A French newspaper feature described Brett Helling’s rapid decline after nasal surgery, focusing on altered breathing sensation, dryness, insomnia and the difficulty of obtaining recognition for Empty Nose Syndrome.
A report about losing the normal sensation of breathing
The MIDI LIBRE article opens with a striking idea: breathing is normally automatic and largely unnoticed, yet some patients with Empty Nose Syndrome describe becoming continuously aware of every breath. The report contrasts a visibly open nasal passage with a subjective sensation of blockage, air hunger or suffocation.
It also describes burning, nasal dryness, shortness of breath and the frustration of being told that severe symptoms are imaginary or attributable only to fatigue or depression. In the revised version, those statements remain clearly tied to the newspaper’s reporting and to patient testimony.
Brett Helling’s surgery and the onset of new symptoms
Brett Helling was 36 when the newspaper described his case. He had allergies and recurrent episodes of nasal blockage and colds. According to the report, he agreed to septoplasty to correct a deviated septum after the operation was presented as relatively straightforward.
The article states that turbinate tissue was also removed and that Brett had not understood beforehand that this additional step would be performed. That allegation is retained as part of the source account rather than treated as an independently reviewed operative record.
The months after the February 2014 procedure were described as a profound change from his previous life. By summer, Brett was no longer participating normally in rehearsals with his music group, had difficulty working and increasingly stayed at home.
Insomnia, distress and loss of daily function
By October, the article says, exhaustion and inability to sleep had become central problems. Brett went to an emergency department seeking help and described sleep as an immediate survival need.
“I need to sleep or I will not survive this.”
The report says that staff were unfamiliar with Empty Nose Syndrome and that Brett received a diagnosis of depression. Brett himself continued to believe that his primary problem was the postoperative nasal condition. The disagreement between those interpretations became part of the distress described by his family and friends.
The article recounts progressive loss of appetite, sleep and normal self-care. Friends described his attention becoming almost entirely focused on his nose and breathing. By December, his relationship had ended and he had returned to his parents’ home, where he often used tissues in his nose in an effort to alter the sensation of airflow.
“I can’t live like this. My life has become hell,” the newspaper reported him telling his parents.
In February 2015, roughly a year after the operation, Brett died during a severe crisis. This page intentionally avoids unnecessary detail about the manner of death and focuses instead on the documented progression of postoperative symptoms and distress described in the source.
Video material about Brett Helling and ENS
André Gourbillon and the wider symptom picture in the article
The same newspaper feature refers to André Gourbillon, a retired nuclear technician who had previously spoken publicly about Empty Nose Syndrome. His account adds a second perspective on chronic facial pain, nasal dryness, hyperventilation, disturbed smell and taste, and severe sleep problems.
According to the article, André used a machine that delivered humidified airflow to make sleep possible. He also described persistent pain and dissatisfaction with medication that changed how he felt without resolving the physical symptoms he associated with ENS.
Complication figures, advocacy and legal action cited by MIDI LIBRE
The article cited estimates of approximately 2–5% for complications after turbinectomy and noted that some ENT physicians had proposed a figure as high as 14%. Those numbers are preserved because they were part of the 2016 newspaper report, but they are not presented here as a validated modern prevalence estimate for ENS.
The report also described a French patient association founded in 2011, approximately twenty legal proceedings and several written parliamentary questions. The broader point of this material is historical: by the mid-2010s, ENS had become the subject not only of individual patient reports but also of organized advocacy and legal concern in France.
Original MIDI LIBRE pages
The two scanned newspaper pages are retained below so readers can compare this rewritten presentation with the original source material.
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