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Comment by bhoops | Hacker News Reader

Why dont you just ask someone coming from India to get you one ? They are available over the counter in India and there are a lot of Indian people hopping on a flight to the US all the time. I am sure there is someone in your office you can request, or someone in your locality.

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You really need a professional to configure the CPAP, otherwise it can mess up your lungs (too much airflow) or make your sleep apnea worse (not enough airflow).

That's why these are considered a prescription--the prescription is the settings on the machine.

Not at all. You can figure out how to configure one yourself with a few hours reading on /r/CPAP or watching YouTube. Source: myself after trying to acquire one and get it configured for months through a similar bureaucratic nightmare as the article.

I'd love to try a CPAP, any suggestions other than asking an Indian coworker to bring one back? Is there a gray market? Maybe Mexican mail order pharmacies?

I'm the US with health insurance but I bet it'll be more expensive to go the legit way.

Buying/Selling medical devices is illegal so you won’t find any reliable website or marketplace. You can sometimes find people trying to get rid of one (for free or for sale) on /r/cpap and /r/cpap_swap

Most of the time you have go through a sleep study to get one. I got very lucky during the pandemic and my allergist ordered one (no sleep study) after explaining that I was waiting months for a sleep study and having suicidal ideation from weeks of waking up every ~15min.

Yes thats somewhat true, but I find that such professionals are very hard to find. Not just in India, but all over the world. OTOH there are sites like apneaboard.com and reddit/r/SleepApnea where you can learn to configure for yourself.

This comment should be flagged for medical misinformation.

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