My Wolff Parkinson White story - back to flying
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Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: skyward
Age: 36
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My Wolff Parkinson White story - back to flying
Hello!
I’m posting this because back in October 2022 I was diagnosed with Wolff Parkinson White syndrome (WPW) and couldn’t find much advice from anyone (even CASA) regarding my prospects of getting my class 1 medical back with no restrictions.
Just for context, I fly for an aeromedical company, so I am required to be single pilot for my job.
Anyway, my diagnosis came about in my yearly medical. And ECG showed a delta wave, and the shortened QRS. My DAME got my into see a cardiologist that same day (that cardiologist is not the one I stayed with, thank goodness), who conducted an ECG that had no findings of WPW on it. At this point, I was in a panic as I am the bread winner for the family, and as much as I have loss of license insurance, I would much rather have my job than have to find another profession. That cardiologist referred my for a CT-CA, stress echo, and a 24 hr holter monitor test. The one of these that actually confirmed my WPW diagnosis was the holter monitor, as they had that 24 hours of data that showed my issues occurred with a heart rate <90bpm.
As much as I did not like that cardiologist, he did refer me to an electrophysiologist for further heart studies. To say that that specialist was amazing would be an understatement (I am in Brisbane, Australia. So if you need his name, please PM me)
Once I was on with the electrophysiologist, it was pretty straight forward for me. He booked me in for an EPS, and a possible cardiac ablation. I was told that because I was asymptomatic that if I was in the public system, I would be waiting at least 18 months for the surgery. Luckily for me, my wife and I have top hospital cover and I was able to be scheduled for the surgery within a month.
So a lot of sitting around and waiting….. and waiting…. And calling AVMED to ask what their requirements were after my surgery. The only thing that I could find regarding WPW was the FAA documents that say that post ablation, you need a 24 hr holter monitor that shows no sign of the irregularity and the DAME can issue the medical with no problem.
I finally got a letter from AVMED stating that post surgery, they would require me to have another another stress echo, a 48 hr holter monitor, and for the cardiologist to provide risk percentages, further treatments, and follow up testing if any was required.
So surgery comes and goes, no problem. Ablation went well, recovery went well, and the long 3 month wait began!!
The 3 months finished, I had booked in all of my required testing as soon as I had my surgery so it was bang on 3 months and I had my stress test and holter monitor done.
Once CASA had received all of those test results and the report from the cardiologist that they had requested, it was about a week and ding! That magical email in my inbox with my medical renewed with no restrictions. The only thing they want for an undetermined amount of time is a 24hr holter monitor test with my medical renewals from now on.
Anyway, that’s my good story/outcome with my WPW. Like I said, I’m writing this because I couldn’t find much regarding it when I was frantically googling what the hell it was and what my flying outcome could potentially be.
I am in Australia so I guess that my experience is for here. But I don’t see why it couldn’t be potentially the same for other countries medical systems.
If you’ve been diagnosed with WPW, DON’T PANIC!! Hopefully you’ve got loss of license insurance, a good workplace that can put you on other duties, and also decent private health (without my private health, the bill for the ablation was almost $23,000).
Find yourself a good cardiologist/electrophysiologist to help you through the EPS/ablation procedure and take a deep breath. It can all work out!
I’m posting this because back in October 2022 I was diagnosed with Wolff Parkinson White syndrome (WPW) and couldn’t find much advice from anyone (even CASA) regarding my prospects of getting my class 1 medical back with no restrictions.
Just for context, I fly for an aeromedical company, so I am required to be single pilot for my job.
Anyway, my diagnosis came about in my yearly medical. And ECG showed a delta wave, and the shortened QRS. My DAME got my into see a cardiologist that same day (that cardiologist is not the one I stayed with, thank goodness), who conducted an ECG that had no findings of WPW on it. At this point, I was in a panic as I am the bread winner for the family, and as much as I have loss of license insurance, I would much rather have my job than have to find another profession. That cardiologist referred my for a CT-CA, stress echo, and a 24 hr holter monitor test. The one of these that actually confirmed my WPW diagnosis was the holter monitor, as they had that 24 hours of data that showed my issues occurred with a heart rate <90bpm.
As much as I did not like that cardiologist, he did refer me to an electrophysiologist for further heart studies. To say that that specialist was amazing would be an understatement (I am in Brisbane, Australia. So if you need his name, please PM me)
Once I was on with the electrophysiologist, it was pretty straight forward for me. He booked me in for an EPS, and a possible cardiac ablation. I was told that because I was asymptomatic that if I was in the public system, I would be waiting at least 18 months for the surgery. Luckily for me, my wife and I have top hospital cover and I was able to be scheduled for the surgery within a month.
So a lot of sitting around and waiting….. and waiting…. And calling AVMED to ask what their requirements were after my surgery. The only thing that I could find regarding WPW was the FAA documents that say that post ablation, you need a 24 hr holter monitor that shows no sign of the irregularity and the DAME can issue the medical with no problem.
I finally got a letter from AVMED stating that post surgery, they would require me to have another another stress echo, a 48 hr holter monitor, and for the cardiologist to provide risk percentages, further treatments, and follow up testing if any was required.
So surgery comes and goes, no problem. Ablation went well, recovery went well, and the long 3 month wait began!!
The 3 months finished, I had booked in all of my required testing as soon as I had my surgery so it was bang on 3 months and I had my stress test and holter monitor done.
Once CASA had received all of those test results and the report from the cardiologist that they had requested, it was about a week and ding! That magical email in my inbox with my medical renewed with no restrictions. The only thing they want for an undetermined amount of time is a 24hr holter monitor test with my medical renewals from now on.
Anyway, that’s my good story/outcome with my WPW. Like I said, I’m writing this because I couldn’t find much regarding it when I was frantically googling what the hell it was and what my flying outcome could potentially be.
I am in Australia so I guess that my experience is for here. But I don’t see why it couldn’t be potentially the same for other countries medical systems.
If you’ve been diagnosed with WPW, DON’T PANIC!! Hopefully you’ve got loss of license insurance, a good workplace that can put you on other duties, and also decent private health (without my private health, the bill for the ablation was almost $23,000).
Find yourself a good cardiologist/electrophysiologist to help you through the EPS/ablation procedure and take a deep breath. It can all work out!
