The Known Delayed Impact of Empty Nose Syndrome: Remembering Robert Byrnes’ Struggle

Name: Robert Byrnes: 1972-2021 (48 years)

Surgery: Septoplasty confirmed, likely in combo with turbinate reduction 

Country: US, Yonkers, NY

Surgeon: unknown
Story: Limited, only from brother's funeral speech

Funeral Speech by Robert Byrnes' Brother. Link to funeral video

So I'm going to get a little heavy,  so get your tissue box now if you're the crying type  and save a few for me  because I may need one too.  Rob became very sick in April of 2020.  He went to multiple doctors who struggled to provide answers to medical anomalies which became increasingly worse day by day. With no diagnosis coming from the medical community in New York, I researched and advised traveling to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, so that we had a team of experts whose sole focus was diagnosing medical anomalies like Rob's.  I was confident there was both an answer and a cure.  We left for Rochester, Minnesota on the 26th of October. Over the next couple days, there were batteries of blood work, MRIs, CAT scans, and other tests.  On October 28th, we met with an ENT specialist who diagnosed Rob with a condition called Empty Nose Syndrome. 

Rob had an operation 24 years earlier when he had breathing problems caused by a deviated septum in his nose. The operation was a blessing at the time, as he was struggling to breathe,  and this had an immediate and positive impact.  Unfortunately, there can be complications.  24 years after the operation with a pandemic and safety protocols for wearing face masks, Rob's empty nose condition was triggered. I had researched this condition  and I knew there was no cure.  It may not kill you,  but it essentially wiped out any quality of life one could expect to have.  As we walked out of the office, I could not hold back my tears.  While I was grieving for Rob, I simultaneously was in fear for my own life as I had had the same operation and was now at risk. In what might have been the worst possible situation for Rob,  he put his arms around me and told me not to fear.  I was there to comfort him,  yet it was he who was comforting me.  The next words out of his mouth spoke  to the essence of my brother. He said, it was better for this to have happened to him, rather than me and my sister Val, as we both have children. A selfless act,  a selfless man,  that is a hero who walks among us. That is a soldier who jumps on a grenade to save his team. That is a product of St. Paul's. That is a Yonkers police officer.  Rob asked me to write this eulogy today.  Because in his heart,  I believe he knew that I shared his love of family,  friends, community,  Ireland, and the police department. And I believe he knew I would convey his thanks  and offer comfort to the community.  He loved you, and he loved life.

Text from Obituary: Robert Gerard Byrnes, 48, born December 13, 1972, Bronx, NY. Rob and his family resided in Yonkers, NY, since 1977. Rob attended St. Paul the Apostle Grammar School and Archbishop Stepinac High School. He received an undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice from John Jay College and a Master’s Degree in Physical Education from Queens College. Rob began his career as a police officer in 2000 with the MTA Police. In 2001, he joined the Rye Brook Police Department and in 2007, became Yonkers Police Officer. Since 2012 Rob was a Sergeant in the Yonkers Police Department. Rob was a proud American and loved his Irish heritage, enjoyed his visits to Ireland, especially Counties Mayo and Monaghan. Rob loved jogging, boxing, painting, a good cup of coffee, decent slice of pizza, and chatting with friends on McLean and helping souls in need. “I love my family, my friends, my neighborhood, Yonkers, the Yonkers Police Department, the USA, Ireland and nature and all its beauty.” Robert G Byrnes

Missing person Advisory and in memory of Robert by his colleagues

This strange so-called “empty nose” syndrome that drives people to suicide

Article about Empty Nose Syndrome from the French newspaper: 

MIDI LIBRE N° 2766a | Ven. 22 - Sam. 23 avril 2016

A seemingly innocuous operation, carried out to relieve the breathing difficulties of patients who suffer in particular from allergies, has transformed their lives into hell. Imagine losing your natural breathing. IThat instead of a regular, peaceful, unconscious movement, you always have the impression of having to think about breathing, to force yourself to draw air. That in addition to this disorganization of your breathing, you feel burning in the nose, a feeling of suffocation, shortness of breath. And the doctors tell you that your illness is imaginary, that it does not exist, that you are simply “tired”.

This is what happened to Brett Helling, 36, as reported by Buzzfeed in a long investigation into this strange illness, which we call "Empty Nose Syndrome." A bit like the Kovaliov in the novel The Nose by the writer Gogol, his organ had flown away. But contrary to the college assessor's bad dream, his nose never returned "as if nothing had happened, to its old place." Patients who suffer from this syndrome have generally undergone a turbinectomy: a seemingly innocuous operation that involves removing the "turbinates" of the nose, two organs that secrete moisture and which some doctors recommend removing when the patient complains of chronic respiratory discomfort. Suffering like his brother from allergies, Brett Helling ended up, after yet another series of attacks of stuffy noses and repeated colds, by letting himself be convinced by a seemingly innocuous operation: a septoplasty, which consists of correcting a deviation of the nasal septum. But the doctor saw fit to add to this, without telling him, an ablation of these famous turbinates.

My life became hell The summer following the operation (which took place in February 2014), Brett Helling was a shadow of his former self. He no longer went to rehearsals with his music group, he was no longer able to work as before, locked himself in his house. In October, exhausted, he went to the emergency room, begging the nurse and the medical team for surgical intervention:

“I need to sleep or I will die.” No one had heard of empty nose syndrome. Depression was diagnosed and the head of the ENT department refused. to receive it. From that moment on, it was a spiral. Brett Helling did not take the medication given to him, convinced that he was not suffering from depression, but from empty nose syndrome. He stopped eating, sleeping, showering. And all he did was talk out of his nose, like a scratched record player, according to his friends and relatives. In December, his relationship broke up, he returned to live with his parents where he spent his time with kleenez in the nose.

“I can’t live like this. My life has become hell,” he told his parents. In February 2015, almost a year after his surgery, he parked on the Jeremiah Morrow Bridge, one of the highest in the state of Ohio. And he threw himself from the top of these 73 meters.

“I have the impression that I am slowly dying,” also says André Gourbillon, a retired nuclear technician, interviewed by L’Obs who conducted an investigation into this disease in 2012.

Patients who suffer from this syndrome may have intense pain, experience hyperventilation, nasal dryness, and completely lose their sense of taste and smell. They have sleep problems and face violent depression. He ended up finding at least a way to sleep, thanks to a noisy machine that channels the air and moistens his nasal walls. “He gave up neuroleptics, which made him feel like he was on another planet. But lives with permanent facial pain,”

Approximately 2 to 5% of patients who undergo turbinectomy suffer from complications. Some ENTs even put forward the record figure of 14%. A victims' association was created in France in 2011, which helped launch around twenty legal proceedings. Nine written questions were asked by MEPs on this subject. Since the creation of the association, at least two of its members have committed Suicide.