Heartbeat & 1st Class Medical

C

crash_burn

New Member
I'm 26 years old, and i'm interested in becoming an airline pilot, also was a former USAF officer (non-pilot).

During my time in the military it was discovered that I had an abnormal heartbeat. After numerous tests including 24 hour holter monitor, echocardiagrams, and a ultrasound of my heart. My diagnosis was that I had PAC/PVC w/ aberrant conduction, echo was within normal limits, asymptomatic, and no apparent physical heart defects. When they used non-medical jargon they explained it to me as a regular-irregular heartbeat (i.e. same pattern, every 4th hb was abnormal).

My question is would this prevent me from obtaining a 1st class medical certificate, and/or getting hired on by an airline. Thanks

Mike
 
I would not think it should affect you but without a the actual diagnosis it is hard for me to say with certainty. I would obtain copies of the entire medical evauation so you have those just in case anyone ever asks. When you turn 35, the FAA will obtain an EKG - it would be nice to be able to document you had this for years.
 
I have all the medical documents (including EKG results) with me, I made sure to get all my military medical records before I separated.

Little confused about your comment though. I assume by "without the diagnosis" you mean all the EKG's, and other documentation. Because the part I wrote about "PAC/PVC" was pretty much verbatim off the doctor's summary. I only left out a part about not needing medication due to being asymptomatic, and a comment about me needing to be aware that if I ever do start showing symptoms to see a doctor about it.

Thanks for the input though, I was already planning on seeing a flight doctor to get a 1st class medical before I do anything; I don't want to waste a bunch of money on flight school and then find out I'll never be able to work as a pilot. At least from your opinion I know that there's a good chance I will be able to attain a 1st class medical license.

Thanks again
Mike
 
I don't know the specifics on your issue, but FWIW, I have a bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), and while it took a few months to get my medical after the initial deferred medical (standard as far as I know, the AME has to defer certain things), I have not had any period since when I did not have a 1st class medical. I do have to get an echo once a year, but a year ago the special issuance the FAA sent to me was good until 2011.

For anyone else that was thinking about not reporting similar conditions, I'll give my advice. In my case, from what I understand, any doctor worth anything would be able to hear my heart 'click' (the hospital that I went to when I was younger always had all of the current interns/residents/whatever listen to my chest because it was so obvious). And then there's the EKG at 35 thing... I would much rather go through the standard protocol from the start, than have to deal with what would happen if they found out I was hiding something that I've known about (and was recorded) for my entire life. Get it all sorted out from the beginning!
 
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