Anonymous family account · Septoplasty and turbinate reduction
In an online account, a wife described her husband developing severe sleep disruption and markedly reduced nasal sensation immediately after septoplasty with turbinate reduction, followed by an Empty Nose Syndrome diagnosis from another ENT specialist.
The patient is not named in the supplied material and the exact year of surgery is unclear. According to his wife, turbinate reduction had not been discussed during the pre-operative consultation, although it was performed together with septoplasty.
Turbinate reduction that the family says was not expected
The wife wrote that the operation took place at the beginning of a summer. She says the family expected treatment for nasal obstruction and did not understand beforehand that turbinate tissue would also be reduced.
Before surgery she described her husband as healthy and functioning normally. Their expectation was improvement in nasal breathing, not a long-term change in sleep, sensation and respiratory comfort.
Immediate sleep disruption and reduced nasal sensation
According to the account, severe sleep disruption began immediately. His wife said he could sleep only for very short periods even after prescription sleep medication was introduced.
When attempts to obtain help from the original surgical team were unsuccessful, the family sought another ENT assessment. The wife describes the sleep deprivation during this period as extreme and rapidly disabling.
She reports that a senior ENT later diagnosed Empty Nose Syndrome and considered severe sensory impairment an important part of the presentation. During examination, she says her husband had very little awareness of the scope until it reached farther back toward the throat.
For the family, the most alarming feature was the combination of almost continuous sleep loss with the abrupt change in nasal sensation and breathing comfort.
Rapid functional decline and family impact
The wife later reported that her husband died after a short period of severe deterioration. She believed ENS symptoms and extreme sleep deprivation were major contributors to his crisis; this page does not independently establish a single causal explanation for the final outcome.
She was left caring for their young child while also trying to obtain medical records, understand the ENS diagnosis and assess the family’s financial and legal position.
Her account emphasizes that the family had expected a routine nasal procedure and had not anticipated a severe chronic condition afterward.
Questions about informed consent and possible legal action
Afterward, she asked other ENS patients and families about malpractice claims and whether cases involving unanticipated turbinate surgery had succeeded.
Community responses emphasized that medical-negligence cases are highly dependent on documentation, jurisdiction, informed consent and the exact procedure performed. The discussion is retained as context, not as legal advice.
These statements reflect the family’s understanding and community discussion rather than legal advice or a verified review of court outcomes.
What the family wants other nasal-surgery patients to ask
Her main message to other patients was to ask specifically what will be done to the turbinates, why it is considered necessary, how much tissue may be altered and what alternatives exist before consenting to nasal surgery.
She also described frustration with inconsistent recognition of ENS: according to her account, two ENT clinicians considered the diagnosis while several others said they were unfamiliar with the condition.
Finding support in the ENS community
She was directed to the Empty Nose Syndrome Awareness community on Facebook, where patients and families discuss symptoms, medical care and experiences with legal action.
Her account was also shared on Reddit, where other users discussed the difficulty of ENS-related malpractice cases and the lack of consistent recognition of the condition.
Source material and supporting documentation
The original Reddit discussion, supporting PDF and ENS community page are available below.
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