If you think that is bad:
In 2020, Nature Medicine reported the story of Australian woman Rita Leggett, who’d received an experimental brain implant to treat her epilepsy. Implanted as part of a clinical trial, the device worked for Leggett: she stopped having seizures. However, mid-way through the trial, NeuroVista, the company that made the device, folded after investors became nervous about providing financial backing to such invasive technology.
Because the company was no longer operating, there was no means of monitoring the device. It was, quite literally, dead in Leggett’s head (well, not quite – the battery was meant to last three years). Her husband offered to buy the device from NeuroVista but was refused because of its proprietary components. Her only option was to have the device removed or ‘explanted’.