What is it like going through TSA - airport security - as an amputee, with a prosthetic leg? I definitely had a lot of questions going into it. This has been my personal experience!
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Fourteen years of pain and failed ankle surgeries brought me to 2018, when I made the difficult decision to become a twenty-seven-year-old below-the-knee elective amputee. This channel is to document my journey of amputation surgery, recovery, and reclaiming my life.
MY PROSTHETIC LEG: I use the Ossur ProFlex XC Torsion foot/ankle with a direct socket with passive vaccum suction.
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Hello, my beautiful, talented, intelligent internet friends.
I am Jo, and I would like to welcome you back
to our first and only installment of airport security.
This past week, I flew down to Las Vegas, Nevada
with my husband and two of our very best friends
just for a couple quick days,
which means that I went through airport security
on the way down there and both on the way back.
And I had a lot of questions about airport security
as an amputee, as a person with a now visible disability
before I ever took a trip.
And I've gone on a couple now to have enough experience
to kind of talk about what usually happens,
but I wanted to share that with you guys today.
And my friend Aaron from Life of Paulos,
who we traveled with, was kind enough to think
to take some video as all of this was happening.
So I actually have some visual aid to show you.
Before we launch into this video,
if you felt like it, only if you felt like it,
if you would like to hit the like button on this video,
it helps to get out to more people.
It helps with YouTube engagement.
It helps the channel, and I would appreciate it,
but there's no pressure to do so.
So going through TSA, going through flight security,
at least here in the United States,
I think for a lot of people we see it as a hassle,
but it's a very necessary one.
I mean, obviously they're trying their best to keep us safe.
And prior to losing my leg, all I ever thought to do
was take my shoes off, throw my stuff in the bins,
and I'm pretty much good to go.
There was one situation in which they thought
there was some kind of weird substance on my hands,
and so I got detained for a while.
That was a fun experience,
which actually ended up being medications
that I was legally taking.
So I was obviously let go immediately,
but aside from that, it's always been smooth sailing.
However, since my amputation,
since I've been with a prosthetic leg,
things have changed a little bit, and not in a negative way,
just in a way that I think is necessary to be aware of
if you're going to be traveling with
significant mobility aids,
or if you're traveling as an amputee through an airport.
I wanna preface this by saying
that this has just been my experience.
This isn't gonna be everybody's experience,
and I will post some links down below
to some actual official information from airport security,
from TSA, that gives you a little bit more background
on what I'm talking about.
I wondered what would happen
would they tell me to take my leg off
the first time I was wearing my leg
and going through security?
Could they do that?
The answer is no, because it's technically,
the device is a part of you.
If you're wearing a prosthesis,
they can't ask you to like rip your leg off, right?
At least that's what I've been told,
much like they can't ask someone
who's in a wheelchair to stand up.
But along with that,
obviously are gonna come some additional precautions.
Aside from my return trip from Las Vegas
back to Colorado Springs,
every single time I've gone through security,
I have been fully searched,
the feeling you up kind of searched.
And I think that this is something
that's very important to be aware of
if you are someone who has experienced
any kind of trauma in your life, as I have.
It's something that I am comfortable enough with now,
professional people doing in a professional setting.
But if it's not something you're expecting,
you're just going about your day,
you're going on your travels,
and all of a sudden someone's feeling you up
in very private places in front of people,
that's weird, that's uncomfortable.
So my experience has been that the vast majority of the time
they will actually search you.
They will fully search your body,
it's not a strip search,
but that's oftentimes in front of people
and that can make it extra uncomfortable.
As you can see here,
there are like tons of people walking by
and it's just me being felt up everywhere,
which is not my favorite experience, I'll just say that.
Something to be aware of with that
is that you can request that they do this in private
if that's something that you're more comfortable with.
Now, me personally, I would be less comfortable with that
because I don't wanna be alone
with someone who's touching me.
Anyways, long story short,
this is a real possibility
if you are an amputee going through security
and you are wearing a prosthetic.
On top of that, they're also going to test you
for chemicals or anything like that.
It's basically these little pads
that they rub on your fingers
and then they also, for me,
will rub that on my prosthetic leg.
They'll run it through a machine,
it'll wait like 30 seconds and it'll give you a pass fail
and thankfully I've passed every time,
I don't have any dangerous chemicals
or anything that's alarming on my body
or residue of anything,
that's what they're basically testing for.
