Disabled brain tumor patient is left bruised and bloodied after a violent scuffle with TSA agents at Memphis airport

  

By Associated Press and Kiri Blakeley For Dailymail.com

Hannah Cohen, 19, was returning from having her brain tumor treated at St. Jude's Children's Hospital when she set off a security alarm TSA agents wanted to search her more thoroughly but she was scared and disoriented. Her mother says the agents assaulted her daughter and is suing.

bloodied and terrified Hannah Cohen looks up at the camera after her mother and attorneys claim she was assaulted by TSA agents at the Memphis International Airport 

A disabled brain tumor patient got into a bloody scuffle with security workers at a Memphis International Airport checkpoint, a lawsuit alleges.

Hannah Cohen, 19, was flying home to Chattanooga on June 30, 2015, after receiving treatment at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.

Hannah Cohen has an impairment from radiation and removal of a brain tumor, and she is limited in her ability to talk, walk, stand, see and hear, say her attorneys.

But when an alarm went off as she and her mother were going through a security checkpoint operated by the Memphis International Airport Police Department and the Transportation Safety Administration, the teen became disoriented and afraid by the security workers' attempts to search her, the lawsuit says.

Cohen had nothing on her that should have set off the alarm, says her mother, but security wanted additional screening anyway.

'She was very reluctant,' Shirley Cohen told WREG. 'She didn't understand what they were about to do.'

The security personnel failed to recognize that she was confused because of her obvious disability and was unable to cooperate with the search,' Cohen's lawyers, Kelly Pearson and William Hardwick, wrote in the lawsuit.

Her mother, Shirley Cohen, said she tried to tell TSA agents about her daughter's disability, but she was kept away by police.

'She's trying to get away from them but in the next instant, one of them had her down on the ground and hit her head on the floor. There was blood everywhere,' said Shirley Cohen.

The lawsuit alleges the security personnel assaulted Hannah Cohen at the checkpoint, 'causing her physical and emotional injury as well as emotional injury' to her mother.

Hannah Cohen was arrested, but the charges were later dropped. 

The family filed a federal lawsuit against the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority and the TSA for damages that include pain, medical expenses, personal and emotional injury, and embarrassment.

The lawsuit alleges that the TSA and airport police discriminated against Cohen because of her disability and failed to provide reasonable accommodation for screening her.

 Disabled Teen Beaten Bloody by TSA Agents

By Rick Moran 

For sheer stupidity and incompetence, this incident involving the TSA and a disabled teenage girl suffering from brain cancer who was savagely thrown to the floor when she became confused about a metal detector going off, can't be beat.
Why these bullies weren't thrown in jail is a mystery.
Seventeen-year-old Hannah Cohen was preparing to fly from Memphis to her home in Chattanooga with her parents last year. Hannah was going home following her annual treatments at St. Jude hospital for brain cancer.

When she passed through the metal detectors, setting off an alarm, what happened next will make your blood boil.
Hit and Run:

Her years of treatment left the teenager partially deaf, blind in one eye, and limited in her abilities to walk and talk. She also, according to her mother, can become easily confused.When Hannah went through the metal detector at the airport, an alarm went off. Disoriented by the noise, she did not immediately cooperate with TSA agents who asked to conduct further screening.
Shirley Cohen tried to inform the agents about her daughter's disabilities, she told television station WREG, but airport police kept her away. That's when the situation between Hannah and the TSA officials became violent:

"She's trying to get away from them but in the next instant, one of them had her down on the ground and hit her head on the floor. There was blood everywhere," said [Shirley].

Security personnel arrested Hannah (though all charges against her were later dropped), and what should have been a night of celebration with family and friends because a night of terror and confusion in a jail cell.
A year later, the family is suing the airport, its police, and the TSA for damages, including medical expenses and emotional injuries. According to the lawsuit, they are asking for a "reasonable sum not exceeding $100,000 and costs."

Hannah has been traveling through the airport to St. Jude's Hospital for 17 years to treat a brain tumor but this time ended in a brawl 

Hannah's mom, Shirley, says her daughter was disoriented and frightened by TSA agents who didn't understand how to treat a woman with a disability