By Rebecca Ruiz, Senior editor, msnbc.com
The Transportation Security Administration has reached out to a mastectomy patient who claimed that a checkpoint screener at John F. Kennedy airport patted-down her chest after declining to review her medical information card.
Lori Dorn, a human resources consultant based in New York, blogged about the incident last week. Dorn, who was flying from New York to San Francisco on Sept. 29, wrote that she passed through a full-body scanner and was then asked to step aside to have her "breast area" examined.
"I explained to the agent that?I was a breast cancer patient and had a bilateral mastectomy in April and had tissue expanders put in to make way for reconstruction at a later date," Dorn wrote.
"I told her that I was not comfortable with having my breasts touched and?that I had a card in my wallet that explains the type of expanders, serial numbers and my doctor?s information?... and asked to retrieve it." According to Dorn, the agent denied her request. Dorn said she was not permitted to get the card from her belongings and was told that a pat-down would be necessary if she wanted to board her flight.
"I had no choice but to allow an agent to touch my breasts in front of other passengers," wrote Dorn.
In a statement issued from the TSA to msnbc.com, the agency said that the federal security director for JFK "... has personally reached out and phoned the passenger about her experience in hope of gaining a better understanding of what happened and to help ensure a smoother checkpoint experience for passengers in similar circumstances going forward.
"We strive to treat every passenger with dignity and respect. In this case, that may not have happened ... All passengers may request private secondary screening. While an initial review indicates that proper screening procedures were followed, we regret that this passenger did not have a positive experience."?
The agency said that it also works with breast cancer organizations in order to " ... continuously refine and enhance our procedures to improve the passenger experience while also ensuring the safety of the traveling public."
Dorn, who initially used Twitter to communicate with the TSA about the incident, has since posted updates about the case to her account. At 1 p.m. she wrote, "Just received apology from JFK GM who agreed proper policy wasn't followed & is retraining staff. cc: @TSABlogTeam."
Dorn has yet to reply to an inquiry from msnbc.com.
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Rebecca Ruiz is a senior editor at msnbc.com. Follow her on Twitter.
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