Leah Kondes understood why she needed stents implanted in her legs. 

And she could tell the stents worked: days after she went to the hospital with a dangerous blood clot, her pain and swelling were gone. 

But her real understanding and appreciation for the technology only came when she toured a Medtronic manufacturing facility and met the team who made her specific devices. 

Three experiences on that day changed how she thinks about her Abre™ Venous Self-Expanding Stents.

‘I felt like royalty’ 

Leah’s first moments at Medtronic brought her to tears. On arrival, she met a room of more than 70 cheering manufacturing employees. Each one personally contributed to making her stents. It was a moment she won’t soon forget. 

“It was very humbling and very moving,” Leah recalled. “I had no idea how many people touched this product that’s in my body. You could tell that they cared a lot about their work. And so that really meant a lot to me.” 

She told the crowd her own story. After noticing pain in her leg while walking her dog, her leg swelled, and she eventually went to the hospital. Extensive blood clotting had formed in one of the main veins in her leg. Stents were needed to correct May-Thurner Syndrome, a condition that obstructs blood flow when an artery in the leg compresses the nearby vein.

^{Talk to your doctor about your treatment options. Not every patient will receive the same results.} 

^{Intended Use/Indications:  The Abre™ venous self-expanding stent system (Abre™ stent system) is indicated for use in the iliofemoral veins for the treatment of symptomatic venous outflow obstruction.}  

^{Contraindications:  Do not use the Abre™ stent system with patients with known hypersensitivity to nickel titanium (nitinol), with patients who are judged to have a lesion that prevents complete inflation of a balloon dilatation catheter or proper placement of the stent or the stent delivery system, and with patients in whom anticoagulant or antiplatelet therapy is contraindicated.}  

^{Potential Adverse Effects of the Device on Health: The potential adverse effects (e.g., complications) associated with the use of the Abre™ stent system include, but are not limited to, access failure, access site infection, allergic reaction to contrast medium or procedure medications; aneurysm; AV fistula; bleeding; bruising; death; device breakage; device maldeployment; edema; embolization; fever; hematoma; hypertension; hypotension, nausea, or other vasovagal response; infection; myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, or other cardiovascular insufficiency; open surgical repair; pain; pseudoaneurysm; renal insufficiency or renal failure (new or worsening); respiratory distress or pulmonary embolism; sepsis; stent fracture; stent malapposition; stent malposition; stent migration; stroke, paradoxical embolism, transient ischemic attack, or intracerebral hemorrhage; tissue necrosis; venous occlusion, restenosis, or thrombosis, within or outside of stented segment; and vessel damage, including intimal injury, dissection, perforation, or rupture.} 

^{Warnings, precautions, and instructions for use can be found in the product labeling at http://manuals.medtronic.com.} 

^{CAUTION: Federal (USA) law restricts this device to sale by or on the order of a physician.}