TSA required cancer-stricken 95-year-old West Michigan woman to remove adult diaper | MLive.com

A 95-year-old Barry County woman's ordeal with airport screening -- where a relative says security agents required her adult diaper be removed -- has become the latest in a string of national stories on frustrations with TSA procedures. (See video, below.)

Lena Reppert, a native of Barry County, was flying from Florida to move home to the Hastings area, where she's living with relatives who are caring for her, said her daughter, Jean Weber of Destin, Fla.

Instead of a getting a special goodbye moment with her cancer-stricken mother, Weber said the June 18 security check turned in a tearful ordeal because of the lengthy pat down by Transportation Security Administration agents.

View full sizeCourtesy photo/ Jean WeberLena Reppert, shown on a 2010 trip to New Orleans, has leukemia and her health has declined in the last year, said her daughter, Jean Weber.

"She was subjected to 45 minutes of searching, and I didn't think that should happen," Weber said this morning from her home in Destin.

She said TSA agents told her she had to remove her mother's adult diaper because they couldn't complete the screening. She said her mother has chronic lymphocytic leukemia and her health has declined significantly in the last year.

When Weber later complained to TSA, supervisors told her security procedures were followed properly and respectfully.

"I just felt like I was not satisfied with the answer i got from TSA. Then they need to change the procedures," Weber said. "If this is the way it's handled, it needs to be changed."

Weber wrote a letter to the editor to her local newspaper, which eventually led to coverage on CNN, AOL Travel, Huffington Post and other media.

"I understand following procedure," she said, noting her father was a police officer. "Certain things have to happen. But if my mother at 95 in a wheelchair causes extraordinary measures, it's a waste of the government's time and money."

"I believe in my country, but this TSA thing has gone too far," she said.

The TSA's response to Weber's complaint: "While every person and item must be screened before entering the secure boarding area, TSA works with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner. We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure."

via mlive.com