Copyright 1999 P.G. Publishing Co.
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
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May 23, 1999, Sunday, FIVE STAR EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL, Pg. B-6
LENGTH: 563 words
HEADLINE:
NURSE WHO GOT HIV FROM NEEDLE CRUSADES FOR HEALTH-WORKER SAFETY
BYLINE: JUDY PACKER-TURSMAN, POST-GAZETTE WASHINGTON
BUREAU
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
Lynda Arnold was 22 and had been a
nurse in a Pennsylvania hospital for four months when a needle she was injecting
a patient with punctured her glove, leaving a J-shaped tear in her left palm.
Six months later, she learned that she had contracted the HIV infection that
causes AIDS.
She also contracted a burning passion to change laws to
protect health-care workers from preventable on-the-job needle
sticks that can infect them with HIV, hepatitis and other
life-threatening illnesses. Her crusade is gaining momentum both on Capitol Hill
and in Pennsylvania, Ohio, California and more than a dozen other states
nationwide
"More and more nurses are coming forward with their stories.
I just think that's what it takes. People used to say, ' You're the only one,' "
said Arnold, 30, who lives in Norristown, Montgomery County.
"Health-care workers have been dying for a very long time" from
needle-stick infections, Arnold said, and action is past due.
"Support
from [President Clinton] is long overdue when health-care workers are dying
needlessly because they don't have the safest equipment."
Arnold
single-handedly took on the issue in 1996 and started a national campaign for
safe needles. Then she found support from the Service Employees International
Union, which represents 600,000 health-care workers, the American Nurses
Association and the congressional office of Rep. Fortney Stark, D-Calif.
Arnold wants needles with safety sheaths or needles that automatically
retract after use. She now works as a sales representative for a safety-needle
manufacturer and concedes that such high-tech needles cost around 50 cents
apiece, while a standard one costs a few cents.
But she and others argue
that an employer would come out ahead by preventing costlier injuries to workers
and avoiding potential lawsuits.
Enlisting the support of Rep. Marge
Roukema, R-N.J., Stark reintroduced a "safe needle" bill Thursday that is
modeled after the California law that will go into effect in August.
Stark's bill would amend the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration's "blood-borne patho-gens" standard to require that employers use
"sharps" - including needles, scalpels and lancets - with engineered safety
mechanisms to prevent the spread of infection.
An aide said Stark's bill
would permit exceptions, "because the technology is not right for every
situation."
For example, regular needles could be used if the new ones
would interfere with the success of a medical procedure or with patient safety.
"It seems to me that it's a basic workers' rights, safety-on-the-job
issue," said Ohio state Sen. Dan Brady, a Democrat from Cleveland, who plans to
introduce a bill in his state's Legislature in the next few weeks requiring
public hospitals to use safer needles for their employees.
Rep. Dennis
O' Brien, R-Philadelphia, expects to offer a safe needle bill in Pennsylvania's
Legislature within two weeks as well.
Arnold is watching developments
from afar these days, having stepped away from the limelight of her crusade to
have a baby. Michael, born May 4, is taking the drug AZT for four more weeks as
a precaution, but Arnold said his risk of infection was small.
Arnold's 2-year-old adopted daughter, whose mother had AIDS, got a clean
bill of health at 15 months; her 4-year-old adopted son has had no HIV exposure.
LOAD-DATE: May 25, 1999 
