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WORST INCIDENT of EYE Floaters Sufferers
Did you know that German Wings pilot Andreas Lubitz suffered from eye floaters?
Original Link from New York TIme
original video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFduBLf9LBE
Feel Free to leave comment on our Facebook Post about this incident:
Before Crash, Germanwings Pilot Searched Web for Ways to Die
BERLIN — The day before he crashed an Airbus 320 carrying 149 passengers and crew members into the French Alps, Andreas Lubitz safely flew an empty jet from Düsseldorf, Germany, to Berlin, then returned home to his iPad to search terms including “living will,” “suffering” and “dying.”
Christoph Kumpa, the Düsseldorf prosecutor, confirmed on Friday the discovery of the search terms, first reported by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. He said they indicated that the 27-year-old pilot, who was alone at the controls on March 24 when the Germanwings flight slammed into the side of a mountain, had considered other means of killing himself, but that he may have feared that he would not succeed.
The information gleaned from Mr. Lubitz’s search activity in the weeks before the crash, including looking up information about obtaining poisons and Valium, forms part of the growing body of evidence the German prosecutors have gathered and evaluated in the past 11 weeks in an effort to determine whether anyone could be charged with wrongdoing for failing to adequately monitor Mr. Lubitz’s mental health.
Unlike in France, where charges can be brought against a company, only individuals can be prosecuted under German law, meaning that with Mr. Lubitz dead, prosecutors must establish whether he alone was responsible for the crash. On Thursday, a French public prosecutor formally opened a criminal inquiry into whether Germanwings; its parent company, Lufthansa; or any other individuals should bear responsibility for the crash.
Although the two countries are cooperating, the two investigations are proceeding independently.
Early in the investigation, German prosecutors said that Mr. Lubitz was treated for a depressive episode in 2009 that led him to withdraw from Lufthansa’s elite flight-training school for 11 months for treatment. But he was reinstated after a company doctor found him fit to return to the cockpit, and he was ultimately hired by Germanwings in 2013.
Mr. Kumpa, the prosecutor, said medical records indicated that after his treatment, Mr. Lubitz did not appear to suffer any further illness until late last year. On Dec. 23, he visited an ophthalmologist in Düsseldorf complaining that he had begun seeing small black specks known as floaters, prosecutors said. Although the problem is not uncommon and normally resolves itself without treatment, Mr. Lubitz grew nervous and began visiting more eye doctors and specialists from the region’s top research clinics.
By the time of the crash Mr. Lubitz had seen 46 doctors, from general practitioners to leading optometrists to neurologists. But despite this frantic search for a solution to the problem, at no point does the evidence gathered so far show that he was ever diagnosed as seriously ill, Mr. Kumpa said.
Neither his parents, with whom he spent a “harmonious” sightseeing trip to Berlin two weeks before the crash, nor his girlfriend, with whom he shared a top-story apartment in an elegant building on the edge of Düsseldorf, had any indication of the extent of his psychological troubles, prosecutors said.
Although he had told his parents and girlfriend of his concern about his eyesight, he gave no indication that he was seriously considering ending his life.
None of the medical specialists he visited saw any indication of suicidal tendencies, Mr. Kumpa said.
Mr. Lubitz’s Internet search history indicates that his distress intensified in mid-March. He went on sick leave from March 13 to 22, supplying his employer with a note from a general practitioner that included a vague diagnosis of visual impairment of an “unknown origin.” A second note from a different doctor — this time a psychologist — valid for the day of the crash, was never submitted to Germanwings.
During his leave, Mr. Lubitz spent considerable time online. On March 18, he conducted 67 separate searches over the course of six hours. The searches that day included information on various poisons and deadly drug cocktails, as well as treatments for vision problems.
Melissa Eddy reported from Berlin, and Nicola Clark from Paris.
A version of this article appears in print on June 13, 2015, on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: World Briefing | Europe; Germany: Morbid Terms on Co-Pilot’s Search History.
