Disclose Past Medical Condition that Guarantees Medical Deferral/Risks Denial?

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anonymousposter

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I live in the US full time, but recently traveled to a foreign country. While in this country, I became ill and was hospitalized for several weeks with pericarditis. Fortunately, I made a full recovery.


I am in my mid-20s and am otherwise healthy and active. My dream is to fly in the airlines for a career, and I wanted to get a first-class medical soon. However, I figured my hospitalization would probably make that difficult. Sure enough, in looking at the Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners, a past diagnosis of pericarditis means a medical of any class must be deferred. This website (https://flightphysical.com/medical-exam/heart ) says that certification is unlikely unless information is highly favorable to the applicant.


As far as I know, no one in the United States will ever know I was hospitalized in this foreign country, nor what I was hospitalized for. I don’t want to lie on a federal form, but I’m terrified of possibly ending my dream before it even began by telling the truth. So the question is:


When it comes to Item 18 on my medical application, do I tell the truth and say I have been diagnosed with heart trouble, or do I lie and say I haven’t?


If you think I should tell the truth, should I still apply for the first class medical or should I instead apply for a third class medical (I’m assuming that gets approved quicker) to get in the air ASAP? Should I schedule a consultation with an AME first, even though it would inevitably be deferred? I am still in the foreign country for a few more weeks - should I get the ball rolling with an AME here, or wait until I’m back stateside?


If you think I should lie, say I get my first class medical, and I’m able to make this a career and one day find myself flying for a US regional and on the verge of applying to major airlines in the US. Does your answer change when I mention that I also plan on applying to the flagship carrier of this foreign country? Presumably, when applying for a medical in this country, I’d have to tell the truth about my past hospitalization. Could this somehow come back to jeopardize my flying career in the US?


Thanks in advance.
 
Would you want to fly with a liar? Would you really be willing to risk your passengers’ lives just so you could live out your childhood dream? Grow up, contact Dr. Bruce Chien or Dr. Lou Fowler and do it right. Or spend your life looking over your shoulder for the man to hunt you down. Your illustrative description of being dishonest seems slimy, untrustworthy, and unprofessional.
 
I’m not sure you want to mess around with heart issues. Whether the level of care in this foreign country was sub standard or not would be another question. A work-up and clearing by a doctor in the US would probably be beneficial anyway. It doesn’t look like it is a particularly hard deferral if you can get the proper dr’s to provide supporting documents stating the condition is resolved.

lying about heart issues is probably not a good idea.
 
Pericarditis can be recurrent if you have an undiagnosed underlying disease. Get it thoroughly checked out, you can't be a pilot if you are dead.
 
If you end up at a regional or major in the US, please come back and tell us what airline you will be flying with so we can make sure not to fly on it! SMDH
 
Even thinking about omitting info or lying on a medical says you need to rethink things quite heavily. If you are willing to consider doing so, where are you willing to not lie? How much Parker or Bic flight time in your log are you going to add?

Take the time and spend the $ to have a consult with an AME that deals with tough cases and ABSOLUTELY TELL them everything.

Truthfulness is step one to earning the trust needed to get your ticket.
 
Craig said:
Even thinking about omitting info or lying on a medical says you need to rethink things quite heavily. If you are willing to consider doing so, where are you willing to not lie? How much Parker or Bic flight time in your log are you going to add?

Take the time and spend the $ to have a consult with an AME that deals with tough cases and ABSOLUTELY TELL them everything.

Truthfulness is step one to earning the trust needed to get your ticket.
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Not to mention the potential for five years in federal prison.
 
Should I schedule a consultation with an AME first, even though it would inevitably be deferred?
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Yes, schedule a consult, if you do anything. I would not even fill out the form online and make sure the AME understands you don’t want to go live at this time, don’t let him do it, so NO, that would not lead to a deferral, only to you finding out what your chances are. It sounds likely he’ll say they’re not good. If that’s the case you don’t want to apply and get denied, that would lock you out of sport pilot, and if you can’t have a career you might still like to fly for fun.

Definitely do not fill it out and lie. You may be wrong that “they” could never find out about this. Just you posting here connects your story to your device already, unless you’re big on stealth obfuscation of your internet tracks and even then I wouldn’t bet my whole career on it. It would be a nagging worry your whole life. You might never get caught until you auger in and then they’ll find it on postmortem and your grieving family will get to enjoy your estate being sued.

The last thing you want to do is invest time and money in a career, end up with a family to support and a big mortgage only to have your career blow up in your face when you’re too far down the road of life to start over. Much easier to face the music right now and you’ll either get certified honestly or know you need to get yourself on another career track.

I also agree, go to a good U.S cardiologist for a total workup, diagnosis and prognosis. Take that info to a good AME for a consult only and proceed from there. That would be my advice and what I’d do in your situation.

You didn’t happen to get “the” vaccine just prior to this did you? If it’s considered a direct side effect I don’t know if that makes any difference to the prognosis or the FAA.

Good luck and I’m sorry this happened to you.
 
And remember: nobody from the FAA ever reads these forums. /sarcasm off.

