From ‘Top Gun’ fighter pilot to GP: The blood test that changed everything for Dr Tim Nelson
Now fighting for veterans' health, this GP used to dogfight in F1-11s until he was grounded by type 1 diabetes.
“It was a very insidious onset. I mean, in hindsight, now it is clear as day.”
Dr Tim Nelson reflects on the period when his world came crashing down.
At the time, he was not a GP. He had not been through medical school; he was a ‘Top Gun’ instructor, a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) fighter combat instructor.
He would regularly fly at nine times the force of gravity, taking part in dogfights through canyons with pinpoint accuracy in fighter jets worth tens of millions of dollars.
