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Medical horror stories

BMI is a crazy measure. It was in the syllabus for a Biology course we taught. Getting a teenage girl to weigh herself in public is impossible. So staff demonstrated
X, who was obese, had a lower BMI than me. Bulging abdomen minimum muscle, had difficulty climbing stairs. Died early fifties.
I had a few kg fat over a lot of muscle and bone. D was almost as high a BMI as me, minimum fat, ex rugby international.
Exercise adds muscle and bone mass which is counted the same as fat and retained fluid for BMI.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

Ronnie Coleman has BMI > 40 and Arnold Schwarzenegger has BMI > 30
They likely eat five thousands of calories a day?

Last Edited by Ibra at 22 Mar 20:44
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

This was done in the Health thread. The point is that most people are not bodybuilders. I’d say that for the GA population (I would be amazed if 1% do anything in a gym other than eat cakes while admiring the female tennis players, let alone visit one) BMI will be a pretty consistent yardstick.

There is a lot wrong in aviation medicine. It is rule-bound, firstly by 70 year old ICAO stuff and secondly by European gold plating. Many “doctors” working in the CAAs are 100 years behind current knowledge. And some are just plain weird.

But there is a lot wrong in medicine generally; somebody with a BMI of 50 turns up at his GP, with 20 serious conditions, and if the GP says “Mr Bloggs, 19 of those 20 conditions are caused by you weighing 300kg” then he will spend the following day dealing with a patient complaint. So he prescribes 30 medications. Result = everybody is happy. There was recently a TV series here, camera in the GP exam room, obviously with patient consent, and that was literally all the GPs did. Utterly depressing. Not one question like “what do you eat”?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

In hospital with my son a few years ago, one of the other patients was a teenage girl with her leg in a plaster cast. She was almost in tears repeatedly explaining, “no, it’s APPENDICITIS”. Actually quite scary.

In Fernando’s case they were so fixated on BMI they missed his hook, eyepatch, and wooden leg 🏴‍☠️

You did the right thing. Don’t fall out with anyone, do what it takes to get legal again, take your business elsewhere. With your legal background you can decide whether to make life unpleasant for the AME after you’re flying again.

EGHO-LFQF-KCLW, United Kingdom

Picking the wrong AME is the most dangerous thing in aviation. It can literally end careers.

Once you have vetted one, listened to other pilots who’s used them, then stick to them forever. Another good trick is to go where professional working pilots go – they all seek out the ones that will give they least amount of hassle at renewals. A big warning sign to me is an AME than mainly does student and PPL pilots only – then the chances increase that are they’re huge anal sticklers when it comes to older pilots. Another thing – if the AME is a pilot him/herself, they’re almost always good and “get it”.

Once you have vetted one, listened to other pilots who’s used them, then stick to them forever. Another good trick is to go where professional working pilots go

That was my program for 15 years or so but my long term AME was then delisted, from what I heard for doing too little, not too much He had a lot of military experience but regardless thought the procedure for private pilots should be minimized. As a result my renewals took 15 minutes max…. but nothing lasts forever.

@AdamFrisch more recently I’ve gone onto FAA BasicMed. It’s more of a hassle compared to what I did before but it’s still only one simple statement/exam every four years plus a periodic online procedure. I used a ‘strip mall’ urgent care clinic doctor for the exam, never saw him before and will never see him again. He’d never seen a BasicMed form before, I showed him where to sign.

For aviation medicine I find the lowest risk, least invasive path possible, do the minimum and no more, and go to my real doctor for real medical advice and care.

Last Edited by Silvaire at 23 Mar 04:12

Maoraigh wrote:

BMI is a crazy measure.

BMI was initially intended for statistics and not for assessment of individual health. It’s used that way because it is easy to measure and easy to understand. So on a group level it is valid to say that if BMI > X then Y% will get this or that disease, but on an individual level it’s much more complicated.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

I think this is the current regulation:
Easy Access Rules for Medical Requirements

This is for a class II.

(b) Obesity
Applicants with a Body Mass Index >= 35 may be assessed as fit only if the excess weight is not
likely to interfere with the safe exercise of the applicable licence(s) and the results of a risk
assessment, including evaluation of the cardiovascular system and evaluation of the possibility
of sleep apnoea, are satisfactory.

For a LAPL it’s:
(b) Obesity
Obese applicants may be assessed as fit if the excess weight is not likely to interfere with the
safe exercise of the licence.

Regarding weight measurement the document states:
203 WEIGHT – Measure weight, in indoor clothes, in kilograms to nearest kg.
you could claim that a pair of speedos is indoor clothes.

You are lucky that you only got the test flight and blood test.

pmh
ekbr ekbi, Denmark

Try failing your ECG because you’re too fit…..

Pig
If only I’d known that….
EGSH. Norwich. , United Kingdom

pmh wrote:

203 WEIGHT – Measure weight, in indoor clothes, in kilograms to nearest kg.

Choose your clothing wisely… For an average length person, indoor clothes could make about 0.5 BMI points difference.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden
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