Toddler may face death sentence after she's accidentally pricked with dirty needles on floor of New York hospital
By Daily Mail Reporter
24th October 2010
A three-year-old girl may be facing a death sentence after she was accidentally pricked with dirty needles on the floor of a New York hospital.
Hailey Rodriguez is now being given a cocktail of powerful drugs to prevent HIV and hepatitis after the horrifying incident at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.
Her family will have to endure an unimaginable six-month wait before they know if she has contracted the deadly virus that causes Aids.
The little girl - who just turned three on Monday - was taken in to the hospital by her mother for a minor skin rash on October 7.
Nadia Maklad told reporters that she was talking to a doctor in the examination room when she heard her daughter cry out.
'I asked her what happened. She lifted up her dress, her stomach was bleeding and her hand was bleeding,' Ms Maklad said.
'She pointed to a bin: it was a red bio hazard bin on the floor. The top wasn't securely on,' the mother told CNN.
'The opening where you put the needles was broken. The bin was full of uncapped dirty needles.'
Hailey was immediately whisked to the emergency room - but the damage had been done.
Now she is on AZT medication - a drug that is usually used to prevent the transmission of HIV from a pregnant woman to her baby.
AZT, sold under the names Retrovir and Retrovis, does not destroy HIV but slows the rate of infection.
Side effects include nausea, headaches, anaemia and bone marrow suppression.
Hailey has also been asked to come for follow-up appointments at the same facility where she was hurt.
'She’s scared of needles now, she doesn’t even want to go to the doctor anymore,' Ms Maklad said.
The drugs are making her tiny daughter violently ill, she said. '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.'
She added: 'She went in for one thing and came out worse. How could this happen?'
Hailey will have to be on the regime for at least six months - the time it takes for HIV to begin to show in tests, according to reports.
Ms Maklad's lawyer Susan Karten said the 26-year-old mother will likely sue the hospital.
'How this could happen at an institution like Montefiore is beyond me,' she said.
'This should have never been on the floor. These are the kinds of boxes that should be on the wall... The cover was not secure, number one; the box was on the floor, number two; and the area where the needle is supposed to be secured and put in – so nobody can put their hand in – was broken.'
We've been consulting with the family regarding the incident, and working with them to see that appropriate care is provided,' said Montefiore spokesman Steven Osborne.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z13HTHpOgq
