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TSA's mm-Wave Body Scanner Breaks Diabetic Teen's $10K Insulin Pump

Posted by Soulskill on from the terrorists-are-known-to-have-insulin dept.

OverTheGeicoE writes "Savannah Barry, a Colorado teenager, was returning home from a conference in Salt Lake City. She is a diabetic and wears an insulin pump to control her insulin levels 24/7. She carries documentation of her condition to assist screeners, who usually give her a pat-down search. This time the screeners listened to her story, read her doctor's letter, and forced her to go through a millimeter-wave body scanner anyway. The insulin pump stopped working correctly, and of course, she was subjected to an invasive manual search. 'My life is pretty much in their hands when I go through a body scan with my insulin pump on,' she says. She wants TSA screeners to have more training. Was this a predictable outcome, considering that no one outside TSA has access to millimeter-wave scanners for testing? Would oversight from the FDA or FCC prevent similar incidents from happening in the future?"

9 of 811 comments (clear)

  1. forced? by X0563511 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wait a minute... I think the larger issue here is that they forced her through the scanner.

    Maybe I'm wrong, but is that not improper? I thought they had to allow manual inspection at your request.

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    1. Re:forced? by samazon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If you read the article, I'm not sure "forced" is the right word. What I gathered from, "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." (direct quote from article) is that this was a case of a TSA employee being an idiot, not a TSA employee getting handsy. Not that it's right (it's not) but she allowed them to put her through the body scanner because she didn't want to argue with the security personnel about whether it would damage her machine. I can see why she wouldn't want to argue, but STILL. Forced makes it sound a little uglier than it is.

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      I have the hiccups.
    2. Re:forced? by cpu6502 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      +1. Several women have been forced to walk through the scanner multiple times, in order for the men to get a better view of their nudity on the screen.

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    3. Re:forced? by samazon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is what I found - http://saizai.com/tsa_rights.pdf - it's a "cheat sheet" of what is legally permissible. Though I haven't been in a situation with TSA like that, I have had (on two separate occasions) doctors "spring" invasive medical exams on me during follow-up visits (a biopsy for a first-time abnormal test result, when standard procedure is three abnormal results... someone wants to charge my insurance company exorbitant lab fees...) and while I have the cojones to tell my doctor he can shove it because I -know- he's doing something wrong, most teenage girls don't (I WAS a teenage girl going through TSA and it IS intimidating). It's tragic, and her little crusade for education is fine, but it doesn't scrape the real issue - which is, of course, daily violations of people's privacy. As Ben said... "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

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      I have the hiccups.
  2. forensic analysis by hoxford · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I want to see the results of a forensic analysis of the unit to find out why it failed. if the scanner is putting out enough energy to permanently damage the circuits it's a strong argument against the safety of these things.

  3. Jessie Ventura by MrShaggy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    He has had hip replacement surgery. "Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura is suing the TSA and Homeland Security for humiliating and ‘offensive’ pat-down procedures he’s been subjected to during airport security checks that included ‘warrantless, non-suspicion-based offensive touching, gripping and rubbing of the genital and other sensitive areas of his body.’ "

    He is suing them in court.

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    I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
  4. Re:new slogan by lgw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wasn't there a Cornel (?) study showing that the TSA caused more American deaths (from people deciding driving was better than molestation) than terrorists over a decade?

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    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  5. Re:RTFM by Barbara,+not+Barbie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm rather surprised that the TSA doesn't (appear) to have a manual to deal with

    Whistle-blowers have already testified that even they are not allowed to see the manual. Other countries consider the TSA to be a joke and a money-scam.

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    Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.
  6. Re:new slogan by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You have the same odds of being killed on an airplane by a terrorist as you do being killed by cancer from a body scanning device (1 in 30 million):

    http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120405/04390118385/tsa-security-theater-described-one-simple-infographic.shtml