The discussion among floaters community:
http://floatertalk.yuku.com/reply/52978/Speculating-did-Andreas-Lubitz-suffer-from-severe-floaters
Speculating: did Andreas Lubitz suffer from severe floaters?
Author Comment
Speculating: did Andreas Lubitz suffer from severe floaters?
Lead
Registered UserPosts: 197
Mar 29 15 9:10 AM
So you’ve all heard about this copilot taking the lives of 150 passengers while deliberately crashing the Germanwings plane in the Alps.
Lots of talking about a hidden mental condition and medication that should have prevented him to be on duty.What just emerged is that Lubitz consulted recently for vision problems. Given the outcome the pronostic could have been either fatal or… the diagnostic nonexistant.
This sounds strangely familiar for us sufferers:
One person with knowledge of the investigation said the authorities had not ruled out the possibility that the vision problem could have been psychosomatic.
yandikha #1
Registered UserPosts: 179
Mar 29 15 12:38 PM
I also had same thought too when I just read in local news site that told Lubitz might suffered Ablasio Retina (local term for “Retinal Detachment”), and in second I thought “could it be the floaters…”.
Registered UserPosts: 90
Mar 29 15 4:40 PM
I think maybe its true. He could suffer from floaters and then simply eye docs told him ignore it as they told us too these crazy words !! Maybe he couldn’t go for fov and didnt accept the risk of surgery because could miss his job.
I hope if his message to world was pay attention to floaters and take it seriously … people and docs all around the world understand the much pain of it. to the extent that a person can kill himself and 150 passengers because of suffering from floaters or something like that. I dont verify his work but when people ignored easily sometimes can do everything and they are not crazy
Registered UserPosts: 68
Mar 30 15 1:27 PM
I thought somewhat along the same lines – now, if this was the case, that he was suffering from ‘visual disturbances’ be they floaters or the result of some kind of retinal detachment (which we all know can result in floaters), it will be interesting to see how the media report this. Will it be that he was an insane person whose insanity caused him to see things, or were the things he was seeing drive him to insanity? Obviously, he had major psychological problems. The question is if his visual problems were a result of his psychology or did his visual problems exacerbate his mental problems.
I still think that there is a groundbreaking research paper just out there for the taking for the graduate student who wants to study the relationship between stress, anxiety and the visual system. We all already know that increased stress and anxiety can cause a hyper-awareness of floaters and this becomes a self-feeding loop where the anxiety is ratcheted up as the awareness increases. I also still think that as humans we have evolved to pay greater attention to movement in our peripheral vision, and this movement to an extent triggers a low-level ‘fight or flight’ response. So it’s no wonder that anxiety & stress increase after constant triggering.
Just some thoughts..
Registered UserPosts: 9
Mar 30 15 7:24 PM
Yes, Andreas Lubitz had eye floaters it writes them also in Swedish newspapers. He had the eye floaters and could not live with it and took his own life, the doctor just saying you are unlucky but it goes over you will make friends with your eye floaters and will never see them. The doctor is right that he can not see them now, when he knocked down to the Alps.
Registered UserPosts: 1112
Mar 30 15 7:39 PM
where did you read that he had floaters?. I have only read that he had retinal detachment but I saw no newspaper mentioning floaters. Retinal detachment is different from floaters, floaters can lead to or are brought about by retinal detachment but I have seen no mention of floaters in his case. I think that his mental illness is more responsible for what he did and he did an atrocious thing.
Registered UserPosts: 152
Mar 30 15 9:17 PM
honestly I thought the exact same thing I was going to make a post about it to.
When the newspaper said he suffered from retinal detachment that really tells us nothing of what his sight was like after they reattached his retina and floaters can be a common side effect after the reatachment . I wouldnt be suprised if he had floaters.
