The family of a 95-year-old woman who's battling cancer is outraged after she was patted down by TSA agents and had to remover her adult diaper. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
The TSA has been taking a lot of heat recently over what some people see as heavy-handed security measures at the nation's airports.
The latest controversial case is a 95-year-old woman suffering from leukemia who was forced to undergo a patdown search. Now the family of the elderly woman is hitting out at the way she was treated.
Jean Weber says the ordeal started when she tried to take her mother Lena Reppert, through security in a wheelchair at an airport near Pensacola, Florida.
"I didn't feel like I was still in America," said Weber. "This triggers a patdown, which I did not know. They don't wand people anymore, they just bring them back to a room and they started bending her over and patting her all over."
Weber says the adult diaper her mom was wearing raised a red flag with TSA agents
"They told me they could not clear her to go through to the airplane with that Depends on," said Weber.
She says she had no choice but to take her mom to a bathroom to remove the diaper.
"I was very distraught and I did start crying, and I told them my mother's very ill, please can't we get through this as quickly as possible," said Weber.
She says she was so upset she wrote a letter to the airport.
INSIDE EDITION viewers are responding to the case with outrage on our Facebook page.
"The indignity that poor woman must have suffered," wrote one viewer.
"Shame on them," wrote another viewer.
Another viewer wrote: "It's disgusting!"
The case comes on the heels of those controversial incidents where TSA officials patted down a 6-year-old girl at the New Orleans airport, and then a 3-year-old girl at the Chattanooga airport.
The TSA has since relaxed its rules on frisking children.
But in the case of the 95-year-old leukemia patient, the TSA says, "We have determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure."
Weber said, "Your procedures need to be changed."
