TBD

Ive recently injured my knee and have a few stitches. Naturally, this happened a few days before I will fly. I'm honestly worried about the TSA.

I don't plan on going through the scanner. I know they usually ask if there are any sensitive areas before the pat down, but how well do they actually pay attention to those areas? I'll be wearing long pants to save everyone from having to see the wound (and it will likely be bandaged up), but I can just imagine the TSO patting my leg with their usual tender care and causing me some pain.

I'm certain I'm not the first to be in this type of situation. Any advice?

Thanks!

Often1

Should be a non-issue. Can't tell you how many people travel post-surgery and with other sensitive / painful spots.

If you choose to opt out and therefore subject yourself to secondary, just tell the Officer. If the Officer needs to pat that area, TSA can provide a private area.

Give yourself extra time and this will be a total non-issue.

chollie

Personally, I'd wear shorts, at least through the checkpoint, ask for a supervisor before the grope, and perhaps be prepared to pull back the dressing in front of the supervisor before the grope.

You may be OK or your knee may receive extra attention because you're using the same excuse ('sensitive area') that a bad guy would use to avoid attention to something concealed.

Depending how sensitive it is, consider calling the TSA 'hotline', the one that promises to be able to help co-ordinate your checkpoint passage with an onsite CSM. That may be your best bet to ensure a decent experience. This is a relatively new 'service' that TSA started to try to reduce embarrassing TV spots about handicapped or injured folks getting harassed at the checkpoints. I suppose the idea is that rather than try to train all the gropers, it's better to train one or two and have them on-call as needed. Problem is, apparently they sit in an office all day unless a pax pre-arranges (I think they need 24-48 hours notice) their assistance. It won't do you any good to ask for one after you are at the checkpoint.

Caradoc

They pay very close attention to those areas, poking people until they wince or cry out.

They may also demand that you remove a wound dressing so that they can visually inspect the wound.

Personally, if I'd had any sort of recent surgery, I wouldn't travel at all if it's avoidable.

Of course, I don't do *any* traveling that is avoidable if it involves passing through a checkpoint staffed by clowns in blue cop costumes.

exbayern

I've had a number of incidents like that, although here I have been told 'it didn't happen', 'you must have done something to deserve that', that we 'delight' in telling people worst case scenarios, etc etc.

My advice as someone who regularly flies with physical issues (and who flew 2-3x a week through US airports until recently) is to hope for the best, but plan for the worst. It depends entirely on the airport, the screener, and some complex calculation of time of day, month, weather, and what colour shirt you are wearing (or so it would seem) There are bullies at many airports; ORD, LAS, EWR, SAT, MCO, FLL, SEA are some which come to mind as having some screeners who seem to relish causing pain. And those were mostly female screeners.

Having said that, there are also a few higher level types who do have some empathy, and I met those at MCI, EWR and a few other airports after negative experiences. And there are also compassionate screeners; a few have been very careful, and one or two even ran to get a supervisor when their own colleagues were behaving inappropriately.

Best of luck, and hopefully everything will work smoothly for you, but don't rely on the word of a few posters here who try and negate the incidents which some of have reported. (Also know that there are fewer reports in part because some posters cannot be bothered to share their experiences if they are regularly told that they are overdramatic, not telling the truth, embellishing, or otherwise providing inaccurate information)

T.J. Bender

I'll echo those experiences. Every time I've told a TSO about sensitive areas (and no, I don't always just say, "my groin" to be difficult), there's been extra attention given to that area, including firmer, more aggressive pat-downs and extra passes over the area at an increased pressure than normal.

I'm to the point that if I am selected for a random full-body pat after leaving MMW (or if I opt out of BKSX) and have a sensitive area, I've started asking for a LEO to witness the activity in a public area, then informing the LEO of my sensitive area and state that the reason they're present is so that I have a credible witness to assault if the TSO causes my extreme discomfort or pain due to overly aggressive touching of the area.

I know I've got maybe a turtle's chance on a freeway of successfully pressing charges and wouldn't waste my time trying, but the threat alone (and I have yet to have a true LEO challenge me on it) is usually enough to make them play nice.

TBD

My goodness. I suppose that is worth a shot, but how horrible that we are at such a point.

chollie

Or, as I posted above, you can try to plan ahead and co-ordinate with TSA to provide an onsite CSM to facilitate your experience through the checkpoint.

I am only aware of one posted incident of such a situation, although it was before the TSA 'hotline' and it did not involve physically sensitive areas.

Stacey Amato was a mother who encountered a lot of problems at PHX when she asked to have her breast milk screened according to an alternative procedure documented on the TSA website. Lots of media attention, partially erased tapes, but when the dust settled, she was assured that the TSOs had been re-trained and there would be no retaliation or recurrence. That was not true.

