Needle stick injury!

**stellarella** · 08-12-2007 07:48

A good friend of mines son stepped on a used syringe yesterday. She is obviously terrified of what might be.
Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this and what were the results for HIV/Hep B & C/Tetanus etc?

What was the process you went through and how long until test results came back?

**punkbaby** · 08-12-2007 08:01

DD9s freind had this happen in the school ground 12 months ago

Naturally she was terrified too. She had to get a blood test at the time and a tetenus shot, 1 month later she had to have another blood test and continue till 3 months after the injury where a definate answer could be given on any infection or diseases. They also tested the needle itself. The poor thing contracted Heb B and now its controlled with meds. I know having this is better than HIV but still sad to think about it.

I hope your friends sons ok

**stellarella** · 08-12-2007 08:11

Gosh thats awful for your daughters friend. How terrible.
Apparently HIV can only survive on the needle for like 5 seconds so its unlikely he has contracted it, but Hep B and C are a worry.

He is only 1.

**punkbaby** · 08-12-2007 08:16

Thats horrible i wish they would get rid of these horrible things and dispose of them properly, poor thing

They can test the needle itself does she have that? I know that when they found it was HepB positive, they told her there was a 50 /50 chance they would get infected so sometimes this can make you worry too much specially if you get a negative result at the end. I really hope his ok

**mumstar** · 08-12-2007 08:33

that is so scary! i always get really worried when my kids play in the sand pits at parks and stuff that that would happen... i hope everything comes back fine for your friends son...

**stellarella** · 08-12-2007 08:43

Yeah I really hope he is ok too.

More reason to lobby for retractable syringes, injecting rooms and needle exchanges. I dont really care if drug addicts want to kill themselves, just get these needles out of the parks.

He was wearing Robeez shoes and the needle went straight through, jabbed him twice.

I dont think she thought to keep the needle, too stressed/shocked etc.

She was treated appallingly at the Royal Childrens Hospital too. They made her wait for 5 hours and she finally left as it was 11pm at night. She is having blood tests done today. They didnt even follow needle stick protocol and swab the area and cover it which she has since found out is what they should do. They offered her no sympathy, support or kindness. ********!

**ealing** · 08-12-2007 20:14

hi,

With any needle stick injury the usual way the blood samples get taken are a baseline reading at the time of the injury. 3 months later from the initial injury you get a further sample drawn and again at the 6 month mark. Then if needed, another sample drawn at the 12 month mark.

There is what they call a "window period" whereby viruses such as Hep B & C can live "undetected" in the body for 3 months so if you got injured today, blood tests may not reveal anything until the 3 month mark. If you had Hep B or C and were in that "window period" you may not even know that you had it before you had passed it on to another, I hope that makes sense. Hence the reason for so many blood tests.

The prevalence of Hep B is on the increase hence the need to vaccinate little babies in their first week of life as the course of vaccines for Heb B is 3 injections for it to become effective and booster shots available if the antibody levels are low in later years.

I have had a needle stick injury before at the hospital where i used to work in the intensive care unit. Fortunately we had the patient's bloods on record and all was ok after 6 months. Still, wasn't a good feeling knowing that there was someone else's blood running around in your system and you didn't know if it were infected or not.

It is a scary time and my heart goes out to you as knowing how I felt and how that impacted on my life for those few months, I can't imagine how scary it would be if it was my DD.

Hope that all goes well.

**Pixie** · 08-12-2007 20:33

Originally Posted by stellarella

Gosh thats awful for your daughters friend. How terrible.
Apparently HIV can only survive on the needle for like 5 seconds so its unlikely he has contracted it, but Hep B and C are a worry.

He is only 1.

Sorry to burst the bubble!

I worked in a
OR for 7 years it can survive up to a week

The chances of getting hepatitis are much higher.

I got a needle stick injury years ago in the hospital of course we had patient history but I still had to go through the process. it's like PB says.

Lets hope it was just used for insulin or something like that and had no other nasties on it.