The next time you fly a commercial airline, it just might be on an aircraft inspected by Jeff Miller. In fact, he might be on the flight with you.
An Arizona native, Miller, 66, has spent his entire 47-year career in aviation, most of that time as an aircraft mechanic. The past 19 years he’s worked for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including the past decade as a safety inspector.
“I travel all over the country,” conducting evaluations on the maintenance facilities of the major airlines. “I could be on (a flight) with you,” he said, “observing on the flight deck with the pilots, or observing in the back with the flight attendants.”
But 13 years ago, while at dinner, he began to have trouble swallowing. His wife, Michelle, and colleagues noticed that his speech was becoming slurred. That was soon followed by blurry vision and eventually a droopy left eye, a tell-tale sign of a muscle-weakness disease known as Myasthenia Gravis.
Returning from a 2012 Mother’s Day visit to Sun City with his wife, Miller’s vision was so bad they decided to stop in at John C. Lincoln Medical Center, where medical personnel ran a series of scans and tests.
“I thought I was having a stroke,” said Miller, a large robust man who had been active his whole life; an avid softball player and bow hunter.
One scan detected a relatively large, but non-cancerous, tumor in his front left temple. The tumor was removed but he continued to have symptoms.
Myasthenia Gravis — an auto-immune disease in which antibodies interfere with the connection between nerves and muscles — often is associated with problems with the Thymus, a small gland located behind the largest artery stemming from the heart. The Thymus helps produce immune system T cells.
A scan found that Miller’s Thymus was inflamed and several times normal size. When his Thymus was removed, all of his symptoms — droopy eye, difficulty swallowing, blurry vision and slurred speech — cleared up and his disease remained in remission for nearly a decade.
A little more than two years ago, Miller suddenly had difficulty walking. He noticed it first during a javelina bow hunt near the northwest Arizona mining town of Bagdad. Later, he found he had difficulty walking through an airport.
Referred to HonorHealth Research Institute
“I started dragging. I went from being Hercules to being nothing. I could barely pick my legs up,” said Miller, who met over time with several doctors until finally being referred to Suraj Muley, M.D., a Myasthenia Gravis specialist who works in the Neuroscience Division of HonorHealth Research Institute.
He was placed on various medications, but they failed to relieve his symptom after a few weeks.
Dr. Muley suggested that Miller was a candidate for a clinical trial (NCT05070858), evaluating the safety and effectiveness of a new drug combination of Pozelimab and Cemdisiran, produced by a Tarrytown, N.Y.-based firm called Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
Now, nearly a year after beginning the clinical trial, Miller said he is getter progressively better, especially overcoming fatigue and shortness of breath over the past six months.
“I’ve definitely gotten better. I feel better. I have my ups and downs. But I’ve gotten better,” he said. “My strength has gotten better. My legs have gotten better. I feel a whole lot stronger. My wife says I’m 100% better.”
Miller said he is hopeful for the future. He plans to continue on the study for at least three more years, and he praised Dr. Muley and all of the Research Institute staff for the way they have cared for him.
“(The staff has been) sensational. They’re just top professionals; top of the line. Caring. They call and check how I’m doing,” he said. “And Dr. Muley is very personable.”