TSA: Salt Lake City This Time

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Savannah Barry is mad and on a mission. She wants travelers to be warned before they walk through TSA security. "They need to get with the program and have some education across the board for TSA." After participating in a DECA conference in Salt Lake City with several classmates last week, Savannah, who is a type one diabetic and wears an insulin pump 24 hours a day, says she ran into TSA agents who were not prepared to deal with her medical situation. "I went up to the lady and I said, I am a type one diabetic. I wear an insulin pump. I showed her the pump. I said, what do you want me to do? I usually do a pat down - what would you recommend?"

Savannah then showed agents a doctor's note explaining that the sensitive insulin pump should not go through the body scanner. She says she was told to go through it anyway. "When someone in a position of authority tells you it is - you think that its right. So, I said, Are you sure I can go through with the pump? It's not going to hurt the pump? And she said no, no you're fine."

The 16-year-old walked into the scanner with some serious reservations "My life is pretty much in their hands when I go through a body scan with my insulin pump on." She was right to be worried. She says the pump stopped working correctly. "Coming off an insulin pump is rough. You never know what is going to happen when you are not on the insulin pump." 

The story gets worse from there. Full story here.

And, we have the TSA agent accepting bribes for letting drugs go through in Connecticut. This is not to be confused with the TSA agents arrested in L.A. the week before for accepting bribes to let contraband through.

Increasingly, I'm asking the question, Whose Side is the TSA On?


Senator Rand Paul has started a movement disband the TSA. About time.

Comments

  1. David StoneMay 8, 2012 at 11:36 AM

    Here's what gives me cause for concern: An insulin pump can survive normal X-Ray screening and is pretty durable overall, so...what kinds of radiation can mess one up? Furthermore what is it doing to our bodies every time we go through a scanner?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike SmithMay 8, 2012 at 2:57 PM

    One of the people who developed the nude-o-scope technology has been quoted as says he would never go through one and "opts out" every time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. amulbunny's random thoughtsMay 8, 2012 at 5:28 PM

    Some of the comments following the other article are pitiful and typical of TSA lackeys. I pray I don't get selected for the NOS because I can't raise my arms, courtesy of an overweight bag at pre-screening. We didn't get proper training for lifting bags, so why would we assume that the TSA would train their employees to use proper protocols for an insulin pump. These are the same people who told my step dad not to worry about the mag and his pacemaker. Yeah, smart huh? Had I not been there (traveling with elderly parents) and got a lead to inform the kid at the mag that pacemakers and magnets don't react well to each other, god only knows what would happen.

    ReplyDelete

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