Sleep Center named after Reggie White (from http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=51302): Sara White, the widow of NFL Hall of Famer Reggie White, has raised her stake in a Mid-South sleep company and put her husband’s name on the enterprise.

Opus Medical Management is now Reggie White Medical Enterprises.

She hopes his name will increase awareness about obstructive sleep apnea. The condition was a contributing factor in White’s death in 2004 when he died at the age of 43. Sara White knows firsthand the importance of early diagnosis and the critical need for someone with the disorder to use sleep apparatus to prevent episodes.

“He used his mask hardly at all,” she said. “He didn’t understand the importance of it.”

Sara White first signed on as a silent partner in the sleep lab business, which is based in Southaven and also operates a sleep disorder center in Tupelo, Miss., about three years ago. After her children completed college she began devoting more time to the business.

Derek Denman is the chief executive officer of Reggie White Medical Enterprises. Dr. Marc Hoffman serves as medical director of the center in Southaven.

“Sara’s brave effort to put a face and a personal story to a very real and undiagnosed threat to people’s lives is to be applauded,” Hoffman said.

White, who lives in Charlotte, N.C., invested in the Mid-South venture because she has connections here and because the Memphis area is a transportation hub. Employers in the logistics industry want to identify employees with the disorder and provide them with treatment to lessen the likelihood of workplace accidents, Hoffman said.

Reggie White’s professional football career began in 1985 with the Memphis Showboats of the now-defunct United States Football League. Sara White graduated from the University of Memphis while living here and still has many friends in the area.

“That was our first job,” she said. “Then our first child was born there at Baptist East a couple of years later. Reggie loved the USFL. Oh my gosh, that was the best time of working in his life. When the USFL went defunct, he was so sad.”

White, who played collegiately at the University of Tennessee, left Memphis after two seasons in the USFL to play for the Philadelphia Eagles. He was diagnosed with sleep apnea in 1987.

“He played all that time without being treated for sleep apnea,” Sara White said.

White also suffered from sarcoidosis, a disease of unknown cause, which causes organs to swell.

“He was always tired because he couldn’t get enough sleep,” she said. “He pushed himself so hard. He was a great player. I can’t even fathom how great he could have been if he had been treated for sleep apnea. Sleep apnea takes everything out of you.”

White, who also played for the Green Bay Packers and Carolina Panthers, pushed himself. He retired after the 2000 season as the NFL’s all-time sack leader.

“His name is going to bring attention to this disease and to this illness,” Sara White said. “You wouldn’t believe how many letters I’ve gotten from wives after he died, how Reggie impacted their lives, because they had been telling their husbands to get a sleep test.”

But a test for the disorder, a diagnosis and even a prescription for a sleep mask will be of no help unless the patient understands how to use the device.

“When you get somebody a CPAP machine or a BiPAP machine, you can explain but you have to do follow up,” she said. “That may take monthly visits.”

The Reggie White Sleep Disorder Centers operate under the guidelines of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The Reggie White Sleep Disorder Center is at 7600 Airways Blvd. Suite G in Southaven. The Reggie White CardioPulmonary Rehabilitation Center is at 7420 Guthrie Drive, Suite 1083.

Sleep apnea is more prevalent that most people realize, Sara White said, adding that many children with the disorder go undiagnosed. White said compliance is her top priority for the centers.