OHSU Hero

Chad C. Hagen, MD, assistant professor of the Sleep Disorders Program at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland is a true medical hero in my eyes. My husband, Leslie Haber, who is 58 years old has suffered from sleep deprivation since a toddler in the crib. Over the years, he has rarely slept. If he sleeps a couple of hours in a row, that's a bonus. Doctors have given him sleeping pills over the years which don't work. He snores so loud that you can hear it in the next county when he does sleep. Once when family came to visit, they left the house in the middle of the night to sleep in the car because of the snoring. The next time they came, they brought earplugs. He's up almost the whole night watching FOX News, doing crossword puzzles, and searching for snacks.

What's amazing to me is that Dr. Hagen says that some people may be born with a facial structure that prediposes them to sleep apnea in some form throughout their lives and are treated with sleeping pills unsuccessfully for years before the condition is diagnosed. What's up with this? It's logical that if someone has breathing passages that are narrow, it's more difficult to breathe. A pill doesn't answer everything and pills most often cause more problems than they solve.

Dr. Hagen says the best solution for my husband is to be attached to a CPAP breathing tube which forces air into his nose, which will allow him to sleep. Thank you, Dr. Hagen.

And who is the medical hero who made the arrangements for Leslie, my husband to be seen by Dr. Hagen? None other than the great medical hero who has an office in West Salem, Elaine Broske.

I love smart, brilliant people who think, search for solutions to help people, and then act.