Ratchet Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Just wondered if theres anyone out there that has successfully emigrated following a heart attack? The reason i ask is that 3 yrs ago my hubby had, what the hopsital called a heart attack. He was only 32 at the time. There was no chest pain just rapid breathing and restlessness and he just went to A&E as it was a weekend. An angiogram said there were no issues, no hardening of ateries, no blockages, everything just fine. but the GP has kept up the meds just as a preventative measure. Ive sent off all the application docs tonight, next step being medicals. But i dont want any nasty suprises and spending money for no reason!!! Many thanks Kelly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gollywobbler Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Hi Kelly I've heard of people with much more worrying-sounding conditions sailing through their meds in the end, including my elderly Mum. With Mum, the best advice we received about her meds came from the Perth Offshore Parents Centre, which processes Parent and Contributory Parent visas. They said that if we were worried it was open to us to consult a Panel Doctor in advance of making a final decision about whether to go ahead with the visa application. I was so surprised by the suggestion that I phoned them to double check. They had grasped that Mum ws 85 and disabled, though not sick? I was told that the meds would only be valid for a year so it might be necessary to get new meds done before the visa could be granted, but that the most reliable "pre meds assessment" we were likely to be able to get would be from a Panel Doctor because they tend to know from experience who will be OK and who won't, even though the Panel Doctor has no say in the decision. Only the Medical Officer of the Commonwealth (a group of Government doctors in Sydney) can say whether or not somebody meets the health requirement for permanent migration to Oz. We decided it would be worth an extra £250 for a second set of meds. I took Mum to the Panel Doctor in Southampton because he was the closest. I explained to him that we weren't sure whether we would be asking him to send the meds file to Oz because we wanted to know whether he thought Mum would have a realistic chance with the meds. Dr Goodall examined Mum from head to foot. He said that he could find nothing wrong with her that would act as a bar to migration in his view, so we asked him to send the meds off. Our view of it was that if Mum was not able to get through the meds then we might as well know about it early on rather than go through months of nail biting about it. The Panel Doctor's positive attitude inspired us to make the visa application, though, and I explained in the covering letter that we would be grateful if they would process the meds immediately because there would be no point in wasting the POPC's time or our own if the meds situation would scupper the whole thing. The MOC wanted a geriatrician's report, which was obtained and provided. After that, Mum was given unconditional medical clearance. What I did not know at the time was that if the meds have been referred to the MOC then the 12 months' validity on them runs from when the MOC says the health requirement is met, not from the time when the original medical consultation takes place. The meds and the visa application were submitted in late November. The medical OK was given in mid Feb. Mum's visa was granted in mid-September and she had till the middle of the following Feb to make her Initial Entry to Oz, which was more than enough time in hand. However I knew that it is possible to negotiate about the Initial Entry Date as long as you do it before the visa is granted. About a week before the visa was granted I contacted Mum's CO saying that we were poised to get Mum into Oz by early November if need be, because that was when the original meds had been done, but I wanted to know what date the CO had in mind as the Initial Entry Date? To my astonishment the CO said mid-Feb the following year. She said that if we needed longer, she could extend the Initial Entry Date for 3 months on her own say-so or it could be extended for 6 months if the MOC agreed. Did I want her to contact the MOC with a request for a 6 month extension? I ended up backtracking hastily because the originally planned date gave us more than enough time in hand. There was no reason to delay the grant of the visa for the sake of an unnecessary discussion with the MOC. However, the biggest relief of them all was that we knew, a full 6 months before the visa was granted and 3 months after we started the process, that Mum was OK on the meds. I knew that everything else with the application was 100% OK, so with the meds hurdle cleared as well it was only a matter of time before the visa would be granted. To us, it would have been worth the money to get a second set of meds done if that was what the CO had wanted. We were clear from the outset that we were willing to pay a second £250 or so. One option for you would be to frontload Hubby's meds only on the same basis. He might have to get them done twice but there would be no need to frontload the meds for anyone except Hubby. You might consider it worth it for peace of mind and also if the MOC is going to ask for specialists reports and/or tests, they might as well all be dealt with well before you move to the stage of the final visa processing. I can do without months of unnecessary, avoidable worry myself. They process meds as and when they get them but not until after the visa application has been made. Unless a visa application has been made the MOC has no legal basis for giving an opinion about somebody's meds. Some Agents are in the habit of suggesting that the prospective visa applicant can get an advance "medical opinion" from Dr Martha Baz out in Sydney - at a cost of $750 AUD. That is a ridiculous waste of money, in my opinion, because Dr Baz will not get a chance to examine the visa applicant in the flesh and she is a specialist in Occupational Health. She has no idea about specific medical conditions apart from the impact they might have on somebody's ability to work and to lead a normal life. It seems to me that if one is going to pay for 2 lots of meds, in effect, one might as well ask a Panel Doctor who can actually examine the person concerned. Plus it is cheaper to do that than have Dr Baz doing nothing beyond shuffling paper on her own desk. Common sense and migration agents are frequently mutually exclusive terms in my observation! Dr Baz is not a specialist in cardiology and a consultant cardiologist is the only type of doctor that the MOC might want a second opinion about Hubby from. All that said, I think the worst that would happen in your case is that the MOC might want a new angiogram or something like that, plus would definitely want an up to date report from a consultant cardiologist in all probability. You could get an up to date report before you go for the Meds and in that event the MOC might not ask for anything else. Equally, if Hubby has an annual check by a consultant cardiologist anyway then as long as it is fairly recent before he goes for the meds the MOC might not want anything further. As long as Hubby is able to live a normal life and his cardiovascular system is perfectly OK with the aid of the precautionaray drugs, there is no reason in the world why Hubby's medical history should prevent him from getting a visa. How you choose to deal with the doubt is a matter of deciding which option will be the least stressful for you as much as about anything else. Best wishes Gill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratchet Posted November 25, 2008 Author Share Posted November 25, 2008 Thankyou Gill for your reply and providing your experience too. Hubby is as healthy as he wants to be, meaning if he wants to run a mile then he can just like any of us, just the same if he wants to sit and eat chocolate. The heart attack hasnt held him back. in fact he's probably better off for having it. I'll sit and wait i think. Then tackle the meds when i need too! Thanks again Kelly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest donovan Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Thankyou Gill for your reply and providing your experience too. Hubby is as healthy as he wants to be, meaning if he wants to run a mile then he can just like any of us, just the same if he wants to sit and eat chocolate. The heart attack hasnt held him back. in fact he's probably better off for having it. I'll sit and wait i think. Then tackle the meds when i need too! Thanks again Kelly Hiya Kelly When I had my meds done my heart was found to be enlarged and my blood pressure was really high, got through the meds ok, but like yourself was really worried that they would not let me into Oz, still have really high blood pressure, in fact they thought I had had a heart attack a few weeks ago and had to have lots of tests/ecg done but everything was ok just have to be on tablets to control my BP Good luck and keep us informed on how you are Sarah x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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