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The Doctor is in! Ask a Flight Surgeon!

taxi1 said:
The second doc suggested the first doc experienced premature diagnostication.
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Right, based off of the information available to the first doctor. A doctor might be 100% wrong, but that doesn't mean they are going to admit it without additional evidence.....and even then...
 
Gatordev said:
Right, based off of the information available to the first doctor. A doctor might be 100% wrong, but that doesn't mean they are going to admit it without additional evidence.....and even then...
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I’ll just clarify the rest of this cause there’s nothing to do but wait for the waiver now.

I have doctors in my family and they have all told me it’s not possible to “diagnose” what that doc had without imaging. However, it is common for them to presumptively diagnose something, especially so that insurance companies will be more likely to cover the cost. E.g. insurance might not cover it if it’s only to rule it out, the doctor wanted to make it appear more urgent I guess. Should he have written “potential” in his notes? Yes, but he didn’t. I’ve gotta deal with it now, but I can promise you this won’t prevent me from serving the best Navy in the world. Sure it sucks, but that’s life.

I appreciate all your replies, and I will try to rectify the record just in case this comes back up later in my career.
 
fighter-cat22 said:
However, it is common for them to presumptively diagnose something, especially so that insurance companies will be more likely to cover the cost. E.g. insurance might not cover it if it’s only to rule it out, the doctor wanted to make it appear more urgent I guess. Should he have written “potential” in his notes? Yes, but he didn’t. I’ve gotta deal with it now, but I can promise you this won’t prevent me from serving the best Navy in the world. Sure it sucks, but that’s life.
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Let's not forget about doctors wanting to cover themselves for later allegations/complaints.

For the record, I didn't mean to imply you actually had the diagnosis, but just elaborating on why trying to convince a doctor to change a diagnosis without additional information is a waste of time.

Good luck on the process.
 
Hello all

So i just got dropped from USMC OCS for the 2nd time as a medical drop, this time with a Rib fracture.

My flight physical is still valid for another year but now im thinking im probably going to need another waiver in regards to this fracture.

I already have one for age (turning 30 in December) and another for Retinal Degeneration

What is the likelihood that I may be able to fly with all the issues I have currently?!
 
I am in the process of putting together a pilot packet for the USMC. I'm in the Army and stationed overseas without access to any Navy flight surgeons. Could I just have an Army flight physical done (I'm not aware of any differences in flight physicals between the services) and have a copy of the physical submitted to NAMI?
 
GreenWeenie said:
I am in the process of putting together a pilot packet for the USMC. I'm in the Army and stationed overseas without access to any Navy flight surgeons. Could I just have an Army flight physical done (I'm not aware of any differences in flight physicals between the services) and have a copy of the physical submitted to NAMI?
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Surprisingly enough when I was at the Pentagon all my annual flight physicals were done with Army flight surgeons, they were authorized to do them but USAF were not. It was long enough ago I forget the details, I think at least one had gone through Navy flight surgeon school as an Army doc, but I would ask your recruiter and possibly the Army flight surgeons at your base as they may be familiar as mine were.
 
GreenWeenie said:
I am in the process of putting together a pilot packet for the USMC. I'm in the Army and stationed overseas without access to any Navy flight surgeons. Could I just have an Army flight physical done (I'm not aware of any differences in flight physicals between the services) and have a copy of the physical submitted to NAMI?
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I would ask your marine corps recruiter / OSO to see if that can work and if there’s any special instructions. Better to avoid wasting anyone’s time.
 
Thanks for the responses gents.

I explained my situation to the folks at my clinic and they booked me for a 'Navy/USMC Long Flight Physical' this Wednesday, stating that we'll discuss if results can be sent to NAMI during the appointment. Although I'm at an Army garrison, there's a large joint presence here so I think the Army staff here is familiar with the whole process. I'll reach out to my recruiter and see what he thinks.

EDIT: My OSO spoke with his NAMI liaison and I received the go-ahead to proceed through my Army docs 👍
 
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Hi everyone, I wanted to poll the group on the difference between the no waiver required syncope and non waiverable situation syncope per the ARWG

"A waiver is not required for simple episodes of vasovagal syncope, with known precipitating causes such as pain or the sight of blood. Normal physiological syncope in response to a training event (i.e. hypoxia demonstrated in a hypobaric chamber or G-inducedloss of consciousness (G-LOC) in a centrifuge) does not require a waiver"

"Non-waiverable situational syncope includes cough-, postural-,Valsalva-, and exertion-induced syncope."

I ask this as I believe my situation would fall under simple vasovagal syncope and not need a waiver but wanted to see other's opinions with more insight on this. Roughly 12 years ago when I was 14 I briefly fainted after being up on a mountaintop all day skiing in the middle of winter (9k feet of elevation). The event did not happen while skiing and I was most likely dehydrated (happened so long ago I can't remember). I did not have any LOC over 30 seconds. I went back home and had an MRI done and there were no findings (I will probably need to dig these records up eventually if they still exist) but have not had any other occurrences of this and it was a isolated incident.

Not sure if I am overthinking this or not, any insight would be greatly appreciated.
 
FormerRecruitingGuru said:
Are you referring to the NAMI guide?
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The PDF containing the full waiver guide is called "ARWG Complete"

asax12 said:
Hi everyone, I wanted to poll the group on the difference between the no waiver required syncope and non waiverable situation syncope per the ARWG

"A waiver is not required for simple episodes of vasovagal syncope, with known precipitating causes such as pain or the sight of blood. Normal physiological syncope in response to a training event (i.e. hypoxia demonstrated in a hypobaric chamber or G-inducedloss of consciousness (G-LOC) in a centrifuge) does not require a waiver"

"Non-waiverable situational syncope includes cough-, postural-,Valsalva-, and exertion-induced syncope."

I ask this as I believe my situation would fall under simple vasovagal syncope and not need a waiver but wanted to see other's opinions with more insight on this. Roughly 12 years ago when I was 14 I briefly fainted after being up on a mountaintop all day skiing in the middle of winter (9k feet of elevation). The event did not happen while skiing and I was most likely dehydrated (happened so long ago I can't remember). I did not have any LOC over 30 seconds. I went back home and had an MRI done and there were no findings (I will probably need to dig these records up eventually if they still exist) but have not had any other occurrences of this and it was a isolated incident.

Not sure if I am overthinking this or not, any insight would be greatly appreciated.
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You should be fine, but it depends how the doc wants to document it. Hard to prove the mechanism for syncope since fortunately nothing appeared on the scans, but being up at a high altitude + skiing + dehydration is a nice combination for hypoxia. Flight doc might want to get a couple tests done and may submit you for a waiver if needed. The most important thing is that this was a long time ago and nothing similar has come up since.

I wouldnt lose sleep over it, especially if you've been skiing at high alt with no issues since og incident.
 
Mouselovr said:
The PDF containing the full waiver guide is called "ARWG Complete"


You should be fine, but it depends how the doc wants to document it. Hard to prove the mechanism for syncope since fortunately nothing appeared on the scans, but being up at a high altitude + skiing + dehydration is a nice combination for hypoxia. Flight doc might want to get a couple tests done and may submit you for a waiver if needed. The most important thing is that this was a long time ago and nothing similar has come up since.

I wouldnt lose sleep over it, especially if you've been skiing at high alt with no issues since og incident.
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I used to live in CO and have had many a days on my epic and ikon passes since haha so that’s reassuring.

Thank you for the insight
 
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