John has rarely found sleep to be restful.
“I would wake up every morning at 7 a.m. and spend the next two hours or so recovering from the lousy night’s sleep I had,” John says. “I think the only rest I was getting was those two and a half hours of just sitting there. Sleep was more detrimental than actually staying awake.”
After being diagnosed with sleep apnea a decade ago, the 61-year-old Washington Township resident tried everything to treat the condition and get a good night’s sleep. Special pillows didn’t work, and neither did nasal strips. When he tried using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, the mask was always on the floor when he woke up. The same happened with a custom mouthpiece from the dentist.
“I don’t know when I threw it on the floor, but it was on the floor every morning. And I felt no better,” John explains. “I tried different styles of masks, but the result was always the same. I gave up on it for a while.”
An Innovative New Sleep Apnea Therapy
About four years ago, John learned about Inspire® therapy, an FDA-approved implantable device for patients with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea who haven’t been successful using CPAP therapy.
For people with obstructive sleep apnea, the tongue relaxes into a position that blocks the airway. The small implant delivers gentle pulses to airway muscles to keep your airway open while you sleep so you can breathe regularly and sleep soundly. Therapy is controlled by the patient with a small handheld remote. Unfortunately, John didn’t feel comfortable with the first doctor he contacted about the device, so the restless nights continued.
Then, in 2025, John made an appointment with Dr. Rosemary Ojo, chief of otolaryngology at Holy Name Medical Center. After a full examination and review of John’s medical history, Dr. Ojo concluded that he was a candidate for Inspire. Unlike other physicians he had seen, Dr. Ojo also found that John had a deviated septum, meaning that the wall of cartilage and bone separating John’s nostrils was off-center. This created an uneven nasal passage, with one side significantly narrower than the other, restricting airflow. To improve airflow and treat John’s sleep apnea, Dr. Ojo first implanted the Inspire device, then corrected the deviated septum.
During a short outpatient procedure in December, Dr. Ojo made two small incisions. One incision is to insert the Inspire implant under the skin near John’s collarbone, while the second, beneath his jawline, is used to connect the implant to the nerve in the neck that controls the tongue. A few months later, Dr. Ojo performed surgery on John’s septum. After recovering and using Inspire for a few weeks, John can see a difference.
“It’s been a long road, but now I can make it through the day,” John says. “I’m finally getting six to seven hours of sleep each night.”
John plans to complete a sleep study while on Inspire to customize the device’s settings further and ensure maximum benefit. He continues to follow up with Dr. Ojo.
“Dr. Ojo is scientific like me, and called me personally after each surgery, which I appreciated,” John says. “She is a true professional.”
