TSA pat-down leaves traveler covered in urine

[liberal N proud]

retired special education teacher on his way to a wedding in Orlando, Fla., said he was left humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down by TSA officers recently at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

“I was absolutely humiliated, I couldn’t even speak,” said Thomas D. “Tom” Sawyer, 61, of Lansing, Mich.

Sawyer is a bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag, which collects his urine from a stoma, or opening in his stomach. “I have to wear special clothes and in order to mount the bag I have to seal a wafer to my stomach and then attach the bag. If the seal is broken, urine can leak all over my body and clothes.”

On Nov. 7, Sawyer said he went through the security scanner at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. “Evidently the scanner picked up on my urostomy bag, because I was chosen for a pat-down procedure.”

Due to his medical condition, Sawyer asked to be screened in private. “One officer looked at another, rolled his eyes and said that they really didn’t have any place to take me,” said Sawyer. “After I said again that I’d like privacy, they took me to an office.”

Sawyer wears pants two sizes too large in order to accommodate the medical equipment he wears. He’d taken off his belt to go through the scanner and once in the office with security personnel, his pants fell down around his ankles. “I had to ask twice if it was OK to pull up my shorts,” said Sawyer, “And every time I tried to tell them about my medical condition, they said they didn’t need to know about that.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40291856/ns/travel-news/

[sally cat]

1. Seems they would instruct TSA agents about urostomy and colostomy patients.

[housewolf]

19. Also gastronomy patients with feeding tubes

and I'm sure there are a variety of other medical devices that travellers don't want exposed

[BlueIris]

2. But this is a-okay with our leaders.

TSAers are thugs.

[katnapped]

4. And some of DU's posters apparently

He apparently needed to "man-up" and stop making a fuss because the TSA is only thinking about his safety in keeping a urine bomber from making plane go boom.

:sarcasm:

[liberal N proud]

6. I think that those who are alright with it don't travel much

They have not been or will not be subjected to the severe searches in the name of security.

[superduperfarleft]

7. Or quit being such a whiner and "take the train."

Funny how those defenders are usually absent in these threads.

[liberal N proud]

18. Train - what train

I agree they are not on threads like this. But they all think train travel in the US is easy.

I say what train?

[Individualist]

14. It's despicable

I thank the gods or whatever that I'm not like them.

:puke:

[spin]

3. Obviously the TSA needs better training ..

this is getting out of hand.

[CreekDog]

8. this has been going on for ages

from my experience with TSA screeners, it's likely they are most getting online training.

[CreekDog]

5. necessary

:shrug:

[KamaAina]

9. Piss on TSA

it had to be said.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. The GOP is going to overrule Obama on everything else, why don't they overrule him on this?

[rsmith6621]

11. President Obama Says He Will Just need to PEE all over himself

....because groping and radiation poisoning are the new standard at your local airport.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40289750/ns/travel

[gateley]

12. I hope he contacts his congressional representative and senators,

and, if it's not too difficult for him, the local news.

This is a big story everywhere and we need to keep it in the public eye so they feel the pressure to make changes. We can't just let it die and slowly accept it as "that's just the way it is".

That poor man. :(

I read where a flight attendant had to remove her prosthesis (breast cancer survivor) for inspection.

No. Dignity. Allowed.

[LisaL]

15. He already did.

[gateley]

16. Good! I'm glad YOU read the article for me! :-) Thanks. nt

[Kolesar]

13. Careful, dude, the pheromes in urine only make the TSA guys MORE aggressive

Ok, bad joke, sorry

[howaboutme]

17. Patrick Henry said it himself

we must be kept safe above everything else. Didn't he say that?

Hell no, he said "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death".

The former was said by our 21st century neocon politicians and media who prefer profits for a few before liberty for all.

[crim son]

20. Good gawd, that is beyond appalling.

Whether or not there is any truth to the argument that the pat down is necessary, THIS was not necessary and the bastards who did it should be sued.

[jillan]

21. That is heartbreaking.