ID card helps travelers with medical devices

— -- Passing through airport security was so humiliating for breast cancer survivor Electra Paskett that she dreaded traveling.

Paskett, 55, wears a prosthesis that sets off Transportation Security Administration's alarms, requiring her to explain her circumstances to guards within earshot of other passengers and to undergo a pat-down. The loss of privacy has become routine for thousands of travelers with medical devices and implants since Sept. 11, 2001.

"After surviving cancer, that's the last thing anyone should have to face," says Paskett, a cancer researcher at Ohio State University who travels frequently for work. "We're treated like terrorists without consideration for the fight we'd had against cancer."

Now, she has found a solution that restores some of her dignity. She carries a special card to inform TSA guards of the location of her prosthesis. "I don't have to say it out loud anymore in front of other people," she says. "I'm more at ease."

The TSA developed a card last year that can be downloaded, but Paskett found it to be "cold and kind of ugly," she says. She teamed up on a design with Vera Garofalo, manager of Hope's Boutique, a shop at Ohio State 's James Cancer Hospital that sells clothing for people with cancer.

They did a mass printing of their breast prosthesis ID card and have been giving it out this fall. It's the size of a business card and carries the Hope's Boutique logo on one side. On the other is a sketch where carriers can circle left, right or bilateral to show where the prosthesis is located.

The card, Paskett says, "alleviates some of the anxiety for cancer survivors and might make the guards more sympathetic."

Some orthopedic surgeons give out ID cards to patients who've had joint replacements, but Tom McGill at joint-id.com goes one step farther. He adds an X-ray replica of the replacement to the back of his cards.

TSA spokesman J. Kawika Riley says the TSA worked with 70 disability and medical needs groups when the agency developed its card .

"TSA works to treat all passengers with respect and courtesy, and medical notification cards can be a helpful and discrete way to inform our officers of any special considerations," Riley says.

Paskett disagrees, saying the guards need sensitivity training.

"I had to go through the body scanner again," she says. "When they see the prosthesis on the scanner, they pull me over, pat me down and also check my hands for chemical residue. I've also seen them wand their own hands after they've patted down my prosthesis."

Last November, Thomas Sawyer, a bladder cancer survivor , was soaked in his own urine when a TSA guard "patted down" his urostomy bag and broke the seal. TSA chief John Pistole called him to apologize, but in July, Sawyer, 62, had a similar pat-down even though Sawyer asked for a private one.

"Private screenings can be a hassle," Paskett says. "They tell you, OK, but you'll have to wait for a second female guard to go into the screening area with you. Who can wait?"

Paskett's worst fear? "Some women have had to remove their prosthesis and run them through security," she says.

"At least that hasn't happened to me. I would be mortified."