CASA and the aviation medical
Having been through the medical mill myself, and having a PPL friend being hounded and thoroughly worked over by AVMED, none of your stories are surprising. But what can be said (I've been doing these medicals since 1965) is that AVMED, along with CASA in general, is more dysfunctional than ever.
The irony of it all is that there are no studies that give any credence to the notion that aviation medicals improve the safety of flight. As in my case the system might be helpful to the health of an individual, but not to safety.
Some proof of this is that we now have many years experience with RAAus where the level of medical has been that of a person able to drive a car. These pilots have not been falling out of the sky any more than your normal car or truck driver is suffering debilitating seizures and creating havoc on the roads.
I see one of the problems is that of pilot ego, we are so special that of course we have to prove ourselves as the super humans that we must be as we perform our aerial magic. Thus no question has really arisen as to the efficacy of the system in principle.
Until industry personnel engage their Federal MPs and demand that CASA be brought to book and that reforms be instigated, things will get worse.