Broken again?

[Ronn1708]

Also you should be able to negotiate that cost. When insurance pays it’s usually about 1/2 that price. One of my surgeries was billed at 78k. Insurance paid 22k.

[JohnHC]

Also you should be able to negotiate that cost. When insurance pays it’s usually about 1/2 that price. One of my surgeries was billed at 78k. Insurance paid 22k.

Yes original bill from hospital on both was almost 90k, but then they did a deduction which brought it to 41k, after looking at the full bill I figured out the whole second surgery was discounted off the bill, which is why I think Boston paid for it since it was defective, and hope the same for this one

[Ronn1708]

Tell them you just crossed the boarder in November 2023. They will write the whole thing off

[JohnHC]

Well saw Dr today, yep he tried everything and it definitely has leaked down and lost the fluid. At least this time no 3-4 weeks of extra tests to find the issue. Just waiting on the scheduler to let me know when surgery is. Will be going with a LGX instead of the CX with the same measurements ( 12x21 with 1.5 RTE's ). He asked if I wanted to switch to the Coloplast and I said not yet, I don't like the dog ears it has and with my luck they'd scratch or tear something inside... So yeah number 3 in less than a year, yay me....

[mikestap]

Hate to hear that you’re going through this. But I would caution that you’re experiencing a failure of the device and not the doctor. That said, my doc is Hakky. My first implant failed in a little over 3 years. Hakky did the next one. I think where the doc adds value is avoiding infection, for which there is greater risk in a revision. Good luck!

[FinallyBionic]

Sorry John to hear what you are going through. It is really bad that you didn't know about dr. Hakky. You ended up going to an unknown surgeon, charging you 41K!!! Even dr. Eid wouldn't charge you this amount.
If I am in your place, I wouldn't get operated by the same doctor again. It is apparently a surgeon issue, not a manufacturer one. If the pump stopped working, it could be a problem with the implant itself, but such a leak and a problem with the left cylinder which may have got a hole in with a needle during the surgery.
I think the Boston will cover the replacement whether you get the surgery by the same surgeon or another. If they cover it, with Hakky you will pay 18K minus implant cost. The only thing is dr. Hakky does mostly Titan. If so, you have to get the full cost of operation which is still less than half of what you paid, but you don't want to risk a 3rd implant. It will be a disaster if something goes wrong again with it.

[JohnHC]

Sorry John to hear what you are going through. It is really bad that you didn't know about dr. Hakky. You ended up going to an unknown surgeon, charging you 41K!!! Even dr. Eid wouldn't charge you this amount.
If I am in your place, I wouldn't get operated by the same doctor again. It is apparently a surgeon issue, not a manufacturer one. If the pump stopped working, it could be a problem with the implant itself, but such a leak and a problem with the left cylinder which may have got a hole in with a needle during the surgery.
I think the Boston will cover the replacement whether you get the surgery by the same surgeon or another. If they cover it, with Hakky you will pay 18K minus implant cost. The only thing is dr. Hakky does mostly Titan. If so, you have to get the full cost of operation which is still less than half of what you paid, but you don't want to risk a 3rd implant. It will be a disaster if something goes wrong again with it.

My surgeon is quite competent, and it's been the device that's failing. Now something might have happened during preparation as he said the device is prepped in another room and brought out when it's time to install it. The 41k is from the hospital for the OR etc and not the Dr, his bill is quite manageable as I think I only owe him around $2600. The hospital is the one really gouging me on the price.

[JohnHC]

Since I'm sure it's not a Dr issue but a device issue, I'll post a URL to his profile. He is listed on Boston Scientific (AMS) website. You can read his profile as I've read it and that's one reason I went to him ( he's closer to me and actually in my insurances network ). Not sure I can post the whole link but here goes....

www.ugatl.com/provider/saneal-rajanahally-md/

Let me know what you think if so inclined or if you think there are any red flags. I don't see any and if anyone is in the Atlanta area I would highly recommend him as he truly cares and his manners and professionalism is top notch.

[JohnHC]

Still awaiting surgery info from Dr's office. But I was feeling around down there and might have figured out what went wrong. I was trying to follow the tubing from the pump with my fingers, which is difficult due to the pump and the boys being in the way. But while feeling a long one of the lines I got to a spot that was wider than the tube and couldn't feel anything on the other side. So I'm thinking that that spot is a coupler or spot where they joined two sections of tubing and maybe it either came apart or broke right there. I'm not totally sure as the tubing is small and with everything else down there I'm not 100% sure that nothing else is connected to it ( those tubes and things there are a bit slippery and move quite a bit ). It would explain why it worked fine and then suddenly quit, if it's the tubing to the reservoir and it broke then the pump can't pull fluid from it and it all flooded out, then when deflating it just pushed whatever was left right out. Not a slow leak where you get that squishing sound, but just a massive failure where everything goes at once.
Just gotta tell him if that's the case then double up on the glue or whatever to make sure it can't happen again. I doubt they can just go in and flush the system and refill it since I'm sure bodily fluids have gotten in and compromised the integrity of the whole unit. I'll post an update when I know when surgery is and again after surgery when I find out what went wrong. Thanks guys

[jwdetails]

Sorry brother - seems like you are in good hands. Based on what you described it seems likely is a small leak in the tubes or cylinders, which you figured or found out at the time of the 2nd surgery. It will work fine initially, but the more times you cycle, whatever fluid put in the reservoir will leak out. Its pretty unusual that this would happen twice within a year!