Your chance of successful flying this lie to your desired career has decreased. The best way now is to fess up, be in the care of a senior AME, and be guided by his/her advice. I would get a consult (NOT an exam) from Dr Bruce Chien who frequents this Forum and at aeromedicaldoc.com

Best of luck to you.

-Skip
 
Are you asking our permission to lie? Not only a solid NO, but you’ve identified yourself as someone that needs a complete attitude reversal before anyone is going to help you with this.

what’s sad is that there are people here who might have been able to help.
 
Come on guys, his brain has barely finished developing, he’s only mid twenties. He wouldn’t be the first youngun who dreamed of flying only to find out that a medical isn’t a rubber stamp but a major government bureaucratic obstacle about to crush his lifelong passion. So he briefly considers sidestepping the whole thing. Unlike most here, he doesn’t have a lifetime of experience informing him what a major screw-up that would be. Hopefully now he knows and maybe we did help him.
 
Thanks for the candor and advice everyone.


I’ve decided to forgo the medical altogether. I’m ashamed lying even crossed my mind and I wouldn’t want to share a cockpit with someone like me. Regardless, the moment this thread went live, any chance realistically flew out the window.


I hate my job and did not want to spend the next 40 years thinking about what could’ve been if I became a pilot. But it pays the bills and if this pandemic has taught me one thing, it’s that everything can go to **** overnight and you just have to deal with it. So I’ll deal with it.


And yes. I got “the” vaccine. The only vaccinated person in an extended family is the one, and only one, who falls ill. What are the odds…
 
You haven't dug yourself much of a hole yet. Give yourself a few weeks to digest what you were thinking, get your mind in the proper perspective and then start gathering up all of your medical records from the event overseas. Once you have them all, then set up a consultation with one of the AMEs that handles stuff like this and see what they say. The problem you had is not necessarily a total no fly thing, but might require testing, monitoring and a period of time before getting an SI. It may take a year or more to get to the point you can get a medical, so if you really want to fly and are willing to do things correctly, don't give up until the AME says it won't happen at all.
 
Need:
Complete record and then usually:
Some currrent lab
Current stress treadmill
Current Echo
24 hour Holter
Cardiologist’s exam and commentary

i’ll bet your alright but no way to know without the stuff….and no application please until all these things are in hand and favorable……

A captain starting off after committing a felony: why, that doesn’t hunt ……omission is No Bueno!
 
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bbchien said:
Need:
Complete record and then usually:
Some currrent lab
Current stress treadmill
Current Echo
24 hour Holter
Cardiologist’s exam and commentary

i’ll bet your alright but no way to know without the stuff….and no application please until all these things are in hand and favorable……

A captain starting off after committing a felon: why, that doesn’t hunt ……omission is No Bueno!
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OP, Dr. Bruce's commentary makes it seem as though your prospects are not hopeless. Perhaps consider hiring him or Dr. Lou Fowler (https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/members/lbfjrmd.26951/) and see if they can help you navigate the process. If you do hire either of them, follow their instructions to the letter. They'll be your best chance of coming out on the other side with a medical certificate!
 
Nothing is hopeless. I’m a pro pilot (charter, airlines, 91/135 corporate, etc) and had a head injury which included a life flight to an emergency trauma hospital, emergency craniotomy due to bleeding in my brain, eye and sinus reconstructive surgeries. I lost my medical for 6 years but recently got my medical back. I now have an unrestricted 1st class medical. Just own your issues and work through them. You’ll get through this
 
Quitters don't get to be pilots. Don't be a quitter. You asked about omitting this, you didn't do it, you got the answer, you are good to go. Don't omit it.Two ames just told you how to get this done, go get it done.
 
Get your records, including tests with test strips from the hospital while you are still there.
 
As others have stated, some temporary frustration at this point and feeling a bit of despair is understandable. But Dr. Bruce, one of the real expert AMEs in hard cases, says all is not lost. Take cheer from that.

Take some time to digest this shock and get over the frustration.

I bet this is possibly on the low side for special issuances. Maybe $5k and a 6 month wait and you are done and can eventually get a regular issuance after some monitoring.

If you are keen to fly in the meantime you can start in gliders and get a lot of good experience without a medical. You are young with most of your life ahead of you. Don’t give up on your dreams that quickly.

Perhaps see http://faamed.info for some more detailed information about how to do all that.

ETA: you made the right decision not to try and lie. That speaks well to your character and ability to face up to the realities of the situation.
 
Used to be that the AME wouldn't have (unless he was the AME from the previous medical) your history. Now with the computers he sees your previous applications so a lot of this PRNC and "date of last application" stuff is kind of mooted as it's easily obvserved.
 
To the OP - think of it this way. Worse than lieing and getting caught, would be lying and not getting caught. You invest $100k into getting your ATP, years in regional flying and finally get to a major carrier.

You want the life where you know any day you could be found out? You want that in the back of your head every day "I hope I don't pass out and kill people". And if something bad happened 10 years from now, how would you live with yourself? What if in10 years all of the medical databases are connected? You'd go to your airline and say " Well, today I have to quit". Not quite the resume builder their. What would you do for job then? Nothing aviation related. Go back to college to get a new career at 35?

Remember, as much as you think the FAA digs into your background, double that for an airline.

Oh yeah - there's the fear of Fed criminal charges that will haunt you.
 
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