Dying woman was asked to lift bandages before flight to Hawaii
Michelle Dunaj, of Roseville, Mich., poses for a photo, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012, at the home of friends in Bonney Lake, Wash. Dunaj, who is dying of leukemia, was making what she expects will be the last trip of her life on Oct. 2, 2012, as she departed for Hawaii through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Dunaj says she received a full public pat-down in the TSA security line and had to lift her shirt and pull back bandages so agents could get a good look at tubes used for feeding and medicine. Dunaj hopes her embarrassing experience will change the way the Transportation Security Administration treats travelers with medical conditions. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
SEATTLE » A leukemia patient making what she calls an “end-of-life” trip to Hawaii says she was embarrassed by security agents at the Seattle airport who refused her request for a private pat-down and made her lift her shirt and pull back her bandages..
But in a statement, TSA Northwest Region spokeswoman Lorie Dankers says the agency reviewed video from the security checkpoint where Michelle Dunaj was checked and determined that “screening procedures were followed.”
Dunaj says the encounter came as she was departing Seattle on Oct. 2 on what she called an “end of life” trip to Hawaii. She says she had to lift her shirt and pull back bandages in the security line and that an agent punctured a saline bag she was carrying. TSA says “at no point did a TSA officer open the passenger’s medically necessary fluids and the passenger was never asked to remove or pull off any bandages.”
Dunaj did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the TSA’s response.
