The Problem:  It Could Be You or Someone You Love. Most of us trust that if a medical test shows a life-threatening result, our doctors will see it immediately. We assume there will be a red flag, an alarm, or an urgent phone call.

But right now, in respiratory medicine, that isn’t always true.

Imagine your mother, your partner, or your child is struggling to breathe. They go for a lung function test. The doctor scans the summary and sees the word "Mild." They tell your loved one it’s just "asthma or Mild emphysema" and sends them home with a puffer that has been proven through testing not to help the specific problem.

Meanwhile, deep in the data tables of that same report, the numbers show their lungs are actually in a state of total collapse. This is exactly what happened to me, and if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody.

The Hidden Danger: Clear Airway vs. Failed Gas Transfer The medical system often prioritizes how much air you can breathe in and blow out.(FEV Spirometry) If that is "mildly" affected, the whole report is labeled "Mild".

But the most important part of breathing is Gas Transfer (KCO)—getting oxygen into your blood. My report showed a KCO Z-score of -5.79, such a statistical extreme the table often only measures to -6, with mine falling far outside standard medical tables. This is a profound, highly unusual isolation of respiratory impairment, yet because the airways were clear enough and I'm not always congested, it was completely dismissed due to an acceptable fev1 score.

"End the FEV1 Bias: Stop Using Airflow to Mask Oxygen Starvation"

Due to the medical community’s obsession with FEV1, I strongly believe it is endangering many a patients life. My report shows a normal FEV1 Z-score of -0.39, which led my lung function report and three doctors to label my condition as 'MILD'. This label is a dangerous misconception. By focusing on how much air you can blow out, the system ignored my KCO Z-score of -5.79. I myself, finally point out my Z scores to the doctor, a complete failure of gas transfer that was completely missed. We must stop allowing 'mild' spirometry results to sit at the top of the report. When a patient’s gas transfer is falling or has fallen 'far outside standard medical tables', the FEV1 score is irrelevant. We need a system that prioritizes Gas Transfer (KCO/DLCO) as the critical metric, because you can have clear airways and still be starving for oxygen."

Why You Should Sign-  We are signing to demand that medical data must trump medical summaries. We are calling for a global change to ensure that:

1.  "Statistical Extremes" are Flagged in Red: Any result representing a severe impairment (Z-score below -4.0) must be automatically highlighted at the top of the report.

2.  No More "Mild" Masks: A report cannot be labeled "mild" if even one metric shows a critical failure of the lung tissue or blood vessel's. This needs to be highly visible to all GPs.

3.  Mandatory Urgent Alerts: Doctors must be alerted when a patient’s results are heading towards or sitting at critical levels. In doing this, it will ensure the doctor is well aware of what is going on and the patient is not left to deteriorate even further whilst feeling gastit by the medical community. Doctors quite often have 15 minutes with the patient, they know little bits about everything, this is why you are referred to a specialist. If the specialist does not make the doctor aware of a dangerous situation or the system in place to inform the doctor is ineffective or leading to misdiagnosis, something must change! I often wonder where I would be today if I had received the help and had the doctors on board when I 1st received these results. Due to the mild fev statement on the top of the report, I have even been denied preliminary help from the very Hospital that performed my lung function test. Sadly instead of getting help, I have  continuously been denied when in fact My KCO Z scores we're hitting the end of the measurable table. You have to wonder, how many other patients are going through this very same thing or something similar.

If this were a blood test for your heart or kidneys, a result this far outside the normal range would have been flagged in red as a 'Critical Emergency.' Why does a report that states the patient has critically low DLOC/KCO Z scores, get labeled as 'mild' just because we can still move air through our tubes?(Fev1 was ok) We need the same 'Critical Value' safety standards for lung function that we have for every other vital organ."

PLEASE  Sign this petition to protect your family from misdiagnosis or "invisible" lung failure. Let’s make sure that when a person is fighting for their life, the system is designed to flag any scores that are severe or in critical range, summarising findings so they are easily found at the top of the report. This will surely stop misdiagnosis and point the Physician to  the correct findings ASAP instead of  denying them the very treatment they require to survive. 

Thank you for your time and help in trying to change the way lung function reports currently operate, into one that may very well save you or your loved ones life.