Airport Screening

Anybody know if the new body scanners (like the millimeter wave scanners at O'Hare) are safe for pacemaker patients?? I looked at the TSA website but couldn't find any info on precautions or contraindications.
Thanks.
-- Jenn

4 Comments

hi jenn

by jessie - 2008-07-21 10:07:05

as far as i know the wand in all airports has magnets. this is what i was told. i always tell them i have a p.m. and would like a hand search. you can either go to a private room or be searched right there. i just get searched right there. i hope this is of some help and others can add info as well. happy travelling. jess

don't know the names

by Tracey_E - 2008-07-21 11:07:10

I don't know what they're called but the machines that burst air on you are fine, won't hurt the pm and you won't make it go off.

The regular metal detectors, TSA will tell you not to go through it because it's not safe. Most new pm's are shielded and it's perfectly safe to go through it, but odds are good you'll set it off.

Wands don't work on us, we make them beep! I don't know if it's safe or not but they just beep so there's no reason to let them use one on you. Pat down is the only way to get through the airport most of the time. Before 9/11 it was hit or miss if I'd set it off or not. I quit trying now because I've set it off every time I've tried to walk through the last few years. And given the TSA dudes a heart attack because they really really do not want pm's walking through the metal detectors LOL

Big Traveller

by dward - 2008-07-22 11:07:14

I travel... a lot.
Been through security screenings in Chicago, Detroit, Denver, LA, Vancouver, Trornto, Calgary, Montreal, etc.
I have a Dual Lead Medtronics PM (implanted a year and a half ago).

NONE of the scanners have given me a problem -AND- I think I have only set two off, which may have been the machines themselves (before my PM, the odd one would go off then too.)

When (if) they DO go off, I just show them my MEDIC ALERT and they do a hand search. It's NO BIG DEAL at all.
Of course, if you wnat them to do a hand search and avoid the walk-through machine, you can tell them you have a PM and need to be manually searched. I did that for the first three months and when I told my PM Tech, she said the scanner shouldn;t be a problem... So I tried it on my next trip (which was through Chicago!) and had no problem.



Jenn

by nana - 2008-07-22 12:07:01

We went to Georgia last May. We flew out of DFW into Atlanta and flew back from Atlanta to DFW. I told them I had PM and they just did a hand search. They asked if I wanted to go to a private place or have it done there. I just had it done there. They asked me if I had ever had a hand search before and when I told them no, they started to explain what it was. I told me I knew – I work at the Police Department and have done many of them!

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Member Quotes

A pacemaker completely solved my problem. In fact, it was implanted just 7 weeks ago and I ran a race today, placed first in my age group.