Without detracting from the scary horror of her injuries, and my wishes for a speedy and full recovery, this sounds like the perfect legal case to get the issue of TSA accountability solved once and for all.

To date, there has been little or no evidence of an event where TSA agents failing to follow procedures resulted in real injuries and loss for a flying customer.

Unfortunately, now we have one - a citizen who suffered both a disabling injury as well as financial loss from her inability to work, not because of the TSA rules inasmuch as her loss was caused by TSA employees not following the established rules which do not bar unmarked bottles.

If she has the stomach for it, I would like to see her join with like minded legal counsel to file a lawsuit against the government, first asking for the TSA's protection against liability be waived in this case (failure to follow established procedures is willful negligence), and permitting the suit to move forward against both the government and the individual employees she interacted with.

I think a valid case can be made to strip individual government workers of their insulation from liability claims while on the job, when their failure to follow procedures can be shown to be negligent and results in damage to a citizen. A successful change to the law from this case would certainly put a chill on the TSA workforce as well as other agents of the government who think their insulation from liability gives them carte blanche to abuse the citizens they report to.