I also wouldnt be suprised if you felt like you had no future as a pilot after floaters.With all that being said what he done is another matter entirely and nobody is condoning what he done or saying its alright. Hell what he done was despicable
Registered UserPosts: 32
Mar 31 15 1:25 PM
I thought about it as well. It is very interesting that we have similar ideas. I think this is a potential reason. Having floaters for his job and probably the retina detachment is unbearable since he is a pilot and he should have a perfect vision. But maybe, the media do not want to reveal such facts as it can have many unpleasent consequences for them (since there is not any cure so far while many people are suffereing). Floaters are not like a normal weakness in your eyes which only disturbs vision when you do not wear glasses, it also severely affects your mental health especially when you know that your work future and more promotions in your job (pilot) is strongly based on the health of your eyes
Registered UserPosts: 1112
Mar 31 15 10:14 PM
Even if the word floaters appeared somewhere in medical reports after the retina detachment surgery (laser), the media would not pick this theme up, they would dwell on retinal detachment since that is something they know whereas they might have never heard about floaters. Yes, I also think he could have had floaters but we probably won’t find out if it was true.
Registered UserPosts: 54
Mar 9 16 7:21 AM
BERLIN — The day before he crashed an Airbus 320 carrying 149 passengers and crew members into the French Alps, Andreas Lubitz safely flew an empty jet from Düsseldorf, Germany, to Berlin, then returned home to his iPad to search terms including “living will,” “suffering” and “dying.”
Christoph Kumpa, the Düsseldorf prosecutor, confirmed on Friday the discovery of the search terms, first reported by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. He said they indicated that the 27-year-old pilot, who was alone at the controls on March 24 when the Germanwings flight slammed into the side of a mountain, had considered other means of killing himself, but that he may have feared that he would not succeed.
The information gleaned from Mr. Lubitz’s search activity in the weeks before the crash, including looking up information about obtaining poisons and Valium, forms part of the growing body of evidence the German prosecutors have gathered and evaluated in the past 11 weeks in an effort to determine whether anyone could be charged with wrongdoing for failing to adequately monitor Mr. Lubitz’s mental health.
Unlike in France, where charges can be brought against a company, only individuals can be prosecuted under German law, meaning that with Mr. Lubitz dead, prosecutors must establish whether he alone was responsible for the crash. On Thursday, a French public prosecutor formally opened a criminal inquiry into whether Germanwings; its parent company, Lufthansa; or any other individuals should bear responsibility for the crash.
Although the two countries are cooperating, the two investigations are proceeding independently.
Early in the investigation, German prosecutors said that Mr. Lubitz was treated for a depressive episode in 2009 that led him to withdraw from Lufthansa’s elite flight-training school for 11 months for treatment. But he was reinstated after a company doctor found him fit to return to the cockpit, and he was ultimately hired by Germanwings in 2013.
Mr. Kumpa, the prosecutor, said medical records indicated that after his treatment, Mr. Lubitz did not appear to suffer any further illness until late last year. On Dec. 23, he visited an ophthalmologist in Düsseldorf complaining that he had begun seeing small black specks known as floaters, prosecutors said. Although the problem is not uncommon and normally resolves itself without treatment, Mr. Lubitz grew nervous and began visiting more eye doctors and specialists from the region’s top research clinics.
By the time of the crash Mr. Lubitz had seen 46 doctors, from general practitioners to leading optometrists to neurologists. But despite this frantic search for a solution to the problem, at no point does the evidence gathered so far show that he was ever diagnosed as seriously ill, Mr. Kumpa said.
Neither his parents, with whom he spent a “harmonious” sightseeing trip to Berlin two weeks before the crash, nor his girlfriend, with whom he shared a top-story apartment in an elegant building on the edge of Düsseldorf, had any indication of the extent of his psychological troubles, prosecutors said.
Although he had told his parents and girlfriend of his concern about his eyesight, he gave no indication that he was seriously considering ending his life.
None of the medical specialists he visited saw any indication of suicidal tendencies, Mr. Kumpa said.
