A Kurri Kurri girl faces an agonising wait after she stepped on a discarded needle in Deakin Street last weekend.
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Hayley Brown, 13, now has to go through testing for HIV and hepatitis, and will wait months for the results.
She had gone for an afternoon walk on Sunday, March 20 when the incident occurred.
She was talking to a friend on the footpath near the corner of Burns Street, when she stepped into the gutter and onto the needle.
Hayley was wearing ballet flat-style shoes, but the needle poked through the side and into her foot.
“I thought it was a bee, but then I saw the needle sticking out,” she said.
Hayley pulled the needle out of her foot and took it straight home.
“She came into me holding it with tears in her eyes,” her mother Loretta London said.
Ms London put the needle in a container and took it and Hayley to the hospital.
“Now it’s just a matter of waiting to see what shows up in her blood,” Ms London said.
“It’s horrible – a lot of kids use that path walking to school, I wouldn’t want to see anybody else go through what we now have to go through.”
The needle was found near an unoccupied boarded-up house. The property is fenced-off, but Ms London said she has seen people in there on a number of occasions.
“I don’t care what people do, but they should take their mess with them,” she said.
“I shouldn’t have to lock my kids up because I’m afraid of them stepping on a needle.”
Safe sharps disposal units are available at hospitals and some pharmacies. If you find a needle, call the Needle Clean-Up Hotline on 1800 633 353 (1800 NEEDLE).
