A mother is left facing an agonising wait after her little boy caught his hand on a syringe, believed to have been used to inject drugs, while playing out in Colne.
Kirstie-Jo Ormerod (29) has been left terrified since her child Addisyn Denton (7) found the needle at the back of Burnley Road at around 4pm on Saturday.
Primet Primary School pupil Addisyn was rushed to Burnley General Hospital’s Urgent Care Centre following the shocking incident.
And according to his mum, he has had to go through blood tests, have a hepatitis B vaccine, and because of his asthma and a hole in his heart had to be put on a course of antibiotics. He now faces further vaccines and tests, which will continue into next year.
The mum-of-five, who works at McDonald’s, said: “When he showed me the needle, panic just set in.
“I have a friend on Facebook who is a nurse in Blackburn, so I messaged her a picture of the needle. She rang the hospital for me, and they said I had to take him in so I went to the Urgent Care Centre in Burnley.
“They looked at the needle and inside it was brown residue, so they could only presume it was a used drugs needle.
“I feel terrified. This is so much to go through, when this person who dropped the needle could have taken it somewhere and got rid of it safely.
“Because this person didn’t do that, my seven-year-old boy has to go through a year of tests and waiting. He could have HIV for all I know.”
Now Miss Ormerod wants to urge other parents to tell their children of the dangers of picking up syringes and needles, to prevent them going through a similar ordeal. She also hopes to raise awareness in Colne schools in the near future, and will continue sharing her story via social media.
The Burnley Road resident, who is going to ensure the incident is reported to the police, added: “A lot of children will have been told about road safety and talking to strangers, but they may not have been told about dirty needles, because you don’t expect to find them. People need to tell children about them, and teach them, and schools need to do something as well.
“Addisyn’s dad Leigh Denton is as worried as I am, and we both are going to do what we can to make people more aware because it’s happening far too often.”
She has now starteed an e-petition to have barcodes on all syringes so that they can be traced back to the person they were issued to.
To Support that e-petition visit http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/70467
Philip Mousdale, Pendle Council’s deputy chief executive, has also spoken out, telling the Colne Times: “We take the health and safety of our residents very seriously. If anyone sees a discarded needle we would urge them to contact us immediately so that we can arrange to remove it as soon as possible.
“Needle collections are treated as a high priority and will be dealt with quickly, usually within one hour during office hours, and within two hours out of office hours.”
To contact Pendle Council’s Contact Centre call 661661 or out-of-hours call emergency number 661999.