No it did not. This is a copy of a an email sent to their ambassador coordinator.
Dear Ms. Dole,
Thank you for your response. I've received several emails from INSPIRE ambassadors. I've decided there's no need you talk to them.
I have had the Inspire implant put in and recently had it removed. Long and short of it, I was NEVER a candidate for this IMPLANT my INSPIRE TRAINED SURGEON SHOULD HAVE KNOW THAT and INSPIRE SHOULD HAVE MADE SURE OF IT!!! I have professionals to back that up. Medicare has denied payment finding the provider liable for the cost of the $88,240.30 surgery. I've spent 2yrs of my life, dozens of appointments, I have very visible scars and for what???.....THEM to make MONEY REGARDLESS of if this was RIGHT for ME! I BELIEVE I SHOULD BE COMPENSATED. I intend to file charges against my surgeon and possibly Inspire. I'm happy this implant has worked for you and others. I simply wasn't a candidate.Thank you for your support.
Sincerely, Cynthia A.Serra
Ms. Serra, Not sure your post has anything to say about the technology or why it was, in your opinion, inappropriate in your case. Did some google search and it appears that the Inspire technology doesn't work with certain types of collapsing airways in about 10 to 20 percent of patients and that Inspire considers this a contradiction for the procedure. They also mentioned that average cost is about $30-40K and a new batter $17K (OUCH). Please explain your situation a bit more as this topic has come up regularly in the past.
" csheavensent Wrote: +1 point · 4 months ago I've had this implant surgery done in 2017, recently I had it removed."
I found out the implant you had done and thinking about it, how do they expect this implant to give enough power to make it work? It is almost like a pacemaker but expected to do a lot more and make a lot more muscles contract and to provide enough power to open the airways! Well I am sorry, but I do not see how this could work. There was another bit of equipment on trial a while (not heard much about it lately) made by another company that was external and you could just take it off. I had reservations about it working, but at least they were offering a trial period to see if it did work for you. The Inspired product I would be very sceptical about having something implanted before seeing proof that it even worked, before I even thought about getting one fitted. I would ask for a list of people that had this surgery done and talk to them before fitting this. It has to run on batteries, are they safe? Is the appliance safe to have fitted? What is the life of the batteries? Not as if you can fot a charger to your chest when asleep! It might work for a very mild Sleep Apnea patient, but I would require proof before I had anything done like this. There are to many quacks around claiming to have cures for Sleep Apnea with all sorts of devices. Most do not work or will never appear on the market. I would be very sceptical about anyone claiming for devices that work for Sleep Apnea, most are a con or are looking for money to develop a device. So if you come across anything or anyone claiming to have a cure for Sleep Apnea that sounds to good to be true it probable is.
I have found that the only way is to get a good CPAP, better still a good APAP and get Sleepyhead to look at your data. Tell you sleep doctor you are going to do this and if he/she is a good doctor they will approve of you doing this and ask you contact them before you adjust your equipment. I have a Sleep Nurse that was a bit sceptical until I showed her the Website I was involved in (well, two of them) and she agreed that I could adjust my own equipment (she said I was the type that would do it anyway, even if she said no. She is a good judge of personality lol) so she only agreed to let me do this if I kept in touch, but when I asked how I was meant to do this she asked if I could send in my data card if asked. I said I would email all the data if she asked for it, but it would be in Sleepyhead form. So she said she would have to take a machine home and learn about Sleepyhead. As a point, she said one of the forums was very good and some of the users were on the ball and very knowledgable with their replies. She also said that she wished the clinic could see patients every three months until their treatment was was as good as they could get it, but they are just to busy and take best guess at what pressures they need. A sleep study is fine, but once they leave the clinic it is a different world and patients often need a different mask of pressures than what they were prescribed. I'll back her up on that one, I was always going to get something adjusted, mostly in the days when I started, it was mask after mask and then changes in pressure. Everyone should be given an APAP and set closely to the pressures they need and not given one that is set to 4 to 20, that is someone not doing their job, i.e. if you need a pressure of 16 to clear all apnea events, it is best to set the machine at say 10 or 12 to clear most events but not all, alowing the machine to take care of the rest with the machine set slightly above what the maximum pressure you need. In this case 16 was the maximum pressure, so it would be set to 17 or 18 for a straight forward case. This allows the best comfort and allows for good treatment without the pressures going up and down affecting the patient to much if at all. Expiry Relief: It helps you breath against the pressure of the machine when breathing out, in some cases if this is used it has been found some patients require an increase in the maximum pressure, not much but a slight rise. However, some do fine without the increase, it is best if you use as little Expiry Relief that you need i.e. 1 instead of 3, but if you need it use it rather than suffer. CPAP is the best treatment for Sleep Apnea, so get the best machine you can b[/b] you don't need to adjust the machine yourself, you can get your sleep doctor to do it after you discuss it with them. It is your health and getting a good mask, good APAP Sleep Apnea machine and a Good Doctor/Sleep Tech to work with is far better than spending money on new treatments that promise you everything. When you get a prescription for a machine, make sure the Doctor understands you want an APAP and one with a data card and is Sleepyhead compatible. Masks are more of a challenge, it may take you a good few models before you fine one that works for you.
