Vasovagal Syncope?

T

three_niner_juliet

New Member
Hi,
I'm 17 years old, I have around 40-45 hours, and I was just about to do my final check ride. Of course, something had to happen and I had to get grounded. This is what happened:

I was in school, drivers theory class, and we were watching a movie with the lights off. This movie was made in the 80's and it features gratuitous amounts of brains, intestines, and other internal organs strewn across America's roadways (it was a movie about car crashes and it was real footage). I had just finished a math test in the previous period (which means stress), I had only had a handful of cereal for breakfast, and hadn't had anything to drink yet (this happened at around 10:10, breakfast was at 6:30). Halfway into the movie, I began to feel lightheaded. Before I knew it, I had fainted and my school took the liberty to send me to the hospital because I had hit my head off my desk. Once at the hospital, the doctors gave me an MRI, EKG, EEG, CAT scan, echo cardiogram, and a chest x-ray. Everything was normal.

As an outpatient, I had to go in for a tilt-table test. After 30 minutes on the table without fainting, they had to give me nitroglycerin to make me faint, which I did. Not sure what that signifies since I was supposed to faint after being given nitroglycerin.

Anyway, when I was about 4, I fainted while my mom was reading me a book about pretty much the same topic as the video, except all the guts were in someone's body. I fainted again at 12 when I had a fever, I'm pretty sure I was either vomiting or using the bathroom at the time.

Sorry for the long story, but flying is my life and I don't want to make any wrong steps here. I'm somewhat worried about what the FAA will say about this, because it affects flying right now. What I'm more worried about though, is what the Air Force will say, because I'm planning on getting a flight slot after ROTC. I'm pretty sure that this is a case of Vasovagal Syncope, because it fits the symptoms and 2 doctors have told me that Vasovagal is likely. Which means that it would be fairly easy to avoid my trigger.


My questions are:
What should I do

When should I do it

Do you think I have a chance of getting medically (re)certified in either the FAA world or the Air Force (this is more of an emotional question, because I'm very stressed out about this)?


Thanks in advance for any input. Again, I apologize for the long story.
 
Just report the incident as vasovagal syncope on the medical. Take copies of all of the reports to the AME so he can send them to the FAA as documentation. It should not be a problem. I would issue the certificate ans submit the supporting documentation to substantiate my decision as an AME.
 
So I don't need to obtain a special waiver or anything like that?
Also, did you have any experience with this in the Army; in so far as their regulations are concerned for pilots?
 
Thank you so much for putting my mind at ease. A lot of my doctors have been making such a huge deal out of this. One of them even went to the length of giving me a 15 minute speech that consisted of "you will never fly" and "you will definitely never fly." They were acting like fainting is abnormal or something. It is very disconcerting to have half of your doctors saying one thing and then the other half to be saying a completely different thing.

Thanks again.
 
Sorry, I just noticed that you said "when my AME issues my certificate". I already have a third class medical, do I need to report this and how do I do that?

Also, if I need to include documentation. in the event that I still need to report this, do I need to all the results from my tests. The reason I say that is because my tilt-table test was administered in the worst possible way. First, the doctor who was in charge of the test failed to record the first 6 seconds of the test, which were crucial seconds. Second, he failed to take into account that I had not drank or eaten anything for a 20 hour period, which means that I was dehydrated. I was dehydrated and he still gave me nitroglycerin, which is dangerous. Guess what, my heart stopped for more than 6 seconds and he's surprised. Dehydration predisposes people to vasovagal episodes.

I am very confused here because you are saying that having sycopal symptoms is normal, but some of my doctors say that it isn't.
 
I said it is normal when many people see "guts and gore". I will bet several of your doctors had the same thing happen to them the first time they went to an autopsy in medical school.

What does the final diagnosis say on the tilt table test? If it says normal, no big deal. Supply all of the test results.
 
The problem with the tilt-test is that it often gives false answers that look like heart defects. Also, like I said, I hadn't drank anything in 20 hours, which is a definite factor in a lot of syncopal episodes. In my mind, it was a probable factor in the stopping of my heart for 10 seconds. The doctor who administered the test said that it was normal for the heart to stop for up to 6 seconds, what he didn't mention is that, like I said, dehydration is a cause of syncope in the first place, so it could have caused the prolonged period in which my heart stopped. Even one of my doctors said that they had debated whether or not to use the test because it's controversial and unreliable. This is why I'm wary of giving the results of the test to the FAA, because if the results are so easily skewed, then it means nothing. I mean, is it that abnormal for someone to faint after not having food or fluid for 20 hours and then given nitroglycerin?
 
First, you asked what I thought you should do - - - report it to the FAA as I said! Second, if the study were really abnormal, I would have expected the cardiologist to go ahead and recommend a EP (electrophysiological) study to define whether or not there was a significant abnormality. The fact they did not (or at least you did not tell us they did order one) bodes well.
 
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