Originally Posted by
Andy Rylance
I have been told of a real tragedy recently. A PPL who was going for his CPL and ATPL was out running and died from a sudden heart attack caused by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy according to the post mortem. Only in this 30's.
The question has to be asked.
If he had the Class A medical as soon as he started training for his PPL, would this have been detected and treatment possible?
Very sorry to hear of this - it will be shocking for his family.
Not sure if the medical would have picked it up, but it's quite possible the guy had a family history of early heart problems, and HCM has an inherited component and in cats at least one responsible mutation has been found. If the genetics are the same in humans, it should be possible (IMHO) to test individuals with a suspicious family history for the mutation. However, it also looks like there is a second mutation producing some of the cases in cats, so gene testing won't pick it all up.
Not having ever done a class A medical I have no idea if it goes into family history, and the other thought is that although most genetic disease is inherited mutations do happen all the time, and they can also pop up out of the blue.