BOARDMAN Man can breathe easy now that sleep apnea is under control

Doctors said his oxygen level was so low it was a matter of life and death.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR HEALTH WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Timothy Kopcash is convinced that a chance reading of a University Hospitals advertisement about a sleep apnea study in 1989 saved his life.
Kopcash, 63, of Boardman, recognized the symptoms contained in the hospital ad -- loud snoring, periods of not breathing, and chronic fatigue -- and at his wife's urging went to the Cleveland hospital and volunteered for the study.
They sent him home with a sleep test machine. He hooked himself up, slept overnight, and took the machine back to the hospital the next morning. By the time he and his wife, Mary, got home at 5 or 5:30 p.m. the phone was ringing.
Doctors had evaluated the results of his sleep test and they told Kopcash he had a severe case of sleep apnea and told him his oxygen level was so low it was a matter of life and death.
"You could die tonight," they told him.
Kopcash said he didn't want to go back to Cleveland again that day, but he went a couple of days later, on a Sunday. The hospital had a team waiting for him.
Kopcash was working as a supervisor in the Austintown Post Office going through undeliverable bulk mail to make sure there was nothing there that should have been delivered when he ran across the University Hospitals ad.
Medical ailments
Before he was diagnosed, he was being treated for high blood pressure, was beginning to develop heart problems, and couldn't concentrate or stay awake in meetings. He also had a bad automobile accident when he fell asleep at the wheel, for which he blames sleep apnea. He was in the hospital for a year recovering from his injuries.
That first night wearing the C-PAP mask was a revelation.
"I woke up and said, so this is what's it's like to sleep. I could not believe it felt so great," he said.
He had also had very high blood pressure. After that first night wearing the C-PAP, he checked his blood pressure and it was 120 over 80.
"Everything was cured overnight," he said.
Kopcash believes he not only saved his own life by the chance reading of the hospital flier, but also that of his older brother John, who had similar symptoms. John had had a stroke and heart attack.Kopcash said while John was visiting for a high school class reunion, the hospital sent a team down to test him and they diagnosed sleep apnea. He got treated and is doing well.
"He tells me every time we talk, 'You saved my life,'" Kopcash said.
Tough on the spouse
Often, the sleeping partner suffers almost as much as the person with sleep apnea.
"I was working and had to get up in the morning. I was tired myself. His snoring was terrible," said Mary, who ended up sleeping on the couch.
She said one time her husband went to a church retreat, and the people he stayed overnight with there started calling her St. Mary.
"They said anybody that could sleep with that man has to be a saint," she said.
"I tell you what -- the first night he came home from the hospital and wore the C-PAP, he was so quiet I kept wondering if he was all right. The C-PAP doesn't bother me at all. It's like music to my ears," said Mary, who works at Kmart in Boardman.
The study in which Kopcash participated is to be published in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. It was led by Dr. Susan Redline, epidemiologist at UHC's Rainbow Babies & amp; Children's Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University.
Kopcash has been nominated by Dr. Redline to be a lay member of the National Sleep Disorder Research Advisory Panel.
Personal background
Kopcash retired in 1998 from the U.S. Postal Service after 33 years' service. He started out as a clerk and was a supervisor and acting postmaster in several offices in the Youngstown District, including Berlin Center, Canfield, Struthers, Campbell and Salem. He was in the Ohio Army National Guard from 1957 to 1971, and is an active member of St. Luke Church on South Avenue, Boardman. He graduated from Campbell Memorial High School in 1957.
The Kopcashes have three children: Tim of Poland, Joseph of Lakewood and Mary Grace Kralik of Mineral Ridge.