CPAP machines disappear in the emergency room pretty fast! My boyfriend's (obese) mother had a stroke and was in the ER. It looked like she was going to have to spend the night, so she told the nurse she needed a CPAP machine to sleep as she had left hers at home. The nurse said, "They're taken up pretty quickly around here, so one might not be available for you by tonight, but I'll see what I can do." Of course, they were all taken up by that night, so his mother had to sleep without one. She got very little sleep as her oxygen kept falling and falling, which at a certain point alerted the machine she was hooked up to and it would begin beeping for the nurse to come check on her. Yes, there are reasons why someone of a healthy weight would need a CPAP, but I seriously doubt enough of them would come into the ER to take up every machine they had. It had to be all the obese patients. My boyfriend and I had a good laugh at his mom's expense. She's expected to be okay, so we didn't feel too bad.