TSA Continues Assault on American's With Disabilities

TSA agent 'squeezed' my urostomy bag, got urine all over me: 62-year-old cancer survivor

By Corky Siemaszko
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thomas Sawyer, who survived bladder cancern, says a TSA officer was too rough on his urostomy bag and caused his urine to spill on to him.

A bladder cancer survivor says he was left drenched by his own urine after he was manhandled by an arrogant airport screener at the Detroit Metro Airport.

Even more galling for 62-year-old Thomas Sawyer is that it's the second time in less than a year that this has happened to him - and he's not settling for another apology from the Transportation Security Administration.

"I thought that I had really made a difference for people flying with urostomies, I really did," the Michigan man told the Detroit Free Press. "I'm angry this time. They can't be training them properly."

Sawyer, who lost his bladder to cancer, said he was bound for Orlando and heading through security on July 14 when a screener disregarded his warning that he had a urostomy bag beneath his untucked shirt - and dislodged the lid.

"He said, 'Yeah, I know,' and he patted me down," Sawyer said. "He was rough and he squeezed the bag a couple of times. The young kid was anything but gentle, and he didn't ask me if I wanted to be screened privately."

The same thing happened to Sawyer last November, causing a national outcry and prompting a personal apology from TSA honcho John Pistole.

The TSA later flew Sawyer to Washington in March to speak to feds about insensitive screeners.

The agency, which requires security workers to offer passengers with disabilities or medical conditions private screenings, said it was investigating Sawyer's newest claim.