I was curious if anyone has experience, good or bad, at having a medical waiver removed from their MMC? I am not referring to a temporary type waiver, but one that was given for a serious medical incident such as a Myocardial Infarction? Also, if anyone has been able to reduce USCG waiver requirements for medical checkups? I presently am required to have a stress test every two years as a condition of my license. While this is not that big of a deal now, it still costs me money and the older I get the steeper the treadmill seems to become!
Thanks for your input.
I think the medical srutiny of mariners is too much. If mariners sail by the rules, there won’t be any significant marine casualties if a mariner drops dead. For example; a pilot on a ship had a heart attack and died while transiting congested waters. As tragic as that was, the vessel’s safe navigation went on unaffected. Problem is maritime companies put pressure on vessel crews to sail without a “lookout” because they don’t want to pay someone to look out the port holes. But hey rule #5 of the rules of the road…That is just one example and then the USCG needs to point the finger of fault in the right direction. There are quite a number of advances in navigation electronics, why are companies allowed to use antiquated equipment ? What about the rust bucket of vessels out there ? Wonder why vessels “health” are not as heavily scrutinized as mariner “health”?