Brandon Harris, Atlanta Man, Dies During Videotaped Sleep Study (VIDEO)

The last hours of Brandon Harris' life were captured on film after the Atlanta man unexpectedly died during a routine sleep study.

MyFox Atlanta reports that Harris' family has filed a lawsuit against Emory Healthcare claiming that the hospital could have done more to prevent their loved one's death.

The family told MyFox Atlanta that Harris, who was mentally handicapped, was "very overweight, and suffered from congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy, diabetes and high blood pressure" and that those conditions made it risky for Harris to sleep on his back for long periods of time.

"We never knew he'd be dead," Renee "Sunshine" Lewis, Harris' mother told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Brandon did not receive the appropriate care from [the sleep center]. Actually, in my opinion, he received no care at all."

The hospital has declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

Nevertheless, Georgia lawmakers are already moving forward to address a possible need for more regulation of sleep study facilities.

CBS Atlanta reports that Georgia State Senator Vincent Fort appeared with members of Harris' family at a press conference to introduce a bill that would require 24-hour surveillance and CPR training for staff at sleep study facilities.

Comments

[sleeprus]

10:35 AM on 03/10/2012

I am a Registered Sleep Technologist and my opinion on this is that - the patient sleeps-in in a center and is monitored during the night. This patient, because he's morbidly obese, probably has Sleep Apnea for many years, and if I might add severe sleep apnea. He has slept like this for months, maybe years on end, each and every night courting a heart attack or stroke. Too bad it happened on the night of the sleep study.

I know for a fact that one cannot even be a sleep tech trainee without CPR training. This is one of the basic requirement to be a sleep tech. However, based on the story, it is unclear whether CPR was done by the tech.

[rockysparks]

07:14 AM on 03/09/2012

Look, my ex-wife was morbidly obese and developed all sorts of ailments related to that, including sleep apnea. She had to sleep propped up at night so her oxygen flow wouldn't choke off. We did put her in a sleep clinic in order to confirm the sleep apnea diagnosis --- it was a very difficult thing for her to go through because they insisted she completely sleep on her back.

Yeah, people often need to take responsibility for their own obesity. There are many factors --- hereditary, psychological, poor lifestyle choices --- that factor in as the cause, but once the problem is there, it's VERY hard to recover from and VERY hard to treat, especially when we start talking about morbid obesity.

Sleep clinics need to be run by people who are fully trained in understanding the additional problems of morbidly obese patients. You can't always just drop 'em in a bed and say, "We'll see you in the morning with your results." This sad story demonstrates the reason why.

[TeeSC]

04:10 PM on 03/16/2012

Well, "insist" might be a little strong.  (Although I wouldn't suggest that it isn't true).  They explained to me that the BEST results would be me sleeping on my back... both before the C-pap and with it... but never did they insist upon it.  They even emphasized that sleeping naturally was the whole point of the study... to review my sleep patterns.  

And from what I understand... the camera is on all night.

[moon child620]

03:38 AM on 03/09/2012

I bet if this happened to a white family their wouldn't be so many hateful comments. I feel sorry for those of you out their making snide remarks. I pray this never happens to your kids. FYI you can have sleep apnea and NOT be obese/over weight. My heart goes out to this family.

[kathy smelser]

10:54 AM on 03/09/2012

i really do not believe that anyone made this a color issue .....the center should have done more ...why didnt someone go and stay with them through the test ...?i feel sorry for the family ...

[Maxine]

11:44 PM on 03/08/2012

Some of the posts here are cruel. With the little information given in this article, there is no way you can make such callous judgements, not having experienced these problems for yourself.

[TedEjr]

08:14 PM on 03/08/2012

I am a person with sleep apnea, so I have been through several sleep studies. All of which were in
Florida at the time.

My recollection is that I was under constant videotaping and monitoring. But, since I was asleep, I cannot confirm it.

;-)

However, I can't imagine how a sleep clinic can gather the information they need WITHOUT constant monitoring. That is the whole purpose of a sleep study.

It appears that my newly adopted state of Georgia has a long way to go.

[TeeSC]

04:15 PM on 03/16/2012

Agreed.  With all the things hooked up to me, it wouldn't make any difference if they were actually watching me or not.  ALL of your movements, etc. are recorded.  I accidentally pulled out the nose thingie and seconds later lights were on and the tech was readjusting it.

[Bare Bones]

07:22 PM on 03/08/2012

oh great. the greedy opportunist won't care if they put everyone out of business. geez

[Symphysodon]

05:18 PM on 03/08/2012

Unless the Sleep Center fed this dude cheeseburgers, throw this case out of court!

[Scottsman]

12:20 PM on 03/08/2012

As a Polysomnography Tech (Sleep Tech) it is Law to monitor a patients EKG, Oxygen saturation,respiration and observe the patient at all times during a sleep study. It is rare to have a death during a study, but we see very sick patients nightly. But sadly not all labs are well staffed or trained for emergencies.

[bngd]

08:51 AM on 03/08/2012

No. His obesity killed him. And they didn't do enough to prevent that either.

[mvp019a]

12:02 AM on 03/08/2012

I had a brother with muscular dystrophy, and was at the point of being on a respirator. In 1986 his respirator malfunctioned and he died. My family did not even think to sue, because no amount of money was going to bring him back.

We don't need a freaking law to counter a 1 in 15,000 incident - that is one reason why our legal system is so screwed up today. You cannot legislate away all risk in life. Sometimes stuff just goes wrong, things happen - it was a heart breaking tragedy for our family to lose our brother/son, just as it is for this family. But in both cases, there were underlying health problems.

Too many laws already, and DEFINITELY too many d@mn attorneys.

[kathy smelser]

10:57 AM on 03/09/2012

Sorry about your loss ...but i agree with you

[soma-]

02:46 AM on 05/05/2012

The problem isn't the lawyers, it's greed and politicians (who don't count as attorneys to me). I could be wrong, but I would hazard a guess that the family approached legal council, not the other way around. The vast majority of attorneys try to avoid court altogether; that's essentially their main job. Far more time is spent trying to get things resolved for other people as quickly as possible without a trial, because that's the least expensive option.

Seeing a trial just means somebody is unwilling to accept a settlement or thinks they have a really really good case, because it just ends up costing both parties much more in the end. Either way, it's typically settled when the insurance companies finally get involved, since they are on the hook for any payments in the end.

[Deep-Sigh]

09:12 PM on 03/07/2012

I continue to be amazed at the blame the victim mentality the majority of comments seem to reflect. HP wrote a poor synopsis of the circumstances surrounding the young man's death, folks are too lazy to view the video, no one wants to read the more accurate news articles but yet everyone seems to jump on the "it's his own fault" train. Ya'll are some sad and sorry people.

[grkow]

07:50 PM on 03/07/2012

The only reason this story should have been "news" is if the family realized his demise was fate, since he was dealt a bad hand at birth, and stated they would not attempt to benefit financially.

Is it any wonder the number of lawyers to citizens is the greatest in the good ole U$A, along the lines of 1 lawyer for every 250 citizens if memory is correct, while the ratio is 1,400 to 1 in France.

[CHINAWIFE]

02:29 PM on 03/07/2012

Very sad for his family, but if he is mentally handicapped then his family got him in this position in the first place. Parents......please don't love your children to death with food. RIP to the young man.

[blstory1969]

01:50 PM on 03/07/2012

Ya! It was the sleep-study institute's fault he died- NOT the fact that he was extremely over weight, had heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiomyopathy! Not his fault at all for eating himself to death!...

[stacknef]

01:43 PM on 03/07/2012

can anyone say .... CHA CHINGGGGGG$$$ thats all this is about.