Engine cranks, fires, dies

I removed the MAF and using a high power lens was able to see that the hot wire element of the MAF is burnt away. So yes, the MAF needs to be replaced. I am concern about why the hot element is burnt away; was it due to repeated cleaning as I understand that on some cars the MAF can go through a cleaning stage where a higher current is sent to burn away containments. My concern is burning up the new MAF due to some other issue.