TSA patdown because of chest wires

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DebbyA

DebbyA

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Feb 5, 2007
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Tucson, AZ
The agent was very polite, and she just patted around my collar bones a little. I'm just annoyed that it happened--after 4 years of going through all sorts of imaging with no hitch. It seems to me that a row of staples on the sternum of a gray-haired person shouldn't be any more remarkable (or harder to identify) than freckles...I used to keep my Medtronic card in my pocket for screening, but with the advanced imaging machines nothing is allowed in pockets.
 
DebbyA said:
The agent was very polite, and she just patted around my collar bones a little. I'm just annoyed that it happened--after 4 years of going through all sorts of imaging with no hitch. It seems to me that a row of staples on the sternum of a gray-haired person shouldn't be any more remarkable (or harder to identify) than freckles...I used to keep my Medtronic card in my pocket for screening, but with the advanced imaging machines nothing is allowed in pockets.
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Can they feel the wires during a patdown or was it a completely futile enterprise as I assume it was? This seems incredibly ignorant on the part of TSA. I think you handled it much better than I would have.
 
They must have had the sensitivity of the metal detector turned up to 11! Most of the times I've been through them, my wires don't trigger anything. I just show my pacemaker card to the first checkpoint agent, and they tell the later ones that I have the device. Gets me through the line quickly, too.
 
Duffey: Even I can't feel my wires, so I guess she was checking to be sure it was just me under my blouse, and not weaponry.

Steve: It was the full body scanner advanced imaging technology, the one where you hold your arms up while positioning your feet on marks. I'd been through one at Dulles last year with no problem, this was at Albany.

I sent TSA a suggestion that it would be a time-saver to train their agents to recognize the fairly common pattern of surgical wires. This morning I got a reply thanking me for asking about becoming a vendor for TSA.:rolleyes2:
 
Debby - I did the full-body scan, too. Who cares if they see another old man with various lumps and wires? Maybe they could even see my pacer wires. That would look strange if they didn't know what they were seeing. What would the worst TSA cunce think of a small disk with long wires snaking to other parts of the body? I should tell them that I'm a bionic man and they don't want to see what happens when I get angry. . .
 
I've been through the advanced scanners a couple times now. It's faster than having to do the full body pat down with my pacemaker. Both times, I've had to get a "regional" pat down, because ....wait for it.... the imager saw something in the area of my left shoulder.
DOH!
Yeah really? I TOLD you I had a pacer when I went through the machine. I ASKED to go through the imaging machine rather than get a full body pat down 'cause I can't go through the metal detector.
What part of I HAVE A PACEMAKER don't you understand?????

Which is why, in the summertime, I wear a tank top or camisole so they can SEEEEEEEEE my pacemaker and wires and don't have to pat me down.
 
Sigh. I did some more research on the TSA site and found out that what inconveniences us is a result of a change that was made after the understandable initial repugnance to the full-body imaging. The newer installations use software that translates the full-body image to a diagram with the questionable area highlighted. Like you, I prefer the 'regional' pat down to the other alternatives, but would even more prefer the ability to recognize a fairly common situation.

I think I'll stop beating my head against that wall, and go back to trying to figure out whether I really saw a mountain lion in the back yard...there's a place I could use some imaging!
 
Well, at least there is a pacemaker friendly technology now...almost like a dumbed down CT of sorts. Now, if only the next generation TSA devices could offer complimentary valve and aorta monitoring, we'd be all set... :wink2:

You know, I checked out the TSA site myself just now, they have a very interesting Week in Review blog (http://blog.tsa.gov/2012/04/tsa-week-in-review-man-brings-pistol.html) of items discovered at TSA checkpoints just this week: 26 loaded firearms, 3 warheads (thankfully inert), flare gun, throwing stars, cane sword, a lipstick knife, stun guns, and "copious" amounts of knives! :eek2:

No, I'm not kidding (who could make that up!), check out the link, it's amazing. So, that certainly changes my perspective on things. Think I'll just smile and do whatever they tell me, no matter how unreasonable.
 
I got patted down on our flight out of our tiny burg (by someone I've known for 30 years) because I set off the machine. On the way home I wore the same jeans, same style underwire bra and didn't set off the machine (or get the pat down) in Ft. Lauderdale. *shaking head*
 
SusQ - There are sensitivity adjustments on the various devices used at the airports, as well as normal variation between machines. Sometimes one or another airport has their machines' sensitivity cranked up "all the way to 11" - maybe to appear to be serious, maybe because they don't know how to set the machines. At any rate, the same objects will set off scanners at one airport and not another. This has been common occurrence for me.
 
OldManEmu said:
What is TSA ????
Is the passenger screening the same for internal flights within the USA as international flights??
Click to expand...

Transportation Security Administration.

Yes, screening is the same. I've flown out of Terminal D at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and all passengers go through the same line. Terminal D handles all the international flights but also has some domestic flights.

BTW, I saw something on the BBC iPhone app this week about the screening at airports in the UK. Lots of complaints there, too.
 
The TSA people aren't so bright. recently I had a full body scan. It picked up 2 screws in my right knee from an ACL reconstruction 20 years ago. I was wearing shorts so my knee was uncovered. The guy still grabed the wand and went over my knee. Then he looked like he felt kind of stupid.
 
Albany? The worst TSA experience I've ever had was there. I would guess that the problem wasn't you and your wires, Debby.

Meanwhile, watch out for those mountain lions!
 
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