whether you decide to take a legal action or not, I think you should talk to
some reporters about it.

You may have never been asked for it before, but there is always that change that you'll need it. Considering the seriousness and nature of your health condition, wouldn't it make more sense to just have that card handy whenever going through a security check point?? That would seem like the most responsible thing to do.

However, don't take my post as any way of supporting what the TSA did in this situation.

Lawsuit? Forget it.

I would contact ORD management, perhaps the American Medical Association, and last but not least, the ground security coordinator for your airline at ORD.

Don't bother with the e-mail or TSA 800 number stuff, they're only there to read boilerplate statements.

The sad part about that is that because the OP didn't have his card in hand the media spin would likely be that it was all his fault. Such is the case when the sheep flock has the idea that these types of things only happen to those who do something wrong... and as long as they don't do anything wrong it couldn't possibly happen to them.

There is a notice from the FDA about problems like this. Its a real issue - metal detectors have relatively large electromagnets in them and they can easily effect the control circuitry of implantable medical devices. This is one of those situations where millimeter radar might be better.

http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/safety/easnote.html

Keep in mind here folks - when someone with a hand wand approaches a pacemaker implanted patient, and activates the wand near their chest, they can kill them. No harm done here, but these TSA jokers will end up getting someone killed if they ignore it when someone says they have a pacemaker. Most acts of TSA incompetence are just annoying, frankly. This one is much more serious. Still not actionable, I suspect - maybe the FA will take the case pro bono?

This is arguably an assault. If you would have been so inclined you could have gotten a cop and made a report.

As a practical matter, this would take a whole lot of time and you would have missed your flight, and you probably would have had to escalate past the beat cop on the scene to get someone to take a report.

Report both of the wingnuts to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation for practicing medicine without a license.

Ignoring a request/notice/information provided by OP and doing something
that could potentially be fatal shouldn't be taken lightly. Whether the OP
had the ID or not, his request not to use a metal detector should not have
been ignored.

Seems like it would be a fairly simple matter to implant the explosives disguised as a pacemaker (or even a prosthetic hip joint). Over the ocean, the martyr turns on a GameBoy modified to emit a coded detonation signal, and boom.

You've got to be kidding me.

If a TSO takes it upon himself/herself to decide whether a person
needs a pacemaker or not.. without a medical license... I think he/she
deserves a closer look.

I have a defibrillator and I can tell you that strong magnets can interfere with the functioning of them and pacemakers. It is important that we avoid strong electric or magnetic fields. That includes airport security wands (we are all given cards to show and and are told to request a hand search).

Forget the attorney, but I would be sending out a big fat stack of mail to other sources regarding the incident.

Oh good Lord, here we go again! . I think you really need to ease up on that paranoia!

OP! As Less stated, please prepare a letter for the airport director, the chair of the aviation commission, the TSA FSD and GSC for your airline. Please PM me if you need to any guidance or assistance.

This is an assault which could have had dire consequences and these screeners need to be terminated. Yes, I mean terminated.

Thank you to those of you who responded appropriately. I appreciate all the input. Since I'm an on-air meteorologist I don't think I want to draw any media attention to myself, but I will be drafting the appropriate letters w/in the next couple of days. I also want to be clear that I loathe the fact that we have become a litigation-happy nation, the only reason I even considered legal procedures was for safety reasons. This guy could kill someone, seriously.

Again, thanks for all the input.

n198ua

I am absolutely not kidding. I have transported 2-year old children with both implanted pacemakers and implanted defibrillators before. It is not the place of any non-physician personnel to determine who is or is not the correct age to have one of these devices. The appropriate agency to report such an incident to is the State Board of Medical Examiners, or whichever board licenses physicians in any given state (I researched and provided a direct link to IL since the OP said the incident occurred at ORD). Maybe if TSA gets a couple of these incidents reported, it will help with the medically-challenged getting through with a minimum of stupidity hassles like the one described by the OP.