Medicals Never a Guarantee, Much of it is up to the pilot themselves………

[jackc]

Case in point in this published incident, I find it hard to believe in this case that the pilot has no prior symptoms that would have warned him of a possible impending problem. Fortunately, no other people were injured, or worse.

Another good reason to assess yourself as fit to fly or…….maybe need an appointment with your GP.  Sore left arm, back pain and heartburn are some of the indicators of  possible Cardiac problem, amongst others.

 

https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/104866/pdf?fbclid=IwAR2G-uEw62ysU5zx6STWFAoXV631p_uUMeT788t3o09greH_2TryeAwKKCY_aem_ASXbHZr42gJk5JtZP7GoBWlIf8Nqo0rSsFK80M0rTidO5y9IuU03AwQ7XGvPkZRqTB8

[turboplanner]

What's the difference between a medical and the appointment with a GP you're recommending?

 

[onetrack]

Well, the extract below shows up the precise problem associated with the event - a disconnect between docs feeding new medications to patients without being cluey enough to ask what types of driving, machinery operating, or flying were likely to be done by the patient.

A cluey doc would ensure that anyone given these drugs would have major restrictions placed on the patients driving, machinery operating, and flying activities.

Many drugs administered come with warnings about how they may affect your skills in all those afore-mentioned areas, and at the very least, the doc should have notified the aviation authorities.

 

"Toxicology testing performed by the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Forensic Sciences laboratory detected amlodipine and propafenone in the pilot’s heart blood and liver tissue. Propafenone is used to treat life-threatening irregular heartbeats; the medication itself can cause a new irregular heartbeat and increase the risk of death. The use of propafenone would require FAA review and approval."

[turboplanner]

In the pits one night a race car driver who had been consistently in the back of the field for a couple of seasons told me he'd had another driver get in his car, and was able to post fast times, so he was going to "take it seriously" tonight and put some effort into it.

 

In the first race he came up through the field and passed me, and I was happy for him, but he then drifted left into the infield and as the car turned I could see his helmet dropped to the side sitting on his shoulder. He was dead, and we found out later he had suffered typical heart pains for years.

 

Wherever someone engaged in a strenuouss or stressful sport  dies and the comments go something like "He died doing what he loved" it often comes out later that the wife, the family and the doctor had been at him for years to see a specialist and get treatment, but he'd covered it up.

 

 

[jackc]

54 minutes ago, turboplanner said:

What's the difference between a medical and the appointment with a GP you're recommending?

 

Gp is starting point, a once over, blood tests and ECG.  Luckily my GP is also a DAME 

[spacesailor]

Specialist 

My heart Specialist.  Wouldn't tell Me ,anything about my condition. 

And said " it is all in the cloud " .

he wasn't happy when I cancelled all my future appointments. 

Nothing sent to my gp either. 

Now my wife has a missing report from her Specialist. 

her gp isn't happy with that .

spacesailor

[onetrack]

You're entitled to see all your medical history and doctors opinions, as well as all your blood test results. A lot of people fail to ask for this information, but a lot of docs treat it as a secret they have to keep.

[facthunter]

Being a Designated Aviation Medical Examiner may not be the best qualification to be a good GP.  A DAME 's job is to check if you pass the requirements for your type of licence. That's a qualification they seek by choice.    A "niche" in the GAME. .  Nev

[jackc]

Luckily for me, my GP is a friend, it pays to have good contacts, likewise my Wife’s Cardiologist who we have dealt with for 23 years, have even been in his operating theatre will working on my wife.  We often have medical conversations by phone.

Good contacts with knowledgable people in your life will always pay dividends in your life, no matter what their calling may be.

Even  politicians, lawyers etc, Police etc. you can learn something from them all, rule is mouth shut and ears open.

But you also  need a good brain to sort the Wheat from the Chaff 🤩

[skippydiesel]

New Flash! -Doctors are not gods - this fact will no doubt surprise many and possibly uspest a few.

 

The medical profession (abely supported by entertainment media) works hard to project an image of superiority, bordering on infallibility. It's no wonder that a Dr's signature is so highly regarded and they have ridiculous lobbying powers well beyond us mortals.

 

The truth is,  with the best will/training/equipment, Dr's are still unable to predict the time & place of anyone's demize, that is assuming they themselves, are not about to kill the the client/patent/themself (I am sure it's happened)😈.

