Copyright 1999 Boston Herald Inc.
The Boston Herald
April 7, 1999 Wednesday ALL EDITIONS
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 022
LENGTH: 276 words
HEADLINE:
Nurse touts safe disposal of needles
BYLINE: By Azell
Murphy Cavaan
BODY:
At first, Karen Daley, a
registered nurse for 25 years, forced herself to ignore the prick she felt as
she pushed a hypodermic needle into a disposal box at Brigham and Women's
Hospital.
"I didn't want to think about what the consequences could
mean," said Daley, who contracted the AIDS virus and hepatitis C from the
needle-stick injury in July. "But now, here I am dealing with
the worst consequences that could have resulted."
Yesterday, Daley
testified before the Joint Health Care Committee in favor of legislation
requiring the best needle-stick injury prevention technology be used in
Massachusetts.
Sponsored by registered nurse and state Rep. Christine
Canavan (D-Brockton), the measure would make the work environment safer for
health care specialists who use and dispose of hypodermic needles.
"I
can't describe to you how that one moment - the moment I reached my gloved hand
into a needle box to dispose the needle I had used to draw blood - has
drastically changed my life," said Daley, who is president of the Massachusetts
Nursing Association.
"This injury didn't occur because I wasn't
observing universal precautions . . . This injury and the life-altering
consequences I am now suffering should not have happened."
Health-care
workers suffer 600,000 injuries from needles each year, according to Evelyn
Bain, associate director of the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
"The
good news is that products to prevent these injuries exist and are in use in
many hospitals across the country," Bain said.
"We are now presented
with another opportunity for legislators to speak out about the value . . . of
worker protection."
LOAD-DATE: April 07, 1999