Mr. Lubitz’s Internet search history indicates that his distress intensified in mid-March. He went on sick leave from March 13 to 22, supplying his employer with a note from a general practitioner that included a vague diagnosis of visual impairment of an “unknown origin.” A second note from a different doctor — this time a psychologist — valid for the day of the crash, was never submitted to Germanwings.
During his leave, Mr. Lubitz spent considerable time online. On March 18, he conducted 67 separate searches over the course of six hours. The searches that day included information on various poisons and deadly drug cocktails, as well as treatments for vision problems.
Melissa Eddy reported from Berlin, and Nicola Clark from Paris.
Registered UserPosts: 420
Mar 9 16 10:05 AM
@youlixin : great finding, this more or less confirm what some of us were speculating.
If article is right, he went to 46 (!) doctors, which might indicate that he was REALLY determined to fix the problem.
Unfortunately, as we all know, there is no cure for floaters, only FOV is the real solution (and he might have lost is job because of that).Other than that, I can perfectly understand that someone who really love his job (AFAIK Lubitz dreamed to be a pilot since he was a child) would become really bothered by floaters and because there was probably no solution (he felt he was condemned) then would decide to take down his own life. Especially that as a pilot you are constantly watching the sky which make probably floaters very visible / bothersome. Personally watching the sky is the worst thing to me since I have the floaters. It is pure torture.
Constant torture for something you really loved to do and has been a part of your life for so long ? non sense. It is like a professional pianist that would suddenly feel extreme pain every time he would move fingers, with no possible cure.After he went pushed away by doctors, he feel hopeless and start thinking about ending his own life (as the search history reveals). Eventually it does not occurred and he returned to his job. Then while flying the following happened : “well, by crashing the plane right now, i have 100% chance of dying, let’s do this and end up the suffering for good”. He just had to lock the doors and push the commands down. So easy. Of course what he did was really bad since in the end he took down life of 149 (innocent) passagers. This is pure theory but how the is how I see the things.
I would really hope those new findings about Lubitz would make medias talk again about the drama and would raise floaters awareness but I doubt about this.
As others said medias won’t probably make the connection between this and floaters.
For them Lubitz was mentally ill. End of story. (which is half true).
Taken from new york times :the problem is not uncommon and normally resolves itself without treatment
Oh yeah of course, floaters will go by themselves, it’s a kind of magic… everybody knows that.
There is already some existing reports of people who took down their own life after a dramatic LASIK operation. They leave notes before their suicidal clearly saying the main reason was LASIK. But again medias and FDA denied any connection.
See here : http://www.lasikcomplications.com/suicide.htm
Edited 3 times by starRider32 Mar 9 16 10:17 AM.
Registered UserPosts: 58
Apr 3 16 6:52 PM
Andreas Lubitz was probably so sick and tired of his floater vision that he already wished to be dead. I feel almost sure that floaters brought that plane down. What else could it have been. A neurotic runner with a retinal detachment in his medical records. The crash sounds like a desperate last act.
Registered UserPosts: 58
Apr 4 16 12:05 PM
I’m sure we could all agree staring into a blue sky all day is the worst job a floater sufferer could have…. erm, maybe a snow shovel-er in the arctic is.
Anyway, I’ve been perturbed about this extra info from last years tragedy. I went back to many articles from the time and they intrigued me greatly- the eye issues most, but mental state and state of relationships may have had a large role on him too. I’ve been day dreaming all week of writing a biopic (taking many liberties) to draw the conclusion that his mental state/illness was exasperate by visual infractions, floaters-flashes- maybe a slight curtain closing mentality- How great would it be to make a film that periodically went into the first person view and thoughts of the sufferer as things worstened and they felt more secluded and imprisoned by bad vision? I think it’s one good start to gaining some attention and understanding from the clearyeye folks. Just a thought!
Registered UserPosts: 152
Apr 6 16 1:13 AM
I thought as much
He saw 46 doctors.. Wow.
