Teen Blames TSA For Broken Insulin Pump

Did you ask BB? "Folks" sounds like a term he would use.

 

Eew, no thanks. I'd rather eat my family pets.

 

Nah, they wouldn't want them, they are much more valuable as targets for future scammers. These (expletive deleted) TSA employees have shown a penchant to believe nearly anything if they think there is a payday at the end of the day.

 

Pig farm. No need to create an entire industry.

 

I know this has been just about beat to death but our TSA contributor doesn't seem to get it so I ask for those interested to take a look at the chart here:

http://www.medtronicdiabetes.net/lifestyle/equipmentinterference?cmpid=mdt_site_equipment

 

That is a very clear and concise chart - leaves no doubt in my mind about what is safe or not regarding insulin pumps and airport "security". One part bothers me though - "show your airport emergency card". How many times have we heard that passengers were not allowed to retrieve their medical information from their carry on or that TSA clerks were simply not interested in reading it. Sooner or later somebody is going to die at the hands of one of these nincompoops.

 

Right, but it still wouldn't be their fault.
"Da Nile"=a river in Egypt....

 

Or do anything if they think they'll get paid for it and not be held accountable for anything.

 

Yes, the Master List is full of accounts of people presenting their medical cards or printed doctor's orders to the blue shirts, only to be told tough (expletive deleted). "We do things differently here," "those rules are out of date," blah blah blah.

 

I'm going to beat this horse a bit longer. As noted I have a question about TSA policy on Insulin Pumps in but as of yet no response. It seems every manufacturer has concerns with body scanners and x-ray devices. In my digging around I ran across a blog and this is one entry:

http://www.animas.com/node/240?monyr=10&year=2011&pnum=2

The above account is not an isolated event. It seems that TSA employees are being trained to tell people with Insulin Pumps and Continuous Glucose Monitors that WBI is safe for their medical equipment. In my questioning of what TSA is doing one TSA employee told me that when a determination is made that WBI is not suitable for these devices that TSA has an obligation to educate the TSA screeners and the public. That tells me clearly that TSA is not teaching its employees that the manufacturers of Pumps and CGMs should not be screened with WBI.

TSA has expended a good bit of propaganda telling the public that TSA is working with special needs groups. That may be true but when TSA management refuses to heed warnings for the makers of medical devices we have a serious problem. If TSA management is heeding this information then there is a disconnect between management and field activities.

This is just another example of the complete failure of Administrator John S. Pistole to require TSA screeners to treat the public with dignity and respect. What John S. Pistole's employees are doing is placing the traveling public at far greater risk than the terrorist TSA is supposedly protecting us from.

John S. Pistole is clearly not up to the task of running TSA. Save what little face you have left Administrator Pistole and step down.

 

Boggles the mind and makes me want to puke.

She was also in BOS, which according to tsastatus.net has backscatter, when the discussion in this thread has been mostly about MMW.

 

Doesn't matter which airport, attempts to force all people into the Strip Search Machines regardless of individual issues seems TSA SOP.

 

This is a complete statement by itself.

But don't worry - they'll be "re-retrained."

 

The bigger thing that is bothering me in this got glossed over a few pages back (convenient to ignore, I know) is the issue of ETHICS.
Or lack there of as being illustrated here. These TSA people are placing and acting on their personal beliefs instead of professional responsibility of a public servant. It doesn't matter if the agent personally believes the scanner is safe for the pump, they need to act with professional responsibility.

A real doctor/nurse/surgeon has to put aside his personal issues and treat a patient. It doesn't matter if the patient is a criminal, disagreeable religion or race. The doctor/nurse/surgeon is also required to consider their patient's wishes even if it's contrary to their personal choice.

A real lawyer is required prosecute or defend someone they may not personally believe is in the wrong or right. They are also required to take into consideration their client's wishes even if it's contrary to their own personal belief.

A real soldier is required to go into a battle he/she may not personally believe in.

And in these cases, there are severe accountability for failure to do so.

TSA seems to not have any accountability nor do they show any consideration for the passengers. In fact, I would go as far as to see that this Cirian character is PROUD to be inconsiderate and unethical in placing personal beliefs before the needs of the passengers.

 

I'm getting a distinct impression based on things said by TSA that the screeners are being taught to screen pumpers and others with various medical devices using WBI. I am still working on an official response from TSA but they don't seem very interested in providing an answer.

 

Hopefully, you are not finding that surprising. I'm astonished you've not yet been told that it's SSI.

 

There's another issue I see with the pumps and the WBI. If the pump is taken through the scanner, the pump and the spot where the infusion set is attached to the body, will likely show up as an anomaly. That will result in a patdown. It should be a targeted patdown, but you never know with the TSA. Even if the WBI didn't have a chance at damaging the pump, I might as well opt out. I'll probably get a patdown anyway.

If Animas said it was ok to use the WBI, I would try to replicate Jon Corbett's experiment. I would clip the pump to my side and see if it got detected. It would be interesting to see if it wasn't detected.

 

As I understand Jon's test, you'd have to clip it so that it stood proud of your body, which is why he used a sewn in pocket that as far as I can determined, "dangled" from his shirt.

 

As I understand Jon's info your pump would have to be encased in a metal box and placed on your side to not show up on the WBI. If the WBI is of any value then the lines leading up to the fusion set and the set itself should show as an anomoly.

 

The education level of people working at the checkpoint is amazing - it now appears there are medical school professors moonlighting there.