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SEATTLE (Reuters) - A 9-year-old girl will need to undergo periodictesting for exposure to HIV and hepatitis after being accidentallyjabbed in the foot with a used hypodermic needle left in her bed ina 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 andSuite in that town as a medical case, not a criminal investigation,because it would be impossible to determine to whom the disposablesyringe belonged. Angie Smith of Edgewood, Washington, said her daughter, EmilyJohnson, was pierced in her right heel by the needle, which wasattached to a disposable syringe stained with dried blood, on June1 while the family was visiting Aberdeen for a girls' softballtournament. Her daughter described the needle prick as feeling like a beesting, Smith said. The syringe was lodged between the mattress and mattress pad on thegirl's bunk bed in the hotel room. A plastic baggie and a secondsyringe were found nearby, Smith said. Emily's family said they took her to a hospital that night and alsocalled police. "The police were in and out pretty quickly," Smith said. "They justweren'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 didnot test the syringes, and that the hospital where the girl wastaken disposed of them. He also said he could not confirm that theminute quantity of liquid in the syringe was blood. "There's no crime to investigate," Green said. "Syringes aren'tillegal and the hotel had no idea how long the syringes had beenthere. ... They could be from diabetics, they could be from drugusers. We have no idea." The girl has since undergone blood tests for the AIDS virus andhepatitis, and the results were negative. However, doctors haveadvised the family that she should continue to be screened forblood-borne infections on a periodic basis, her mother said. An official from the hospital where the girl was taken could not bereached for comment. Angel Housden, the manager at the Guest House Inn and Suite, saidshe had apologized to the family, but she found it strange when thefamily declined an offer to change the two rooms they had bookedfor two nights. Smith said the room where the needle was found was cleaned at thefamily's request and they did not change rooms, although theycontinued to avoid the bunk beds where the syringe had turned up. The hotel initially offered to waive a single room charge for thefirst night's stay but rescinded the offer after the familyinsisted 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 andthey also wanted the adjacent room free as well, they did get veryangry and start verbally attacking my front desk." (Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Bill Trott). The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as LED Street Light Manufacturer , LED Cabinet Light Fixtures Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit LED Panel Light today!
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