Woman Battling Cancer Violated By Attempted ‘Body Cavity Search In Public’ By TSA

A woman battling breast cancer said she was violated when TSA officers aggressively tried to perform “a body cavity search in public,” the Daily Mail is reporting.

Denise Albert, co-host of The Moms, a SiriusXM radio show, said that she told the airport agents about the medical cream in her bag, showed them the sores on her feet and even removed her wig, but they still went ahead to humiliate her.

The security agents called her aside and insisted on a full body search “with pressure.” Albert, also a morning show contributor for the radio, said the Sunday experience at the Los Angeles International Airport left her in tears. Denise made known that she was a frequent traveler and always notified TSA about the cream in her bag and medical port without complications. The 42-year-old said the agents also violated protocol by asking her to take off her shoes, leaving her bare feet in the frigid weather for over 20 minutes.

The radio co-host had asked to sit down because she did not want the sores on her feet in contact with the ground. Albert said she was eventually offered the option of a private search but said she could not walk there because she had no shoes. The 42-year-old said the agents had told her that during the search they would “apply pressure from head to toe,” even when she took off her wig to show that she indeed had cancer.

“I have never been so humiliated or felt more violated in my life. I went through the scanning machine at the airport without incident. I already told them about my metal port and my medical cream. I removed it from my bag for them to see and test as I have done on prior flights. I don’t know what was different this time but TSA agents aggressively attempted to do a body cavity search in public.”

Albert, who is the daughter of sportscaster Marv Albert, said a supervisor intervened and took her to a private room. The radio host said she understood that TSA had a job to protect citizens, but added that their two agents were out of line. Denise said they still searched her bags even though her luggage had gone through the scanning machine without incident. According to her, the humiliation continued when they also joked about her fake eyelashes and she told them bluntly it was because she had lost her real ones.

“It’s because I don’t have real ones from my cancer treatment. I would have thought at that point, the humiliation would have ended…I was crying…I was visibly shaken up. I couldn’t help it. I was in shock. I was humiliated.”

Media personality & @themoms cofounder Denise Albert released a video which she says shows TSA workers violating her https://t.co/KIjm4L9Olx pic.twitter.com/GkeCunoZf7

— Allison Gormly (@ChasingAllison) December 7, 2016

Albert filed a formal complaint before going public with her story. She said she was satisfied with the apology she received from the TSA with a promise to look into the incident. According to her, the agency said they would also review the training of their 3,000 employees with regard to people with medical issues and disabilities.

According to The Guardian, this is not the first time that the TSA would be generating controversy. In June, Hannah Cohen, a disabled teen and cancer patient, was injured in a violent arrest by agents at the Memphis international airport. The 18-year-old was on her way home after removing a brain tumor when she was wrestled from her wheelchair and bundled to the ground.

[Featured Image by Bastiaan Slabbers/iStockPhoto]