Syringe find shock

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
A SIX-year-old Lilydale boy was put at risk of a needle-stick injury after he found a used syringe in the MCG toilets.
The boy was with his parents and older brother at the Collingwood-Hawthorn match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday 28 August.
His mother, Kylie Lewis, said her husband had taken their son to the toilet, did a quick check of the cubicle and held the door closed for him.
“The syringe was placed up inside the toilet roll holder.
“When he pulled the toilet paper out it fell out onto the floor,” she said.
Mrs Lewis said the needle was capped but her son had picked it up and given it to his father. “We were both shocked that he actually picked it up because we have said to him to never touch those sorts of things,” she said.
“We’re just a little bit disappointed that whoever it was, was careful enough to recap the thing, but was still lazy enough to shove it in a place where someone else had to find it.”
Mrs Lewis said her son was “terribly shocked” after the incident.
“He didn’t realise why mummy and daddy were so upset.
“We had another conversation with him later on when we got home and we went through the whole scenario again,” she said.
“We asked him ‘Did it prick you? Did it scratch you? If it did, we have to take you to the hospital and get a blood test done.’ He was quite rattled himself.”
Mrs Lewis said as a community health worker she was more concerned that the “family-friendly venue” did not have a yellow sharps container.
“My husband couldn’t see a sharps container to dispose of the needle. My understanding is that in a public toilet there should be those facilities available and they should be clearly signed,” she said.
The City of Melbourne has about 400 syringe disposal containers, located across the municipality including in all public toilets, to ensure that needles and syringes are disposed of safely.
Mrs Lewis said she wrote to the Melbourne Cricket Club, the organisation in charge of the MCG, to ask why there were no sharps disposal containers supplied in the toilets.
After bringing up the problem with Eddie McGuire and the Triple M Hot Breakfast team two days after the game, who also looked into the matter, an MCC spokesperson told producers that sharps containers presently only exist in the players’ change rooms where doctors carry out their duties.
“However, the containers are not located in each public toilet block at the MCG. Incidents such as those that occurred on Saturday may lead to a review of this situation in the future,” the spokesman said.
For information, advice on needle-stick injuries or disposal of needles, contact the Victorian Syringe Disposal Helpline on 1800 552 355.