A laryngeal pacemaker is configured for external placement on skin of a patient to produce respiration stimulation signals. An implantable stimulation electrode delivers the respiration stimulation signals to adjacent target neural tissue for vocal fold abduction during respiration of the recipient patient. A triaxial accelerometer produces a body motion signal reflecting energy expenditure of the recipient patient. A respiration sensor includes a flexible skin-transferrable printed tattoo electrode having a tetrapolar configuration for impedance pneumography measurement to produce a sensed respiration signal for the laryngeal pacemaker. The respiration sensor is configured for transfer and release by guided placement from a sensor applicator to the skin at the angulus sterni of the recipient patient. And the laryngeal pacemaker is configured to interpret the body motion signal and the sensed respiration signal to make a real time determination of respiratory phase and frequency for adaptively adjusting the respiration stimulation signals accordingly.
