Heathrow Security with a pacemaker
 

In a couple of months I will be travelling through Heathrow security for the first time with a pacemaker. The suggestion I have say about showing someone my pacemaker ID card and not going through the scanner.These instructions are kind of vague.
I was hoping to hear from anyone who has actual experience at Heathrow and what to expect.
Thanks in advance for any information you have.

I cannot speak from personal experience but...

If you have a pacemaker, stoma bag, insulin pump, or any other medical device, let security staff know when you arrive at security. They handle these situations regularly and will make sure the process is straightforward.

For a pacemaker, I believe they will probably not put you through the arch, but do a pat down/use the hand held scanner and avoid your chest. But, i think lhr has mostly move away from the arches and you do the empty pockets and stand with your arms outstretched it may have changed.

corporate-wage-slave anything to add?

Covered on the LHR webisite

https://www.heathrow.com/at-the-airp...eparture-guide

If you have a medical device (e.g. pacemaker, stoma bag, insulin pump) let a security manager know when you arrive and explain if there's anything they need to be aware of.

Historical experience would say that Heathrow can struggle with anything even slightly out of the ordinary that requires manual intervention. If you got to the stage of needing a manual search, not with a wand but fully by hand, then you might want to leave a fair bit of extra time for them to find someone to undertake it - I certainly wouldn't trust Heathrow to make it a smooth experience that's done and dusted in a few minutes. Hopefully the new scanners have improved this, but certainly when my trouser band was apparently too dense for the machines recently because it turned over with no belt present they went for an extensive hand search rather than wand the area. I would have thought it easier just to tell me what the problem was and put me back through, which would have been a lot quicker and less resource-intensive, but that wasn't the process.

They should treat you with dignity during the search, so you shouldn't have any concerns about that - it's purely the time taken to find the resource. Hopefully someone will come along with some direct recent experience of your issue, which would be much more illuminating.

My brother has a pacemaker (with defib) but hasn't travelled through Heathrow. His experiences at other UK airports (Luton, Stanstead) have been unremarkable - they're fine with it and he doesn't experience much in the way of delay. I should ask him if the new scanners are any different to the old archway type.