Airport Security

I'm taking my first flight tomorrow morning since getting my ICD in November.

Can I go through the regular walk-through security screening? Do I alert them to the fact I have an ICD first, and show my card? Or is it better to just ask for a hand search right off the bat and avoid all the hubbub?

Melissa

6 Comments

airport security

by dottodot - 2010-02-04 09:02:22

I have a pacemaker not with an ICD and when I travel I tell them and show my card. They don't want you to go through the walk through screening. They will direct you how to go.

what Pookie said

by Tracey_E - 2010-02-04 09:02:38

Pookie handles it exactly like I do! Just tell them asap and get a pat down and be on my way.

Some airports have new digital imaging machines. They are safe for us to walk through. Metal detectors are usually safe but we will set them off. Wands are not safe for us, they can't get it anywhere near our devices.

Have a good trip!

airport security

by Pookie - 2010-02-04 09:02:43

This is what I do, but keep in mind that every airport is different...I just tell the first person I see in the security section that I have a device (pacemaker) and they send me thru the short line where the pilots go through (bonus!!!) and then they ask me if I want my pat down right there or would I prefer it in an office....I just get them to do it right there and I'm on my way faster than the other people stuck in those long line ups!!!!!!!

Don't walk thru any screening machine no matter what anyone tells you. And don't let anyone "wand" you either. Better safe than sorry, right?

Enjoy your flight.

Pookie

Yep

by ppt - 2010-02-05 11:02:16

Same as Pookie. First person in security that I see I show my card, get hand patted down and get zoomed right through! Piece of cake!!

Not anymore

by ccmoore - 2010-02-05 11:02:41

When I was a newbie, I would tell them. The people that I was traveling with always made it through faster then I.

So recently I haven't been telling them and just go through the metal detectors. I have been through security in Sacramento, Hawaii and Pittsburgh and haven't set off a metal detector yet. I figure if I do set one off I'll just dumb it up and say "Jesh I forgot, I have a pacemaker" about then the full body cavity search will start.

To each his own.

Later,
Charlie

dont worry about it

by dwelch - 2010-02-06 01:02:28


I have been through security many many times with a pacemaker. Through the machines and not.

First off the machine will not hurt your pacer. Like most things you find with a warning maybe one of the really early pacers one time had a problem and legal has to forever after post a warning. Those pacers have long since run out of battery and been replaced. Smitty has had enough pacers to probably have one or two of them.

Each airport is different, and even the same airport changes, certainly in the last 10 years. Most of them these days have you walk between the scanners into that area with the chairs where they normally wand you, for us we get the pat down. Keep an eye out for the signs, there are airports where you get to skip the line and go straight into the little room or go through the special line. Either way tell the first TSA, second, and every TSA person that you have a pacemaker and they will give you instructions.

if they take you into the little room, you will have one person an man for men and a woman for women do the actual pat down. You will hear them announce, male search or female search and you may have to wait for someone to become available. They will want to send your stuff through the xray normally a second person takes the bin or bins through the machine and brings it right back to the little room, make sure they dont leave your stuff at the end of the xray machine for the normal folks to steal. The pat down aint no thing, in private or in public. Just follow the TSA inspectors instructions and it will go real smooth. Stand with your arms out, arms down, sit down, leg up, leg down, leg up, leg down, done.

Despite it not hurting your device, they do not like it if you dont tell them. They wont arrest you or anything, just get upset if not panic that they have hurt you. I was like Charlie and now at 22 years with a pacer sometimes you just get tired of it and just go through the machine, overseas, at least 20 years ago, I had to go through the machine first THEN try to explain to them what I had and why I kept setting the thing off. I did set it of here in Pittsburgh or maybe on the way home, then went to get wanded and at first the TSA person was surprised when the wand got a big hit, then I said I have a pacemaker then got a fearful then turned to a stern you should tell us that, we are not supposed to wand you, etc. Not sure if I have made it through a machine without it setting it off.

I did buy one of the airport security hide and seek tshirts from medtees, I have not had the nerve to wear it through airport security though. I think joking with the TSA is now a federal crime so i dont recommend it.

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