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Colin Sullivan started his presentation by setting the stage for what the state of Sleep Apnea was when he invented CPAP in 1979.  In a word: bleak.

Colin Sullivan talked about his original research subjects: dogs; he also talked about his colleagues at the time

It took a long time for Colin Sullivan and his team to find even one single self-identified Sleep Apnea patient back then.

Colin Sullivan shows pictures of his original notebooks for keeping track of all his findings regarding CPAP. These notebooks were off limits to him for years because of patent litigation, and this is his first time sharing them with the public.

Colin Sullivan shows pictures of his original notebooks for keeping track of all his findings regarding CPAP.  These notebooks were off limits to him for years because of patent litigation, and this is his first time sharing them with the public.

Colin Sullivan shows pictures of his original notebooks for keeping track of all his findings regarding CPAP.  These notebooks were off limits to him for years because of patent litigation, and this is his first time sharing them with the public.

His first real-life human experiment: a 33-year-old construction worker who had such severe Sleep Apnea that his co-workers found he had fallen asleep on scaffolding.

Success.

At the time, Sullivan's discovery was dismissed by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Colin Sullivan giving talk at conference room inside Hilton, New Orleans; ATS conference.

So many barriers to the discovery actually being used by patients on an ongoing basis.

Patients were the ones to drive CPAP forward as a treatment; they preferred it to a hole in their necks.

Colin Sullivan spent sleepless nights after the CPAP machine was given to the first patients wondering whether there would be some snafu that would hurt/ kill the patients using it.

Colin Sullivan was relieved that his first patient who took the machine home with him didn't die or have some other calamity caused by the CPAP befall him.

Colin Sullivan helped fabricate first masks.

Colin Sullivan after talk mingling with attendees.