Your pulmo may know a lot about the procedure or not much at all, so he's probably not a good bet for good information. Go to the center where they do the procedure and ask to talk with someone about it. Even if you have to make an appointment, you'll get the information from the horse's mouth.

I will pray for you Susie. I know Dean waited too long and obviously had underlying problems but his breathing is WAY better! He would do it all over again. His breathing has slowed down tremendously and we actually have the doors open today. He only uses oxygen to move around!

Hi, Paula here. I haven’t posted anything for a while because my husband had the valves placed ten days ago and things did not go well. They couldn’t put the valves into the desired lobe because when the doctor tested the left lower lobe with a balloon the obe leaked air. He went ahead with option two which was the right upper lobe which carried more risk. He was rough out of surgery but got better each day and moved out of ICU after the first night I think. Then things went downhill. He started going in and out of Atrial fibrillation. He was moved back to ICU. They finally got his heart under control with blood thinners and some heart medication. They implanted a heart monitor ( loop recorder) indefinitely. He was finally released today after ten days in the hospital. Now he is on oxygen, the company came today and set up home oxygen. Tomorrow home health nurses coming to assess him and will monitor him at home. PT will be coming into the home. My husband can walk with assistance and a walker. Needs help dressing/ showering. This is all new since he had the procedure. On the upside, his breathing is much better. Slower, deeper breaths. I think the valves are working but I think he reacted badlyto the anesthesia and the procedure itself. We love the pulmonologist that did the procedure. My husband was his 40th valve placement. He told us that all of the patients so far felt better after three days. He was more than willing to pull the valves out but we chose to keep them in. That’s what is happening. Feel free to share.

Several insurance companies do cover the zephyr procedure!!!!

The clinical trials definitely had better results, but now the valves are being placed all over the country and I'm not sure but what some of the testing isn't as rigorously followed at some of the centers. Also remember what I said is an average, so I would trust your guy's numbers; those can be checked. Talk with the facility where he did the procedure about their results.