ENT Medical Services Sleep Center, PLC

I was referred here for a sleep study a few years ago after doing a home study and being diagnosed with sleep apnea. I was really looking forward to getting treatment and sleeping better and more safely with my new diagnosis. It turned out to be the most traumatic medical experience of my life. I arrived at the center and got all the wires and monitors hooked up to me. Then the nurse put the mask on me. On full blast. Have you ever stepped outside on a windy day and had your breath taken away? Imagine that feeling, only inside a full plastic mask that covers your nose and mouth. Not only am I claustrophobic to begin with, but in that mask on full force, I couldn’t breathe and started to panic. The nurse acted like that was really weird. She said that’s okay, I could relax for a bit and we tried again. I did this and went into the room and relaxed. After a while she came in and we tried it again. Same results. Over and over and over she put this full mask on me, blasting air, and over and over and over I had a panic attack. I asked for several accommodations to try to get this to work and was told they were not allowed. Specifically, I asked if I could try a mask that wasn’t the full one that goes over both your nose and mouth. I had seen masks that were just a cord that go under your nose before. I was informed that I could potentially receive one of those masks AFTER the sleep study, but that the sleep study required that I spend a full night in a full mask to get the titration right. Eventually it got so late and I had so many failed attempts that we were out of time to get the amount of data we would need. She said she’d never seen anything like this. She disconnected everything and I slept for the 4 hours I had left. Due to this terrible experience, I spent the last few years believing I had no options for treatment for my sleep apnea. I’ve looked into everything from dental solutions to the implantable device, but I was ineligible for everything. I felt like a CPAP was definitely not an option, because if I couldn’t spend 30 seconds in a mask, how could I spend every night in one? It’s been scary to live with this diagnosis untreated knowing the host of health complications it causes. It can even cause death. Finally by chance, someone referred me to the Eastern Iowa Sleep Center in PCI in Cedar Rapids. I called them and explained my experience. They were horrified and told me that not only are they allowed to give me less restrictive masks, but insurance actually requires that you be given the least restrictive mask to begin with, and work your way up only to a full mask if it is absolutely necessary. So apparently this place is just trying to get more money by unnecessarily forcing patients into the full mask immediately. I also learned that the air is never supposed to go on full blast while you are conscious. It’s just a light gentle breeze, and the full air kicks in when you are asleep and stop breathing - in other words the machine breathes for you. I honestly don’t know what that nurse was thinking, but she scared me away from treating a dangerous diagnosis for several years due to her extreme incompetence. This place should be shut down. Absolutely abysmal experience. I’d give it -10000 stars if I could.

Dr. Mahadevia is the BEST!!! He found & has been treating all my sleeping disorders. He listens, he helps & he cares! I'll never want or need another sleep Dr. Now if I could just get my Medicaid to allow the treatments he suggests! That's the real problem. People wonder why certain people become addicts, alot of the time, they are self medicating. And there's many reasons People do that. Especially when Medicaid SUCKS & WONT HELP YOU!