Airports

[Maryanne29]

We've just got back from a holiday in Mallorca. On the way out the security staff couldn't have been more helpful or courteous about me taking my pump through without going through the scanner. Lovely people. But the way home it was a totally different story. I asked if they spoke English as my Spanish is not up to explanations about my pump. The lady said she did so I explained my difficulty very simply and she became aggressive, would not let me release the tubing by a few inches to enable me to hold the pump in my hand as she seemed to want to do. She just continued shouting in Spanish and attempting to make me do what she wanted. She didn't seem to understand me at all and did not want to look at the letter from my hospital which might have helped her to understand.
Anyway I got through eventually. I've never met anyone so I'll informed before - on the way out I was told they see quite a lot of pumps and all these people must be returning home so perhaps non UK airport staff need some training.
But.. we had a fabulous holiday despite this on the way home. 🙂

 

[HOBIE]

People ! Ignorance springs to mind 🙂 Pleased you had good holi

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Simple solution is to complain about your experience and ask that the staff be educated regarding pumps.

 

[bill hopkinson]

I travel as much as I can afford to and have built up a list of places where they create problems for my CPAP machine (mask and pressure to keep me breathing during the night).
Spain/Gran Canaria is top of the problems, elsewhere in Europe no problems.
Swan through most of Asia, including smaller airports in China, though Hanoi was tricky.
In Los Angeles I had to take everything out of the bag, and someone seemed to want me to take the machine apart until a supervisor intervened.

Looking forward to a mime of what the machine is for when I go to Myanmar in December...

 

[Sally71]

I thought we were going to have a bit of an argument on the way out to our holiday, I could see a body scanner and the security chap was trying to tell me that it's perfectly safe for electrical items, only emits the same radiation as a mobile phone, and the guy in it at the moment is wearing a heart pacemaker and he's fine. Well this may be so, but I've been told by everybody who knows anything about insulin pumps that they should NOT go through a body scanner. (Well unless you take the battery out perhaps, but I didn't want to go to all that faff if it wasn't necessary, on the Combo it's slightly more complicated than just whipping the back off and removing it!)

So I got out DSN’s letter and might have been starting to sound slightly hysterical but said I've been told it's not ok, without even reading the letter the chap then fetched his boss who was happy to carry the pump around the scanner to do her swab test.

On the way back (Italy) we didn't even mention that we'd got a pump, and it didn't even set off the alarm on the metal detector gate, so they were completely unaware!

Interestingly, at both ends the only thing they were interested in in the bags was the Frio with the insulin inside, I guess that looks a bit funny on the scanner with whatever gel stuff is in it plus vials of liquid inside! But as soon as they saw it and I started to explain what it was they weren't interested any more and didn't even want to look inside.

Sorry to hear that you had a tough time in Spain, remind me never to go there on my holidays 😱

 

[Redkite]

We had a similar issue at Menorca airport years ago - very unfriendly and unhelpful staff on the security screening. Makes it all very stressful!

 

[heasandford]

The Accuchek website does state that it is safe to go through a body scanner -

Travel Preparations
When travelling abroad, be sure to carry your doctor’s certificate with you at all times, stating that it is necessary for you to wear an insulin pump. This will avoid any unpleasant surprises, e.g. at customs. To avoid any awkward situations during a body search, explain to the security personnel what the insulin pump is before you are padded down. You are safe to enter a body scanner. It is not advisable to detach your pump and place in an x-ray machine. You may wish contact the airline prior to travel for the most up to date information.

I have been through with mine several times and I started to be a bit scared after reading this post. I

t is really horrid when people don't listen to your concerns, whatever they might think. I have been very lucky, and as previously reported, the far-eastern airports seem a lot more reasonable

Hope it never happens to you again

 

[Redkite]

Its safe to go through the archway, but not the full body scanners that some airports have, nor through the x-ray conveyer belt. That's would the Medtronic reps told us.

 

[Sally71]

It was a Roche techy person who told me that as a last resort it should be ok to go through the body scanner with the battery removed, but not with the pump "live". Any other electronic devices can be switched off and are then safe, but of course insulin pumps don't have off switches. So that's interesting heasandford if you've got that info from Accu Chek/Roche, they are contradicting themselves! So if even they can't be sure I think I'd still rather play it safe and not go through at all!

 

[G3m]

I see where you are coming from, when I was in America I was not allowed to touch any of my bags and had to have a full body search. I understand that there are procedures that they have to follow but I thought a letter would be enough.

I agree with you though they should have more training.