Case history of sickness by a flight-attendant who wishes to stay anonymous
“Since the beginning of my work as an airhostess I have had episodes of a kind of migraine every four to eight weeks. Then I started the day with headaches, which became stronger during the day. In the afternoon hours or evening I started vomiting – often more than 10 times. Usually I had this for one day. During 2013 and 2014 these episodes lasted several days. But after my last flight in 2014 I did not vomit again. Two to three times a year I had a bad cold.
“In the summer of 2013 my husband and I spent a short vacation of four or five days at the Baltic Sea. One evening I visited the sauna. I swam a short round in the natural pool they had. I was about to get out but suddenly my body had a mind of its own and threw itself to the left and went under the surface without me being able to control it. I didn’t understand at all what was happening in this moment. I fought with my body to get out of there, which was actually an area where I could even stand. But my body did not listen to me and continued to go back to the left and under the surface although stairs were in front of me, I could not get to them. I could not shout or do anything like it. I was lucky – there was a couple sitting not far from where I was. The lady realised that something was wrong with me and sent her husband who pulled me out of the pool, otherwise I would have drowned. As suddenly as my body function had gone to not normal it changed back to normal. So far I had no idea what this was all about.
“One day after that summer in 2013 my alarm clock rang. I looked at it – it was spinning around and around and around at a very high speed. About half an hour later the haunting was over.
“I used to go jogging from time to time – not too fast or too long. One day I could not stop anymore but became faster and faster instead. So I decided to will myself to fall down at a certain point as the only way of a ‘controlled’ stop.
“In October 2013 I got strong convulsions in my legs and arms. I stopped working for three months. Suddenly I had extra systoles in the heart and a short but strong headache after drinking simple water. At the end of January I felt better.
“I had an MRI of the head done in October 2013. ‘Hydrocephalus’ was diagnosed. I wondered about that because I knew this from children being born with it. In January I asked the company’s aviation medical examiner if the doctor who diagnosed me was wrong. And the examiner said yes that this diagnose could not be the right one. Later the convulsions disappeared.
“At the end of February I had a very severe cold. I had a retraining on big aircraft in Frankfurt. I only had about six or seven flight days until the 10th April.
“Then I had a four or five day’s rotation – my last one on an aircraft. On 14th April we landed in Tel Aviv. I wanted to switch door 1L [first left door front] of an A321 into ‘park’ position. But suddenly the convulsions were back. I looked at the door and couldn’t find the slide handle nor the door handle because everything was white, a big white area in front of my eyes. I turned around in order to go into the cockpit. I looked up to punch in the code but I could not remember it in this moment – after 11 years of flying in the position that placed me at this door, 1L. I also could not remember the telephone number to call the cockpit. I turned back to the door and scanned the door with my hands and hoped to find the handles this way. But I was not successful. The pilots were watching me via cameras. This was the moment for our captain to come out of the cockpit. She sent me into the cockpit. I was not aware of any passengers waiting in the galley. After about half an hour I was quite normal again.
“Next day I went home. During the following weeks and months symptoms worsened. In July I could hardly walk, my short-term memory had nearly gone, my thinking had been slowed down very much and I could hardly speak. In my mind I could only find pictures of my childhood, songs of my childhood and so on. Sitting on the couch I let myself fall on the left side without being aware of it. The muscles in my face went slack. Mentally and physically I was handicapped. Within myself I could think but only there. I often fell and lost consciousness for a few seconds. I found out that I didn’t tolerate coffee anymore. From a friend I got strong enzymes that had been fermented over three and a half years. Three weeks after starting to take them I ‘came back’. Today I can walk nearly normal again, I speak normal and the extra systoles in the heart are much less. But often I feel weak, very tired and have strange headaches. Also my legs become tired from time to time. I had three more MRI investigations. The doctors looked for a tumour but could not find any. They spoke about surgery but finally the surgeon said that it is not necessary when I feel like I do now. It would be too risky. I asked him what he wanted to take out of the head if there is no tumour to be found. He did not answer. One doctor who already took part in the autopsies of pilots and flight attendants said that there is damaged brain tissue in my head. The organophosphates in the air of aircraft may trigger an autoimmune disease leading to damaged brain tissue.
“My medicine mainly is: linseed oil, coconut oil, MSM, vitamin C, OPC, seeds of stinging nettle and volcano powder. I guess it will take more time to get rid of the remaining symptoms like muscle weakness, headaches, kind of rushing in the ears like being at the ocean, the dizziness and all the other symptoms showing up from time to time.
“I spoke with my boss and talked to the airline doctors. The boss said that so many colleagues don’t have the problems I have. I told him that so many colleagues don’t have the problems I have but other major health problems. One airline doctor even yelled at me, how I could spend money on blood investigations by Professor Abou Donia? Though he did not speak of ‘Professor’ but disrespectfully as of a postgraduate whom he would have thrown out because this postgraduate according to him had not done any scientific work…”
(Name withheld) (from The Air I Breathe-it’s classified by Bearnairdine Beaumont) back to previous page
“Since the beginning of my work as an airhostess I have had episodes of a kind of migraine every four to eight weeks. Then I started the day with headaches, which became stronger during the day. In the afternoon hours or evening I started vomiting – often more than 10 times. Usually I had this for one day. During 2013 and 2014 these episodes lasted several days. But after my last flight in 2014 I did not vomit again. Two to three times a year I had a bad cold.