I am sorry the implant didn't work for you, but this might serve as a lesson for us all. Do not expect something that sounds to good to be true to work, it may not work and be a big disappointment. Check to see if they offer a trial first and if they insist on full payment and they are not a well known large company, but a little cautious. There is an old saying "Fools and their money is easily parted" but some of these people can be very convincing.
I don't know if that piece of equipment works for some or not, but I suspect if it does it will be the few rather then the many. As soon as they mentioned implant I would have wanted a lot of evidence that it worked first. If it does work a good Sleep Doctor would know about it, so I would ask them about anything first before doing a bit of research on my own.
There is also all sorts of research going on out there and all sorts of studies, but if you read the documents carefully you will find that a lot of it is a bit duff! Studies: They take to small a group of people and they make it turn out the way they are looking for the study to turn out, usually. If they took a large group form all over the country then the study would have more value to it. A lot of these studies are financed to get results that someone is looking for and if financed by big industry it is no surprise that it usually works out the way they want to a bigger or lesser degree!
Always be a bit sceptical of new devices claiming to cure things as there is a lot of weird claims out there.
At the moment, stick with your CPAP/APAP (preferred) machines, they are proven to work.
Unless you have a complicated Apnea with lots of other problems that require a Auto Bi-level or Servo type machine or require extra oxygen a good APAP and mask will work for most of us. However, It is very tempting for us to grab at something we can put in our pocket that can be used anytime without anyone noticing. We will just have to wait for something to come along that Sleep Doctors start to recommend rather than CPAP/APAP machines.
Untill than, sleep well with your best pall the Sleep Machine.
I have been reading that this device does work for some, but not all patients. You need to be screened to see if you are suitable for the device and even then some people will find it will not work for them. Sad if you are one of the few it does not work for. On anther forum there was two people had had this implant, one said it was a life changer. Strangely he would not answer if he had had a Sleep test done since it was fitted. You would think he would be more interested since he drives a truck for a living. The other didn't say to much, except that he felt his tongue move a lot and this tended to wake him up, so it was not so effective as he had wanted it to be. So make of this implant what you will, personally, I would rather I just clipped on to something like it and it was outside me rather than inside me. No problem with implants being inside, but what would happen if you were put through a scan like an MRI with this implant inside you and you were unconscious at the time? Ok, you can carry warning cards etc, but I always wonder about this being missed during an emergency.
In retrospect I now wonder why the stimulation of the tongue nerve could not be tested before spending over 100k only to find out it doesn't work. The operation is easy. When they turn it you realize the implant will be sending a shock to your tongue everytime you inhale. All night long! They call it a mild impulse. Then you ramp it up until the apnea stops or it becomes to intense to sleep with it. There is a delay built into the implant so that it doesn't active while your trying to get to sleep. If your a light sleeper the delay on the remote is very important. I had 4 titrations and a sleep study that makes me want to sue Inspire. Gota be careful on what to say. I am persona non grata with them. They are loathing any negative input as they just initiated a 110 million IPO.
I am just wondering if you were accessed before they did the implant and what advice they gave you. I know you don't want to say to much, but they must have accessed you for suitability for the implant? Did it not work at all for you or was it very limited success?
I don't think I would allow anyone to implant something like that, I know someone was experimenting with one that hung round the neck that tightened the muscles around the neck, but I have not heard anything about it for some time now.
