Two-year-old pricked by diabetes lancet at Wetherspoon pub

[DCUK NewsBot]

A toddler was pricked by a lancet from a diabetes testing kit in a Wetherspoon pub, a spokesman for the company has confirmed. Oscar Bate, aged two, is awaiting results in order to find out if he has been infected. Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon confirmed that it was a lancet used to test blood glucose levels that caused the incident. Mr Gershon apologised to the family. This is a tremendously unfortunate and most of all, preventable, situation. It is also an extremely rare occurrence. Sharp bins can be used at home to collect medicinal waste, but this isn’t the case outside the home. People with diabetes who use lancets and needles out and about often store used items in their belongings, for example among their blood glucose testing kits. Sometimes though, it may be possible for a lancet to fall out. This is of course unfortunate, and stories such Oscar's should reinforce the need for vigilance when storing used items. The incident also raises the issue of finger-prick testing now being an out-of-date way to measure blood glucose levels. New technologies such as continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) and devices such as the FreeStyle Libre are proving to be cheaper in the long-term and do not require any finger pricks for testing. Oscar's mother, Amy Bate, said Oscar found the lancet under a table at The Glass House in St Helens on 21 October. She then had him tested for hepatitis and HIV. The National Aids Trust has said there are no recorded cases of discarded needles leading to HIV. If you have diabetes and would like more information on storing medicinal waste when out and about, visit your GP.

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[bulkbiker]

Is one allowed to wonder what a 2 year old was doing in a pub? or does that just date me...

 

[Guzzler]

..... a two year old under a table in a pub? Yeah, I'm dated too.

 

[Deleted member 308541]

Oscar Bate, aged two, is awaiting results in order to find out if he has been infected.

With what...

This stinks of a compo complaint, some one is after a quick payout from Weatherspoon's.

 

[kitedoc]

I carry one of the small plastic containers which usually holds test strips and put sharps in that if I am away from home.
I can see how a lancet might accidentally fall out of a device but for it behoves all of us using lancets, needles to have some way to house them until we have access to a sharps bin. And to be wary of injecting close to crowds, people in general and children, pets in particular.. Mind you letting a 2 year old under the table at a pub is asking for trouble.

 

[Deleted member 308541]

I can see how a lancet might accidentally fall out of a device

I have not seen single use lancets / devices for a while in the pharmacy I go to, they are some thing from the Inquisition day.

Multiclix and Fastclix lancets just don't fall out, if the lancing device goes walkabout the lancets are shielded

 

[Pipp]

Anyone elsehad difficulty getting sharps bin?
Or had a tough job with local council collecting a sharps bin if you are able to get one?

 

[Pipp]

or for that matter getting CGM?

 

[ickihun]

Is one allowed to wonder what a 2 year old was doing in a pub? or does that just date me...

Yep!

 

[ickihun]

I carry one of the small plastic containers which usually holds test strips and put sharps in that if I am away from home.
I can see how a lancet might accidentally fall out of a device but for it behoves all of us using lancets, needles to have some way to house them until we have access to a sharps bin. And to be wary of injecting close to crowds, people in general and children, pets in particular.. Mind you letting a 2 year old under the table at a pub is asking for trouble.

2yr olds can still fit in Wetherspoons highchairs, provided free.
My toddler-like 5yr old tries to crawl under a dinner tablet there but he's soon told not to or caught just before he starts wriggling. Dinner or steak knives from previous dinners may lurk. Or Saturday night's broken glass fragment.

 

[DreadCaptRoberts]

or for that matter getting CGM?

I’ll ask today but have been fobbed off in the past.

 

[Diakat]

My daughter (about 4 at the time) once spotted a Lancet on the lookout floor in a restaurant - I'd not seen it, but she accused me of leaving my diabetes stuff there. Wasn't mine, it had a different design.

Can @newsbot edit the test above to please make clear diabetes is not infectious and that they are waiting for results for blood bourne infections diseases instead?

 

[tim2000s]

Now if one were particularly cynical about this, one would encourage the NHS to provide fingerprick free glucose testing for all those who need to test to save all the nation's pub dwelling two year olds.....

 

[Robinredbreast]

Unfortunately accidents happen, the lancet could of been accidentally knocked off the table, the person may of been interrupted and forgot about it, plus keeping a 2 year old under control by some parents, from what I see, doesn't seem to happen so much these days. If my child or grandchild went down on the floor or hid under table, you may expect some food or napkins, but not a sharp pricking device, so yes of course, the parents would be worried and seek medical help. Wetherspoons is a place to eat for all the family, not just a pub.

 

[Robinredbreast]

Remember at the end of the day this is 2 year old child, 24 months old and we don't know any of the medical history of the user of the lancet. I know of a man, a childhood friend of 2 of my children, who has had type 1 diabetes for decades and uses drugs all the time, some they know of and some they don't, tbh I don't know how he is still alive.

 

[KK123]

Good grief, they make it sound like it was a discarded drug syringe. I get that being pricked with anything that concerns blood may require a test for any blood related diseases an individual may have but how long before there is a wave of people clamouring to stop diabetics taking them out in public!

 

[JoKalsbeek]

With what...

This stinks of a compo complaint, some one is after a quick payout from Weatherspoon's.

Well, everyone knows "dibeetus" is contagious...

 

[barbherod]

To be perfectly fair the parents would not know that the user did not have an infectious disease as well as diabetes. No harm in playing safe.
I get a sharps bin on prescription which when full is collected by the pharmacist.
On the question of CGM v finger pricks, I understand that the DVLA does not recognise CGM readings but insists on "real" blood tests,

 

[KK123]

To be perfectly fair the parents would not know that the user did not have an infectious disease as well as diabetes. No harm in playing safe.
I get a sharps bin on prescription which when full is collected by the pharmacist.
On the question of CGM v finger pricks, I understand that the DVLA does not recognise CGM readings but insists on "real" blood tests,

Hi barbherod, I don't think any of us are blaming the parents for getting the infectious disease test done (we would ALL do that), but it's the way they word these articles, leaving ignorant people with the impression the child is being tested for diabetes(!) or with the implication that a diabetic per se is somehow contagious or dirty. It may seem a petty thing but it is part and parcel of what I call 'casual discrimination', small negative inferences that build up.

 

[Robinredbreast]

Good grief, they make it sound like it was a discarded drug syringe. I get that being pricked with anything that concerns blood may require a test for any blood related diseases an individual may have but how long before there is a wave of people clamouring to stop diabetics taking them out in public!

Lets hope that doesn't happen.