“In the summer of 2013 my husband and I spent a short vacation of four or five days at the Baltic Sea. One evening I visited the sauna. I swam a short round in the natural pool they had. I was about to get out but suddenly my body had a mind of its own and threw itself to the left and went under the surface without me being able to control it. I didn’t understand at all what was happening in this moment. I fought with my body to get out of there, which was actually an area where I could even stand. But my body did not listen to me and continued to go back to the left and under the surface although stairs were in front of me, I could not get to them. I could not shout or do anything like it. I was lucky – there was a couple sitting not far from where I was. The lady realised that something was wrong with me and sent her husband who pulled me out of the pool, otherwise I would have drowned. As suddenly as my body function had gone to not normal it changed back to normal. So far I had no idea what this was all about.
“One day after that summer in 2013 my alarm clock rang. I looked at it – it was spinning around and around and around at a very high speed. About half an hour later the haunting was over.
“I used to go jogging from time to time – not too fast or too long. One day I could not stop anymore but became faster and faster instead. So I decided to will myself to fall down at a certain point as the only way of a ‘controlled’ stop.
“In October 2013 I got strong convulsions in my legs and arms. I stopped working for three months. Suddenly I had extra systoles in the heart and a short but strong headache after drinking simple water. At the end of January I felt better.
“I had an MRI of the head done in October 2013. ‘Hydrocephalus’ was diagnosed. I wondered about that because I knew this from children being born with it. In January I asked the company’s aviation medical examiner if the doctor who diagnosed me was wrong. And the examiner said yes that this diagnose could not be the right one. Later the convulsions disappeared.
“At the end of February I had a very severe cold. I had a retraining on big aircraft in Frankfurt. I only had about six or seven flight days until the 10th April.
“Then I had a four or five day’s rotation – my last one on an aircraft. On 14th April we landed in Tel Aviv. I wanted to switch door 1L [first left door front] of an A321 into ‘park’ position. But suddenly the convulsions were back. I looked at the door and couldn’t find the slide handle nor the door handle because everything was white, a big white area in front of my eyes. I turned around in order to go into the cockpit. I looked up to punch in the code but I could not remember it in this moment – after 11 years of flying in the position that placed me at this door, 1L. I also could not remember the telephone number to call the cockpit. I turned back to the door and scanned the door with my hands and hoped to find the handles this way. But I was not successful. The pilots were watching me via cameras. This was the moment for our captain to come out of the cockpit. She sent me into the cockpit. I was not aware of any passengers waiting in the galley. After about half an hour I was quite normal again.
“Next day I went home. During the following weeks and months symptoms worsened. In July I could hardly walk, my short-term memory had nearly gone, my thinking had been slowed down very much and I could hardly speak. In my mind I could only find pictures of my childhood, songs of my childhood and so on. Sitting on the couch I let myself fall on the left side without being aware of it. The muscles in my face went slack. Mentally and physically I was handicapped. Within myself I could think but only there. I often fell and lost consciousness for a few seconds. I found out that I didn’t tolerate coffee anymore. From a friend I got strong enzymes that had been fermented over three and a half years. Three weeks after starting to take them I ‘came back’. Today I can walk nearly normal again, I speak normal and the extra systoles in the heart are much less. But often I feel weak, very tired and have strange headaches. Also my legs become tired from time to time. I had three more MRI investigations. The doctors looked for a tumour but could not find any. They spoke about surgery but finally the surgeon said that it is not necessary when I feel like I do now. It would be too risky. I asked him what he wanted to take out of the head if there is no tumour to be found. He did not answer. One doctor who already took part in the autopsies of pilots and flight attendants said that there is damaged brain tissue in my head. The organophosphates in the air of aircraft may trigger an autoimmune disease leading to damaged brain tissue.
“My medicine mainly is: linseed oil, coconut oil, MSM, vitamin C, OPC, seeds of stinging nettle and volcano powder. I guess it will take more time to get rid of the remaining symptoms like muscle weakness, headaches, kind of rushing in the ears like being at the ocean, the dizziness and all the other symptoms showing up from time to time.
“I spoke with my boss and talked to the airline doctors. The boss said that so many colleagues don’t have the problems I have. I told him that so many colleagues don’t have the problems I have but other major health problems. One airline doctor even yelled at me, how I could spend money on blood investigations by Professor Abou Donia? Though he did not speak of ‘Professor’ but disrespectfully as of a postgraduate whom he would have thrown out because this postgraduate according to him had not done any scientific work…”
(Name withheld) (from The Air I Breathe-it’s classified by Bearnairdine Beaumont) back to previous page
