Woman has been airsick for six years following turbulent flight

A mother of three has been left feeling airsick for life – ever since she stepped off a turbulent flight six years ago. Gill Archer, of Wolverhampton was left struggling to balance, feeling queasy and permanently dizzy when she stepped off the long-haul flight to Florida in 2006. The 47-year-old nurse assumed the feeling would pass but has continued to suffer from the incurable and debilitating attacks ever since, which can last for months at a time. An American doctor eventually diagnosed her with Mal de Debarquement Syndrome.

She said: “When my episodes get really bad, I struggle even to walk in a straight line. I feel like I’m constantly being pulled to one side, like I’m bobbing about all over the place. The episodes come and go every few months, and they get worse every time they come back.” She first developed the condition after embarking on a family holiday of a lifetime to Florida. She said: “I had only ever been abroad once before in my life, when I was very young, so when my sister suggested a family trip to Florida, I jumped at the chance.



“I was a bit nervous about flying even before the flight, but it was worse than I imagined. The turbulence was terrible, and we had to keep our seatbelts on the whole way there. From the minute I stepped off the plane, I knew something wasn’t right. I felt like I was still on the flight. I thought by the next morning, I’d feel better, but I felt permanently sick and dizzy – like being seasick – for the whole two weeks.

Gill’s MdDS symptoms eventually faded after several weeks – but she was horrified when six months later, they returned – and have continued to come and go for the next five years. Desperate for a diagnosis, Gill trawled the internet herself, searching for her symptoms and eventually came across a support group for MdDS. After emailing an American professor researching the condition, Gill was finally able to get a referral to specialists in the UK, when finally she was formally diagnosed with MdDS by Dr Yoon-Hee Cha based at the University of California.