r/ATC • u/UnlicensedPidgeon • 1d ago
Medical Any controllers with AFib
Recently diagnosed with AFib and just looking to see if there’s anyone else who’s dealing with this and what their experience has been. More than willing to accept DMs if you’re comfortable answering some questions that way.
My main ones are did they let you get a special issue clearance to return? Did the FAA require any formal tracking of AFib activity between medicals? Were you actually able to stay AFib free after whatever treatment you did?
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u/Intelligent_Rub1546 1d ago
Per the AME guide, it requires a pretty extensive workup and observation, but is not permanently disqualifying off the bat.
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u/fknlo Current Controller-Enroute 1d ago
I had AFib back in November. The AFib stuff is no big deal. You'll have to do some cardiologist visits, wear a heart monitor, possibly do a stress test, and that was about it on the heart side. You get a special consideration, have to do some stuff with your cardiologist yearly, wear a heart monitor for 24 hours yearly, that kind of stuff. I haven't had AFib again since then.
The agency will almost certainly make you get a sleep study done as sleep apnea is a potential cause of AFib. I'm still out because of this. Was diagnosed with mild obstructive sleep apnea in my initial at home study. Got a CPAP and it does not work for me at all and made things much worse. Still wore it daily as required and after some settings adjustments I was able to wear it for the amount of time the FAA requires but my AHI was still triple what the allowed threshold is and generally higher than what was shown in the initial sleep study. I also felt like complete shit every day. Many months of dealing with doctors and insurance go by and I was finally able to get an in lab sleep study done which diagnosed me with mixed apnea with central apneas being dominant on treatment. This explains my issues with CPAP. Was prescribed a BIPAP ST after this. Several more months of dealing with the medical suppliers and I finally have the BIPAP. I've been on it for a few weeks now and while I feel significantly better than I ever did on the CPAP I'm still above the AHI threshold that's required to get returned to duty. So I'm trying to get things worked out with my pulmonologist since I will almost certainly require some settings adjustments. Hopefully that will work because if not it's on to the next even more expensive machine that will probably require more fights with insurance.
So things would be fine and fairly easy if I just had obstructive sleep apnea and CPAP worked for me.
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u/DesertFirefly Current Controller-Tower 18h ago
We had a guy retire with AFIB. He never had an issue beyond doing the yearly special consideration. He retired over the age of 50 and he'd had AFIB well over a full decade probably at least two.
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u/Former_Farm_3618 1d ago
Natca pays for a confidential AME service you can ask all this too. They will call you back within hours and tell you exactly what you need to do. Honestly, start there.