke problem, anything less would have been casual use to him.

If I stubbed my toe and tripped, then fell down the stairs and broke my neck, their logic for my cause of death would be bruised/lacerated toe.
It's one thing to soften the blow a little with the big "D" subject but this is just BS and characteristic gilded treatment for celebrities. If it were you or me it would just say something like xxxx whatever whatever due to long term drug abuse ... you loser.

Here was how one story put it:

'Sleep apnea and other undetermined factors,' other conditions 'Artherosclerotic heart disease, drug use,' how injury occurred 'Multiple drug intake, significance not ascertained,' manner of death undetermined."

Ridiculous

[Dramagal27]

Has anyone seen this?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/29/health/cpa...index.html

(CNN)A new study might tempt some sleep apnea patients to unplug their machines. Continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, does not reduce the risk of heart attacks or other cardiovascular emergencies in sleep apnea patients with heart disease, the researchers say.


Nonetheless, the study went on to say that using CPAP definitely helped with daytime alertness. 

The articles about Carrie Fisher imply that it was her Sleep Apnea that killed her. My father had sleep apnea all his life (no machine used) and heart disease in his latter years, yet still lived til he was nearly 88. I think the message of the article cited here is, "Don't panic". Have your medical issues diagnosed and treated, and use a CPAP for a really good night's sleep, so the next day you won't feel so terrible.

[Madcat207]

Has anyone seen this?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/29/health/cpa...index.html

(CNN)A new study might tempt some sleep apnea patients to unplug their machines. Continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, does not reduce the risk of heart attacks or other cardiovascular emergencies in sleep apnea patients with heart disease, the researchers say.


Nonetheless, the study went on to say that using CPAP definitely helped with daytime alertness. 

The articles about Carrie Fisher imply that it was her Sleep Apnea that killed her. My father had sleep apnea all his life (no machine used) and heart disease in his latter years, yet still lived til he was nearly 88. I think the message of the article cited here is, "Don't panic". Have your medical issues diagnosed and treated, and use a CPAP for a really good night's sleep, so the next day you won't feel so terrible.

I am going to be blunt, and say what a load of crap.  The key phrase i read:

"The team recruited 2,717 patients with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea from 89 medical centers in seven countries. Most of the participants were older (about 61 years old), overweight, snorers and male; all had coronary artery or cerebrovascular disease. "

By the time you are here, you are at significant risk, regardless of CPAP usage. Proper CPAP usage will help pressure and blood 02, but there is way more to treating the risks of heart disease; you must manage diet, exercise and maintain necessary treatment regimes.  If you have active CHF and still eat spoonfuls of salt and fat, then a CPAP will do nothing. This study needs to look at people actively and correctly treating their heart disease, AND are on CPAP.

Even worse, as i know first hand, is that untreated apnea WILL ravage your body before anything like CHF happens, including high blood pressure, weight gain and poor blood ox.  Not to mention, being so tired that you can (and will) fall asleep at the wheel, which also oddly tends to be fatal...

[dwd1249]

If anyone wants to look at the capa setup in this study you can download this .pdf doc.
Participants were on fix cpap min 3 hr. per night

http://www.nejm.org/doi/suppl/10.1056/NE...pendix.pdf