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Posted By Nigel Pyne
I have a gentleman who is in his late forties and has a history of epilepsy who has approached me to consider the possibility of offering his company a contract of work so that he can start contracting offshore again.
The work place would be fixed platform installations and or dive support/survey vessels worldwide. His particular skills are within the operation of remotely operated submersibles for the use within the oil, gas and telecom industries albeit a little dated. He would require a valid offshore medical and also the usual offshore survival certificates. By having a history of epilepsy does not necessarily prevent him from obtaining an offshore medical, as I believe each case is based individually and frequency/dates of last seizure. I am not absolutely sure on this as depending on who you speak with there are different answers.
This gentleman has been quite open and honest with me. He did have a seizure without warning on board a vessel in early nineties and had thought at that time his epilepsy was under control via his medication. He also tells me that he does suffer from random vacant spells. The company he was contracting for at that time prevented him immediately from working offshore completely as he was considered an unnecessary risk to others in what was already considered a hazardous environment.
Are there more recent guidelines that I can follow to assist me in 2008. Could anybody suggest my train of thought with regards to today’s standards for epilepsy/offshore when carrying out a risk assessment? I would wish to be seen as being fair and reasonable in my decision making but if I decide not to offer work can I say that I been sufficiently thorough in my thinking toward Epilepsy?
Cedar.
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Posted By anne rowley
Epilepsy is complex and different for everyone.
The vacant spells that the gentleman is having would appear to be petit mal which is a mild form of epilepsy. During this type of incident the person cannot usually respond to you and it can last briefly or few minutes. This could,therefore, be extremely dangerous in the wrong situation.
Why not contact the British Epilepsy association to get some advice - you will find them very helpful as well as knowledgeable.
I do have epilepsy( although controlled for many years) so I know this situation from both sides.
Hope this helps a bit sorry cannot be more helpful but as will be obvious this is not a simple question.
Regards
A
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Posted By Graham Carson
Hi Nigel
Talk to the mans GP (with appropriate permissions of course) and ask his professional opinion. Surely there is no better informed person to make this decision.
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Posted By Carol Ross
The latest draft of the Oil & Gas UK 'Medical Aspect of fitness for work offshore' requires a worker to be catergorised either category 1 where sudden impairment may adversely affect the safety of others or category 2, other workers. Briefly, Cat 1 need to have been seizure free for last 10 years without taking anti-convulsant medication, Cat 2 to be seizure free for min 6 months, whether taking medication or not. If you meet the criteria you may be considered for work offshore but some operators have a blanket ban on people who have suffered epilepsy while others don't have a problem. This should be covered in the UKOOA medical which is required before being allowed offshore
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Posted By Nigel Pyne
Thank you Anne,Graham and Carol for your response to my posting. The information you have provided has given me much to think about and I do appreciate that my question was not straight forward.
I would make the assumption that the gentleman's GP is obviously a very good source of accurate medical information in order to base my opinion.
If I could ask for more advise on how do you all consider descrimination in terms of DDA. It has got to make sense that if a occupation is considered dangerous to the individual, the team and client's property then you cannot be considered as descriminating under these circumstances. Or can you?
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