The one time that I went through
that they didn't fully search me,
they still did that,
they still tested my prosthetic leg,
they still wiped it down with this thing,
it's not wet, it's like a dry just pad
that somehow picks up what they need to pick up on
and tested my hands.
Going to the airport,
I always like to budget just a little bit of extra time.
There have been times where I've had
to go through the airport in a wheelchair
as well as wearing my prosthetic
when I was having a really bad day
and that took even longer to be searched,
sitting down with a prosthetic in a wheelchair.
They were very respectful about it
but it just, it takes a few extra minutes, right?
It's extra minutes out of their day,
it's extra minutes out of your day
and it's hard to do that while being stressed
and running late for anything,
so if you can, I would highly recommend
that you budget extra minutes
when you're getting to the airport.
Side note as well,
I feel like a lot of people know about this
but not everyone because this wasn't something
that I was aware of,
you can request a wheelchair when you're in an airport.
Some airports, depending on the size,
are really, really big and require a lot of walking,
like the main airport that I will often fly out of,
Denver International Airport,
is huge and requires a lot of walking
and someone will actually bring you
from location to location
but if that is the case,
you do wanna call ahead for that
because most of the time in my experience,
they don't just give you the chair and let you go with it,
or let someone you're traveling with push you,
they actually have someone assigned
to transfer you from location to location
and that's part of the protocol that they have.
That may not always be the case
but that has always been the case when I have been there.
Another thing with security,
if you have a prosthetic foot,
you'll know that it's not the easiest thing in the world
to take on and off your shoes.
Sometimes that requires a lot of muscle work
and a shoe horn and it's just difficult
so trying to pop off your shoes in airport security
to get them in the conveyor belt thing
to go through the security machine
to then pop them back on real quick
and get to your flight isn't gonna work.
You can absolutely let that security person know,
hey, I have a prosthetic leg,
I'm not gonna be able to take my shoes off
for medical reasons,
leave it at that
and then they'll do the appropriate measures
like testing like I talked about
and they'll let you know what they need to do
but you do not have to take your shoes off
if there is a medical reason
that you are not gonna be able to do that
and they'll walk you through that.
As a whole, I found that both US
and the one international airport that I traveled to
which was Dublin International Airport
have been really mobility friendly.
They've been very accessible,
they've been very understanding.
It is really uncomfortable to have to go through
additional security screening measures sometimes
but I do my best to kind of just play it cool
and realize that it's part of the process
and realize that they are doing their job
and not at all give them a hard time about it
because it's literally protocol,
it's what they have to do to do their jobs as well.
They probably don't wanna be pulling me aside
and basically feeling me up
in front of a bunch of people either
because that's not super comfortable.
So it's not a comfortable experience all around.
I think it's something that's important
to be mentally prepared
for the possibility of happening
but it's something that takes a few minutes
and then you're good to go.
In every experience I've ever had,
they are not invasive, they are as respectful as possible.
They should tell you exactly what they're gonna do,
they should explain it beforehand.
If they don't do that, ask them to do that,
that's what they should be doing
and hopefully you have positive experiences
getting through airport security as an amputee
or with whatever you are dealing with
as I primarily have as well.
So I'm curious if you've had these experiences,
if you had good experiences or bad experiences
getting through airport security,
if you have any tips and tricks,
please leave them in the comment section down below.
I'll reply, we'll try to share information
and then get more info out to more people.
I think education is always good
and knowing what to expect really helps me alleviate anxiety
and so I wanna be able to share
as much of that information as possible.
So comment down below any questions or stories that you have.
Thank you to my patrons for making these videos possible.
I truly, truly, truly appreciate you and all you do for me.
If you're interested in what Patreon is
or what you get for that
or what that community looks like,
I'll put a link up on screen
and I would love it if you'd consider checking it out.
Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day
to spend them here with me, hanging out,
learning about being an amputee in airport security.
I know most people watching this channel
actually aren't amputees.
I think it's really cool that you wanna learn
a little bit more about life as an amputee,
especially if you aren't one.
So thanks for listening.
I love you guys, I'm thinking about you
and I'll see you in the next video.
Bye guys.
♪ Child I start to sing ♪
♪ Have heard from the sky all about it ♪
♪ Down the river high tide flows around it ♪
♪ Through the whispers of pines I hear them sing ♪
♪ The more you love the more you live ♪
