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SEATTLE (Reuters) - A 9-year-old girl will need to undergo periodic testing for exposure to HIV and hepatitis after being accidentally jabbed in the foot with a used hypodermic needle left in her bed in a Washington state hotel room, her mother said on Thursday.
Police in Aberdeen, a city about 100 miles southwest of Seattle, said they are treating the incident at the Guest House Inn and Suite in that town as a medical case, not a criminal investigation, because it would be impossible to determine to whom the disposable syringe belonged.
Angie Smith of Edgewood, Washington, said her daughter, Emily Johnson, was pierced in her right heel by the needle, which was attached to a disposable syringe stained with dried blood, on June 1 while the family was visiting Aberdeen for a girls' softball tournament.
Her daughter described the needle prick as feeling like a bee sting, Smith said.
The syringe was lodged between the mattress and mattress pad on the girl's bunk bed in the hotel room. A plastic baggie and a second syringe were found nearby, Smith said.
Emily's family said they took her to a hospital that night and also called police.
"The police were in and out pretty quickly," Smith said. "They just weren't that concerned."
Smith said her family had consulted an attorney about the incident, she said.
Aberdeen police spokesman Captain John Green said his agency did not test the syringes, and that the hospital where the girl was taken disposed of them. He also said he could not confirm that the minute quantity of liquid in the syringe was blood.
"There's no crime to investigate," Green said. "Syringes aren't illegal and the hotel had no idea how long the syringes had been there. ... They could be from diabetics, they could be from drug users. We have no idea."
The girl has since undergone blood tests for the AIDS virus and hepatitis, and the results were negative. However, doctors have advised the family that she should continue to be screened for blood-borne infections on a periodic basis, her mother said.
An official from the hospital where the girl was taken could not be reached for comment.
Angel Housden, the manager at the Guest House Inn and Suite, said she had apologized to the family, but she found it strange when the family declined an offer to change the two rooms they had booked for two nights.
Smith said the room where the needle was found was cleaned at the family's request and they did not change rooms, although they continued to avoid the bunk beds where the syringe had turned up.
The hotel initially offered to waive a single room charge for the first night's stay but rescinded the offer after the family insisted on getting both rooms free for both nights.
"They ended up staying both nights and wanted both rooms comped," she said. "When they realized they didn't get their stay free and they also wanted the adjacent room free as well, they did get very angry and start verbally attacking my front desk."
(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Bill Trott)
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