It was reported that a patient was having dyspnea and voice alteration.The symptoms occurred even between stimulations.Diagnostics were within normal limits.The physician decided to disable the device to see if the symptoms get better.The patient was still experiencing vocal cord problems even with the generator programmed off.The vocal cord issue did not start until later into the titration phase and did not resolve with the disablement, so the physician believed that the nerve was inflamed and wanted to wait and titrate the device up again.The patient later reported that her implant surgery took two times as long as it should have because the surgeon had difficulty implanting the lead.While in recovery, she choked on water and could not swallow.The patient lost a large amount of weight because she could not swallow food.She also reported that she was diagnosed by an ent with left vocal cord paralysis, spasms in the trachea and esophagus, and damage to the swallow and sensory nerves.Due to these issues, she could not talk, breathe, or sleep.The left side of her face was also reportedly paralyzed.The patient was having speech and swallow therapy, but she was told that this would not help.The physician considered disabling the patient's device to allow inflammation at the nerve to go down, but the patient was receiving efficacy from vns therapy.The physician decided program the patient's device to low settings for all modes of stimulation.No further intervention was taken.No additional information has been received to date.
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