[abrak]

"Sometimes he fought the constant pull of sleep, forcing himself to socialize when his mind was in a fog. But by denying his problem, he sometimes put himself — and others — in dangerous situations. One day he was cruising toward the mountains at 100 miles an hour on Red Bull, his large, cherry-colored motorcycle. One moment he was staring at the lush, green foothills ahead; next thing he knew, an older woman on a bike slowed down in front of him to make a U-turn. He tried his best to stop, but couldn’t, crashing into the back of her bike. They were both thrown to the ground. She was injured badly, bones visible on her shins and hands. Lloyd had only a few cuts and bruises, but he was rattled. How had that happened? he wondered. Did I zone out?" What an asshole.

[anigbrowl]

I had a similar reaction, but it's very hard to know whether this tells us more about the subject or the writer. The way it's written, it makes him sound more worried about is own situation than the person he nearly killed riding at 100mph, but the writer or the editor might have decided that the details of how the accident was handled were too much of a digression from the main story. It's always a problem with heavily narratized journalism, which is more emotionally engaging but at the price of treating subsidiary characters in the story as mere props in the protagonist's story of medical-self-discovery.

[ars]

> than the person he nearly killed

An injury like that to an elderly person in a non-advanced country probably was fatal. Maybe not right away, but falls are one of the largest killers of the elderly, not from the fall, but from the after effects.

[abrak]

True, but in his condition he shouldn't have been driving at all. He's an asshole.

[SleepyLloyd]

Hi anigbrowl, abrak, ars and others. My name is Lloyd, I'm the guy in the article. I read your comments and wanted to share a little bit more of that particular experience:

- I shouldn't have been driving, and I regret that accident to this day. Even though I'm responding so much better to treatment now, and at points I have tried to start driving again, at this point I am not driving. Virginia (the author) asked if I plan to drive again soon and I don't. It feels like the fastest way for me to cause harm to others is getting behind the controls of a vehicle :( I wish I had worked this out sooner and without an accident. I mostly walk or rely on public transport or lifts with friends now, although on my better days I ride a push bike when I can stick mostly to cycle paths.

- Speed and my poor cognition were the main factors in the accident. It was my fault entirely. I was trying to catchup with friends who had left on the trip a few minutes before me. The older woman was traveling slowly in the far left lane and came over to the far right lane to do a U-turn at a signed U-Turn point. I don't remember her indicating or checking her blind spot, but that is "normal" behaviour on Thai roads and given my speed wouldn't have helped any. After the motorbike collision we both got to the side of the road. Several vehicles stopped and helped us pull our bikes off the road too. The police arrived, as did paramedics, and she received first aid at the scene and was taken to hospital. My understanding is that in Thailand the Kingdom provides healthcare for people involved in traffic accidents. It's funded from vehicle registration I think. The Police took my ID and the police requested money to pay for her damaged motorbike, which I paid. I saw them hand it to the woman directly so I don't think it was a bribe. The article makes it read like my thoughts immediately went to myself, they didn't, they went to dealing with the immediate situation. The thoughts and reflection about what had happened came later.

- There's lots of things I would have done differently if I had known this condition was in my future. I definitely would have stopped driving sooner. I also would have communicated my health better to the people around me. For a long time I had the belief that, "they'll find what is wrong and I'll get better". I didn't expect that they would find out what is wrong and it would continue to be a permanent ongoing condition. Because of that I strung people along by saying I would be able to do things "soon", when in reality I wasn't going to be able to. At that point in my life I didn't appreciate yet just how much this was impacting my ability to do "normal" things.

- Traffic accidents seem very common for people with Idiopathic Hypersomnia. A year~ ago someone shared that they were in a traffic accident where they fatally injured a pedestrian. Others have stories of leaving the highway at speed in single vehicle accidents. It's common for further medical investigations after accidents like that to lead to a diagnosis. It really sucks, especially for those who haven't done anything wrong who get injured/killed.

Thanks for reading the article and discussing it. I hope the article helps raise awareness about this condition and allows people to receive diagnosis faster and prevents things like this happening more often.

[PhasmaFelis]

Yeah, my first thought on finishing the article was "Gosh that's nice for you, but I'd like to know what happened to the old lady you maimed while driving like a fucking maniac."

[DanBC]

She probably died within two years.

As ars say above, falls in older people kill a lot of them within 2 years.

If you're over 65 and have an unplanned admission into hospital you're probably not going to end up back at your home. Only about 1 in 4 people end up back in their homes. The others die or end up in nursing or care homes. (This is in England; it might be different in US, especially with the medicare distortions which mean much more money is spent on people over 65).

[krohling]

That was kind of my reaction about half way into this story. I can't say his career as a life coach hynpotherapist who charges $40K a week makes him easy to sympathize with either.