“NEW YORK (CBS 2) — A toddler’s life may be at risk following a trip to the doctor’s office.Three-year-old Hailey Rodriguez is suffering through a medical nightmare. Her mom took her to Montefiore Medical Center to get treatment for a rash earlier this month.

While her mom was speaking with the doctor, Hailey reached inside an open, unsecured medical waste bin sitting on the floor and pricked herself with a dirty needle.

“She had blood on her stomach and blood on her hand, and I asked her what happened, and she walked me over to the bin,” said Nadia Maklad, Hailey’s mother. “She doesn’t want to eat, she can’t play, she doesn’t want to be around her friends, because they all think she’s contagious.”

Hailey is now on a cocktail of medication used to treat HIV.

The other worry is Hepatitis.

For the next six months, Hailey will continue taking the medication to see if any tests come back positive.”

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/10/23/child-pricks-herself-on-dirty-needle-in-hospital/

A frightening experience for the child and her parents. 6 months HIV medication is unusual – the norm is a much shorter high dose regimen but this may be changed for such a young child. Side effects of treatment are common and often severe. The additional anxiety symptoms, for the entire family group, can be debilitating.

Placing the sharps bin on the floor is an obvious issue, and almost universally this is considered to be wrong. It can create a trip hazard, may spill the content if kicked, and can be a magnet for children crawling around the floor while the adults are distracted.

Of course, the same can happen when sharps bins are stored at desk- or bench-height. Where children are or might be present, for example in the children’s ward or paediatric outpatient department, but also in the GP and dentist surgery, A&E etc, then the placement of sharps bins must be considered with care, balancing accessibility for sharps users to assist in safe disposal with inaccessibility for tiny hands.

Routine use of the temporary closure of sharps bins may help prevent access by children but I believe that the unacceptably increase the risk to users. Indeed, I think they should never be used, since opening and closing these temporary covers places fingers far too close to the content and in itself risks a sharps injury.