 

Young  & old people drop dead for no obvious or known pre- existing, condition. Most often, the postmortem will give a clear cause, not always. There is much the medical profession still don't know.

 

Medical examinations, have their limits - at the moment they are the best we have to judge the health of a person, wishing to exercise the privileged of pilot in command of an aircraft.

[spacesailor]

But 

They can also be used to ' weed out ' undesirable/ older people. 

If oldies are so bad at driving,  why give them a licence at 70 plus years old .

One 70 year old lady failed all her life to pass that driving test . Then lost it the following year .

me  ,  I dread that age driving test .

I couldn't pass my Raa flying  test . After 20 something ' take-off/ landings ' .

To be told told ," i'll never gain a flying certificate " .

spacesailor 

 

 

 

[onetrack]

I'm only 3 months away from my 75th birthday and I consider myself still pretty fit for my age. However, I injured my left shoulder in Sept 2022 (incurring an inflamed bursar, by skylarking and not acting my age - I dived left-shoulder first onto what I thought was going to be a soft landing, and unfortunately I landed on hard ground - lesson learnt). As a result of visiting my local surgical practice, the first doc (a Chinese woman) picked up my BP was 200/100.

 

She went ballistic, exclaiming I was at immediate risk of dropping dead or having a major stroke. I explained that maybe some of the reasons behind the high BP was, (a) I was in screaming agony from the damaged shoulder, and didn't have any idea of what damage I'd done to it - (b) I'd lost about 3 nights sleep due to excruciating pain, and (c) I was in a doctors surgery, a well-known reason for increased BP.

I had previously never had any reason to worry about my BP, although I knew it had been slowly increasing over recent years - but was still within the right range for my age. However, I hadn't had a BP check for about 4 years prior to the shoulder injury, largely thanks to COVID restrictions.

 

This woman doctor virtually refused to listen to me, and put me on an enzyme blocker (ACE inhibitor), which apparently soften arteries and veins. Somewhat surprisingly to me, they work, and they have no side effects that I've noticed.

In the meantimes, after some ultrasounds that determined the shoulder damage was largely torn ligaments and soft tissue damage, plus the inflamed bursar, I got a steroid injection into the bursar which reduced the pain and the shoulder healed quite well after about 6 mths.

 

I couldn't take the woman doctors rather abrasive attitude, so in early 2023, I moved to another male Australian doctor in the same surgery, for ongoing treatment and check-ups. This bloke was a fitness merchant, he was 56, in fine-looking shape - although he had a nasty-looking arterial bulge in his temple that I regularly felt like raising a discussion with him about it - but I didn't.

An arterial bulge like that on my body, would have made me greatly concerned - but I guessed, as a doc, he knew all about it, and any potential problems associated with it (likelihood of other arterial problems), so I never brought it up.

 

But just 3 mths after I started seeing him, and with another appointment scheduled for one morning last May, I was all set to leave home, when I received an SMS from the surgery. It went "Dear Mr OT - we have to advise you that your appt with Dr X this morning will have to be cancelled, as we have just received information that he has passed away early this morning".

It turned out that this bloke had gone for his daily early morning jog around a large local park, and had dropped dead on the spot (at age 56), with passers-by unable to revive him. Maybe I should've raised the subject of that nasty arterial bulge on his temple with him! Incidentally, my BP at my check-up  yesterday was 136/74, pretty normal for people my age, apparently.

[facthunter]

When there's a fun run there's often casualties and overheated muscles. Maybe the arterial bulge has nothing to do with it. It's rare to NOT get signals of something wrong but plenty who should Know better ignore them. ' IF you sometimes get light headed when you stand up tell your  doctor

  Any breathlessness  and "heavy chest" feel  or pains in shoulder and upper arm may be angina pain. Sit, loosen collar and relax and take deep breaths and it MAY go away as you are unloading you heart and supplying more oxygen but you are right on the brink of having a heart  attack so GET to a hospital nut don't drive yourself.. I'd call an ambulance if you're not sure because they can start treating you when they arrive.. Been there when going home after an operation not correctly medicated and a mate died by ignoring the signs 18 months ago. 

 At the moment my Heart checks out absolutely NORMAL .Nev .