Help Steve get his life back

Hi All. This is my last resort to do this as I always manage to find some way to get myself out of situations, but I feel I have no choice this time.

In 2012, I had an operation on my nose which led to severe nerve damage. This led me to have severe suffocation as my nose wasn't streaming airflow, dryness of the nose, no concentration, anxiety depression and very poor quality of sleep. I believed at the time, this was a basic procedure on the nose which would help my breathing, but instead, this led to a condition called empty nose syndrome as described at the bottom.

I ended up having 9 months off work, being lied to by the specialist who performed the operation and was told it was all in my head. Throughout this nightmare, I was under all the drugs under the sun and had regular mental health team workers coming round the house to prevent me from committing suicide and to keep me stable.

In January 2013, I finally got a diagnosis in the UK of post-operative ENS and decided to go to Germany to have this confirmed by an ENS specialist. We decided to sell our house in order to fund the treatment I desperately needed in order to lead a normal life. In total we have spent over £20k pounds in treatments including 2 operations to narrow my airways and 4 PRP injections. This doesn’t include the loss of income whilst I had this treatment. These procedures have slightly got me back on track and enabled me to work albeit living on caffeine pills daily.


I have been to the USA to see a Dr Das who is one of the top 5% ENT’s in the USA and, luckily for people with my condition, he is treating this condition and has a strong passion in doing so. In May 2015, I had one injection of Acell/PRP and he believes a further 4 injections will stop all of my symptoms. After one, I felt amazing for 2 weeks and was even running again but, unfortunately, a vast amount of the improvements have reduced. Dr Das has stated that this is normal, but I must continue with the injections to gain permanent benefits.


I am fundraising to support me going to the USA to get a further 2/3 injections. The injections alone are £1k a time, hence why my target is £3k. Flights alone are £800-£1000, but I am hoping that I will have saved the money for this and I will be able to go to the USA and get 2 injections in a week period. Dr Das has got great results from this treatment and believes I am a very strong candidate. This is giving me hope that I can feel much better and live a much better quality of life. I have not been keen to start fundraising as I have wanted to pay for all of the treatment myself. But I am now completely out of money, and credit, so I really have no choice. With huge outgoings, saving really is proving difficult and relentless every month.

My aim now is to try to get these injections done and finally move on with my life, further my studies and even maybe run a marathon again. To note, I am very lucky I have a supportive family including my parents, brother and especially my wife. All of whom have been there for me throughout this living nightmare, have never given up on me and have all helped financially too.

ENS is a rare iatrogenic, (doctor caused) disorder resulting from removal or severe damage to the Inferior Turbinates caused during surgery. Sufferers experience an unremitting sensation of suffocation, severe headaches, anxiety and depression, lack of concentration, an inability to warm or humidify inspired air and autonomic imbalance from improper triggering of autonomic nerves in the Inferior Turbinates.

Thanks all for reading.

Steve