HOW NECESSARY WAS THIS Really. They thought he had a bomb implant

Posted on 08/24/2016 | About Minnesota

Last weekend nine-year old Chille Bergstrom and his family were to travel home to Minnesota from Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport. He has a pacemaker, because of which his family is required to always request alternative screening as he cannot go through metal detectors – but this time the TSA refused.

Chille, who was born with Godlen Hars Syndrome, has undergone 15 open-heart surgeries but still has four heart defects and needs to have a pacemaker to survive.
His mother Ali Bergstrom, of Wyoming, said she showed authorities the documentation proving Chille needs the alternative screening but was told they would need to request an exemption, which they did not.
Not only was the alternative screening process denied, but Chille was then surrounded by armed police and agents, who told his mother they have stopped terrorists using children with pacemakers.
The family were held up for more than an hour before being told they couldn't fly.
Bergstrom wrote on Facebook that her son had told TSA agents, “I don't want an exemption, I want to go through an alternate screening like I always do.”
“He sat on my lap, crying for an hour, as we were surrounded by 18 TSA and police and were actually told by the TSA that 'some terrorist plots use children with pacemakers'.”
“With all the years that we've been flying this has never happened,” said Bergstrom.
“Usually, they are friendly, they smile, they give him a sticker, a TSA sticker.”
“One of the TSA agents told me they'd prevented terrorist attacks using nine-year-old boys with pacemakers and children before, so I laughed and said, 'Oh when?'
“At that point, the TSA agent became very quiet and said, 'Oh we're not at liberty to discuss this.’”
She said that the whole experience was discriminatory and dehumanizing – and that no one has contacted her to apologize