Breast cancer awareness in spotlight after airport screening incident

(CBS/AP) Breast cancer awareness may not be a top priority with airport screeners, if a recent incident is any indication.

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A breast cancer survivor says she was subjected to a humiliating patdown at New York York City's Kennedy Airport - even though she offered to produce documentation about her prosthetic implants.

Lori Dorn, a business consultant, said in a blog that the patdown added "insult to injury and caused me a great deal of humiliation."

Dorn was on the way to San Francisco last week when a full-body scanner detected her prostheses. Dorn said she explained that she had recently undergone bilateral mastectomy and had tissue expanders implanted for future breast reconstruction. A Transportation Security Administration agent refused to let her retrieve from her wallet documentation "that explains the type of expanders, serial numbers and my doctor's information," she said.

"I had no choice but to allow an agent to touch my breasts in front of other passengers," Dorn said.

In a tweet on her Twitter account Monday, Dorn said she received an apology from a JFK official "who agreed that proper policy wasn't followed."

In its own blog, the TSA said it regretted the incident: "We do our best to treat passengers with the dignity and respect they deserve, but in Lori Dorn's case, it looks like we missed our mark."

The TSA said the security director at JFK has reached out to Dorn to learn more about what happened.

The agency said medical cards "are a great way for passengers to discreetly let us know about a medical situation or disability," and in Dorn's case TSA agents should have "been more empathetic to her situation."

It added that private screenings can be requested by anyone for any reason.

The agency said it recently rolled out a training course focused on screening prosthetics. Training is expected to be completed across the country in over a year.

Dorn said that while she understood the need for safety, airport security agents needed to show compassion and sensitivity.

Scans and patdowns expanded after a 2009 case in which a man tried to bring down an airliner with a bomb sewn into his underwear, the New York Daily News reported.