Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials did not strip search a woman in Dallas or touch her feeding tube, according to the TSA, which was responding to an accusation leveled earlier this week by a man speaking on behalf of his wife.

“TSA does not conduct strip searches,” TSA Blogger Bob Burns wrote today. “The passenger, in a private room with a supervisor as a witness, patted down the area around her feeding tube, as required by our standard operating procedures. At no time did an Officer touch the feeding tube area. The TSO then swabbed the passenger’s hands and tested the swab for explosives. Contrary to what is being reported, the individual was not asked or required to remove her clothing at any time.”

John Deaton, of Texas, gave a very different account of his trip to Minnesota, where his wife was to receive treatment after complications pertaining to a recent surgery.

“They had physically stripped her and saw the tube coming out of her stomach, and they decided that they needed to check it for explosives, so they had to physically handle the tube,”  he said yesterday. “They put stuff on there that we don’t know what it is and identify. She has a weak immune system as part of her medical condition, and it can be very fatal to her.”