Woman denied heart meds on plane

STONEY CREEK, Ont.—The family of an 87-year-old diabetic great-grandmother says she is the latest victim of new, tighter security regulations at airports.

Hetwig Strohmeier is supposed to take heart medication every four hours, but had to go almost 12 hours without it after the drugs were confiscated Friday by screening officers at Pearson airport, said her son Helmut Strohmeier.

"What did they think were in the pill bottles with my mother's name on them — dynamite?" said an irate Helmut Strohmeier, who is demanding answers from the Greater Toronto Airport Authority.

The woman, who does not speak English, has had four angioplasty procedures, bypass surgery and a double-hip and shoulder replacement. She had just wrapped up a 10-week visit with her son in Stoney Creek and was on her way home to her native Germany.

It is one of the more extreme incidents as a result of new security measures introduced after British police busted a suspected terrorist plot on Aug. 10.

Canadian Air Transport Security Authority spokeswoman Irene Marcheterre said she had no report of the incident but acknowledged one would have been generated only if a complaint had been made.

Although his mother was in "bad shape" when she got home Saturday morning, she was well enough yesterday to visit her husband's grave, said Helmut Strohmeier.

CANADIAN PRESS

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1156716608869&call_pageid=968256289824&col=968342212737