I know this is kind of long, but it is very important reading for anyone who flies commercially in the US. We must all speak up to prevent incidents like this from happening!
By Harriet Baskas?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /o:p/o:p
Travel writero:p/o:p
msnbc.com contributor
updated 11/20/2010 7:16:18 PM ETo:p/o:p
A 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. o:p/o:p
“I was absolutely humiliated, I couldn't even speak,” said Thomas D. “Tom” Sawyer, 61, of Lansing, Mich.o:p/o:p
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.”o:p/o:p
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.”o:p/o:p
Due to his medical condition, Sawyer asked to be
By Harriet Baskas?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /o:p/o:p
Travel writero:p/o:p
msnbc.com contributor
updated 11/20/2010 7:16:18 PM ETo:p/o:p
A 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. o:p/o:p
“I was absolutely humiliated, I couldn't even speak,” said Thomas D. “Tom” Sawyer, 61, of Lansing, Mich.o:p/o:p
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.”o:p/o:p
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.”o:p/o:p
Due to his medical condition, Sawyer asked to be