However, she finally got the assistance of what I believe was a TSA CSM. That individual accompanied her to the checkpoint. She (again) requested alternate screening for her breast milk and was denied. The TSO insisted the milk had to be x-rayed and only backed down when the CSM stepped forward, identified herself and made it clear that the alternative screening procedure was valid and would be followed.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I've had knee surgery (ortho), declared my sensitive area and ended up with hours of ache because of the extra attention it received. I will never declare a sensitive area again.

JoeBas

My dad went through after knee replacement surgery, in shorts, and received high attention to the area.

He ended up yelling at Gropey Smurf "They're Stitches, they don't unzip!"

chollie

In the last couple years, I've had the bad luck to fly twice after recent minor surgery..

In both instances, I removed the dressing. I'm an involuntary medical opt-out - I get the full grope/swab/bag search every time, so I knew there was a high probability of an unpleasant experience.

First time, my throat was literally slit. Badly swollen, oozy, stitches. I removed the dressing because I was having enough at home - just looking in the mirror made me want to vomit. I knew if the groper touched it at the checkpoint, I almost certainly would vomit. Sadly, my fear was more about retaliation if I did vomit than about pain and contamination. I had to put a new dressing on in the bathroom (ugh) because I needed a mirror. Good news: the groper was able to 'visually' clear my slit and stitched throat without touching it. Still got the hands in the neckline, but I stripped to a tank top before the checkpoint (in December).

The second was swollen, black-and-blue, 13 stitches. I removed the bloody dressing while the groper was changing gloves. I forgot that the groper would want to take the dressing and run it through the x-ray (procedure). I said 'keep it', I wasn't going to put it back on, I was going to have to put a new dressing on in the bathroom (ugh!) afterwards. There was a lot of consultation before surgery because it was right over a major nerve, much pain afterwards. The only pain pills strong enough to make a dent in the pain were percocet, and I certainly wasn't going to travel under the influence of a drug like that. Again, I was lucky. The groper fortunately didn't feel a need to press down on my wound to make sure I hadn't implanted a detonat*r or something nefarious.

It was pretty gross in both cases, and I saw people staring at me (heck, I didn't want to look at myself!), but it was better than risking a groper pressing down on the wounds to see if there was something concealed in the dressing.

littlesheep

Seriously? They put infected bloody material on the same place everyone puts their stuff? This is so crazy from any angle you look at it, but this point caught my eye.

Caradoc

Why not? They use the restroom wearing their blue gloves and go back to groping passengers without changing them...

T.J. Bender

And that's the part where I call for a three-striper and very loudly inquire (as in, shouting loudly) why the TSO placed bloody bandages on the same belt that we're expected to put our personal belongings on. Or even worse, why they placed them inside of a bin that is expected to hold our laptops and medical liquids.

chollie

Hang on, now.

It was a bit bloody - stitches leaked for several days, the doctor says that's normal. It most certainly wasn't 'infected' or I would not have been flying.

And I want to be abundantly clear here: I have read (and believe) accounts of pax who have been told to remove adult diapers, etc. This did not happen to me. I voluntarily took the dressings off in both instances as soon as I got directed to the NoS because I knew that the full grope was going to probably involve pressure in painful places. I was worried about broken stitches, and I was even more worried, in the second case, that I would lose it and throw up if the TSO pressed too hard on my throat. It was my choice to remove my dressings instead of having them painfully groped.

I understand why they have to run it through the x-ray - you're not allowed to have anything in your hands during the grope, and once I removed it, it was no different to them than if I had kept a wad of money in my hand - it all has to be x-rayed.

The alternative was to leave it in place and have the TSO press hard on it to make sure there was nothing nasty concealed in it (this was a slightly bulky dressing, not just a bandaid). I just forgot it would play out that way when I took it off. I wanted to keep it in place as long as possible; I certainly had no intentions of putting it back on -eeew. I considered myself very fortunate that in both instances the TSOs seemed kind of grossed out and didn't feel the need to physically pat my wound to clear it.

Believe me, I've had much worse experiences. Of course, it would have been really great if I'd been allowed to use the WTMD - I never alarm it - but I seem to be one of the lucky ones who always gets selected for the NoS, and no matter how much they threaten or challenge, I am still physically incapable of assuming and holding the position.

I suspect the same thing would happen if I wore an eyepatch - I'm sure if I went through the NoS or opted out (voluntarily or involuntarily), the TSO would have to see under it and it would have to be x-rayed separately to make sure there's nothing hidden inside.

littlesheep

I don't. This whole thing is crazy to the nth degree. What the **** are they doing pressing on your neck? Your injured neck? Your swollen injured stitched neck?

But what do I know - I didn't graduate from TSA school.