How Many Miles Before Experience Sets In?

A grandmother put her 1-month old grandchild through an x-ray machine at the Los Angeles International Airport. Maybe she was the only person standing in line at the x-ray machine so that no one else saw her do this and could warn airport personnel they were about to zap an infant with x-rays. Still, how does something like that happen and no one notices?

But the rest of the article is equally as interesting.

Paul Haney, deputy executive director of airports and security for Los Angeles' airport agency ~~ and what a title that dude has! ~~ says that this was an innocent mistake by an inexperienced traveler. Uh huh. So, does that mean the grandmother thought babies routinely get put through the x-ray screening device? Because if that's the case and others make it, perhaps there should be some kind of warning sign about not subjecting people to the x-ray process. Except that the only other instance of this kind of thing Haney cited occurred in 1988 when some other mental giant put an infant in a car seat through the x-ray machine.

But going by Haney's logic, I'm curious how many frequent flyer miles this grandmother has to log before she may be considered an experienced traveler and thus her grandchild is safe.

The article noted that the baby was taken to the local hospital where doctors determined that he did not receive a dangerous dose of medication.

Okay, I want to know how that was determined. And I also want to know how reliable that determination is. Will those doctors sign a notarized statement guaranteeing that this child will not grow up to be sterile?

Bet they won't. Bet they'll even consider that suggestion foolish. After all, who could possibly determine such a thing so many years in the future?

Which is true. But then what's also true is that it's downright stupid to be able to ascertain that this child has received no long term damage by such exposure. Which has never stopped anyone from making ridiculous statements which will take years to prove. Experts said TMI posed no serious health threat when it occurred, and just because Jimmy Carter is still up and around and able to take nourishment does not negate the fact that many people died in the TMI area from various cancers.

Nothing can be done about this incident now, but if that child were mine? The woman calling herself Grandma would never ever come within 5 miles of my child ever again. And I don't care if she logs millions of frequent flyer miles and gets a certified sheepskin from Paul Haney to prove it.