A colleague of mine recently had some sort of (suspected) epileptic fit whilst in the gym, he was out for about 20 minutes, the full works.
Paramedic turned up and the ambulance took him off to hospital, CAT scan failed to show anything up.
He holds an HGV licence, Question is…is he LEGALLY required to notify DVLA about the episode even if the doctors fail to find any definitive cause?
The person concerned needs to hold the HGV licence for his job…no licence = no job.
Just wondered if any one knows FOR DEFINATE what the legal requirments are?
If the docs didn’t say it was Epilepsy then don’t tell the DVLA its Epilepsy, otherwise its goodbye licence for 10 years
Wrong Wrong Wrong.
Dont tell the DVLA, keep the licence and risk having another attack at the wheel and killing a lot of people■■?
Would not want that on my concience, and would not want to have it on my concience if I advised someone to do just that.
Ok. Speaking from experience here, rather than from a moral standpoint, there are two important points to consider.
If your colleague’s doctor knew what he did for a living, he would have told him if he needs to inform DVLA. If he didn’t, and he knew the full picture re:your colleagues job, DVLA themselves will tell you that he does not need to inform them, legally speaking. If the doctor was not aware of his occupation, ring DVLA anonymously and check that way.
The medical guidelines as shown above are very generalised, and, IMHO, designed to scare the living crap out of people for no good reason. There are many, many cases where the reality of the situation bears no relation to the worst case scenario listed above.
I know this because I was in a similar position, albeit due to a different condition, this time last year. In my case, the guidelines said inform and revoke. I rang anonymously and was told that I do not need to inform until a definative diagnosis is reached and even then if my specialist says I’m fit to drive (which he did, and still does), they will simply seek to confirm that on an annual basis. So even though my diagnosis is still pending (I’m expecting to finally receive it this coming March, although we already know what it will be - it’s simply a matter of my Neuro fitting me into NICE’s criteria), I can now stop worrying for no reason.
There is also no reason for my employer to know the details until then (hence the vagueness here), at which point I will be protected by Disability Discrimination Legislation re:insurance etc. (Although, to be fair, my employer has so far been great and made the “reasonable adjustments” off their own back, so I don’t think i need to worry there either.)
One other thing to add here. The PDA ( at www.PDA-UK.org ) have recently started work on a sub-site called “Health Matters”. This part of their site is free for anyone to use - it’s seperate from their paying membership work - and is precisely aimed at helping people in situations like this where what information there is in the public domain is sketchy at best. It’s very early days and needs all the support and experiences it can get to turn it into a unique and extremely valuable - indeed, IMHO, vital - resource, so if your mate feels like sharing his experiences as they unfold, I’m sure it would be appreciated. I fully intend to contribute myself when I finally get my “official” diagnosis and can tell my story with a decent ending on it - if only to stop anyone else having to go through the unnecessary stress and fear that I endured.
Good luck to your mate, and I hope the above helps a little. I know how frightening these situations can be, and how emotionally fraught the decision he may be asked to make.
Hi all, firstly, thanks very much for taking the time to reply, its very much appreciated.
The chap concerned is a firefighter and therefore needs his licence, we all drive at some point in our shifts. While we all feel for the guy nobody wants to be sitting in an appliance, flying along at 50 mph with him driving and then he has another episode! Equally, nobody wants to see a bloke lose his job.
Dennis F…thanks very much for taking the time to scan and post the info page, I printed it off and the link…not sure if I want to pass it onto him yet though, looks like he falls into paragraph 4!!! Not sure if his frame of mind is upto it yet!.
Lucy…thanks for posting the link…I will have a look at it and let him know about it. The doctors at the hospital would have done the CAT scan and then
I presume would have written to his own doctor…he then had to go and see the occupational health doctor at work who immediatly told him he cant come back until he’s had an ECG (as pointed out in the info page). So, not sure which one would notify Swansea.
What makes things worse is the fact that the chap was the victim of an assault at the begining of the year…Fractured skull, intensive care unit, months of therapy etc…as you can imagine, people are now pointing to that as the possible root cause.
Anyway, thanks all once again for taking the time to scan, post and reply.
Good advise is always appreciated.
jammymutt:
…I think theres a difference in being a truck driver and being a Fireman at least as a Fireman he will get pensioned off early with a nice package
Both need a licence to do the job though jammy…no licence=no job.
Yes, you’re probably right about the pay off but I know which one I would rather have.
If he was a victim of an assault then he should register a claim with the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, especially if, as it seems, it may affect his employment prospects.
It’s a slow, long winded, process, but could be worthwhile at the end of the day.
I have a couple of mates that have had experiences with fits / epilepsy.
One had an “unexplained” “episode” where he passed out whilst getting into his van. Was taken into hospital had all the tests and the docs could not figure out what caused it - managed to get his car licence back after about 3 months, although a couple of years down the line has still not managed to get approved for his LGV provisional due to that.
Second has got definate epilepsy, now under control and has a car licence again. BUT I know that he still had his licence at times when he was regularly having fits despite getting dragged away in the ambulance each time (so there is no way that the docs didn’t know)… … …
… … … the second guy had an accident a couple of years ago - his car broke down on the A38 just North of Minworth and an artic went into him, destroyed his car, lucky to get out alive. The insurance tried to blame it on his epilepsy ■■?
