Driving after heart attack and stents

romancz

So I had a heart attack and a successful PCI procedure (stents) and it's nice to be alive  . The hospital's official post-discharge advice sheet states I can drive 4 weeks after the procedure. However the doctor in his discharge summary quotes a period of 1 month. Looking at the DVLA guidance, it does appear to be 4 weeks but I'm hesitant to drive before the month is up given insurance companies will look for any excuse to decline claims if I had a prang. Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.

**The policy is online only so I can't speak to a human to clarify, and the chatbot sends me to the DVLA website.

Mark_d

In a month's time you might have a check-up with the doctor to check whether everything has settled down after your operation.  At this time the doctor should be able to give you a more accurate assessment of whether or not you're fit to drive.

Car_54

Would waiting an extra two days cause you difficulty?

Mildly_Miffed

Car_54 said:

Would waiting an extra two days cause you difficulty?

^ This is exactly it...

June is a 30 day month.
Four weeks is 28 days.

In your position, I REALLY wouldn't add to my stress over something so trivial.

XRS200

romancz said:

So I had a heart attack and a successful PCI procedure (stents) and it's nice to be alive  . The hospital's official post-discharge advice sheet states I can drive 4 weeks after the procedure. However the doctor in his discharge summary quotes a period of 1 month. Looking at the DVLA guidance, it does appear to be 4 weeks but I'm hesitant to drive before the month is up given insurance companies will look for any excuse to decline claims if I had a prang. Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.

**The policy is online only so I can't speak to a human to clarify, and the chatbot sends me to the DVLA website.

Contrary to popular belief, insurers don't look for any excuse to decline claims.  Driving against medical advice would be a perfectly valid one though.

Wait two days.

photome

Did you have angioplasty and was it successful? That is the procedure for fitting stents, if so you should be able to drive after a week and the DvLA don’t want to or need to be informed

but as others have said the difference between 4 weeks and a month is arguable 

I do speak from experience as I had a heart attack and a stent fitted and was driving after a week, of course yiu May have had other complications as my discharge letter said I could drive after a week

sheslookinhot

Wondering if this was a real post ?

Frozen_up_north

The big issue is to not drive against medical advice. It could be very costly if involved in an accident.

My partner had a hip replacement and was told to not drive for 6 weeks, the doctor said her insurance would be invalid if she drove as she was specifically told not to, her physio said the same...

MX5huggy

4 weeks vs a month have you checked if that starts from the first breath of anaesthesia or maybe it only starts from when you came round. Or maybe the next day after? Just leave it 32 days. 

Okell

Mildly_Miffed said:

Car_54 said:

Would waiting an extra two days cause you difficulty?

^ This is exactly it...

June is a 30 day month.
Four weeks is 28 days.

In your position, I REALLY wouldn't add to my stress over something so trivial.

I wonder if the OP would have been so concerned if they'd been discharged on 01 February?