Pacemaker / defibrillator
 

Hi our friend will be traveling alone from lax to jfk and he recently has a pacemaker / diffibulator implant. His doctor said he can fly. We read he has to show his medical card and he is ok with a pat down. Will he be allowed to keep his carry on with him so no one steals it? Thank you

While I don't have any implanted medical devices, every once in a while I have been subjected to random extra security screening. When that happened, I have always requested to keep my carry-on bags where I can see them during such screening. I have never been refused such a request.

thank you

I've had a Pacemaker for over 30 years. Initially I showed my card & asked for a patdown. But in recent years, I just go through like normal with no issues. HOWEVER - lately I've noticed signs that say to inform TSA agent if you have a PM. If you do, they put you through the other scanner where you hold hands overhead for 3 seconds, then do a brief body scan.

Funny story though - last week flying out of JFK, shockingly there was no wait at Precheck line. THe Agent waved through several people in front of me, but then when it was my turn to go thru the detector she said "Do you have a pacemaker or other impanted device?" WHY ME! I said "Do I look that old & frail?" We laughed together, and then she told me that she recently had a 10 year old go thru with a pacemaker. BUT it sure did make me feel old!

That is exactly what they do to my friend. The odd part is we went thru 5 airports LAX, JFK, Chicago, vegas and not once did they check his pacemaker ID.
One TSA agent at LAX did tell him can not go thru a certain imaging machine. But that their sis OK for pacemakers. So each airport did not check the ID, but did make him o thru the imager and than a pat down. I am not sure if you do a pat down why you need to go thru the imager??????

I sometimes travel with a family member who has a pacemaker.

They just walk over to the whole body scanner (where you put your hands over your head) and go through there. If the scanner is closed, a TSA agent will come over and open it for them to use. No need to show any type of id card. A pretty simple process, but my relative does have to have further screening with a wand or pat down of a specific area about 1/3 of the time. They don't seem to mind. I guess it is better than having something possibly cause problems with their pacemaker.

As to their carry on, they would have the same visibility of it as they would if they were in the regular line, with the exception of the few seconds when they are actually being scanned in the machine.