Teen girl pricked by hypodermic needle at New York beach
WANTAGH, N.Y. -- A teenage girl on Long Island was pricked by a hypodermic needle while she was enjoying a day in the sun at Jones Beach, CBS New York reported.
The incident occurred last Tuesday when 15-year-old Anna Gagliano felt something when she was lying in the sand at Field Four on Jones Beach.
"I felt something prick me and when I lifted up my towel to see what it was, there was a syringe," Anna said.
Anna immediately asked for help from emergency services and later went to her doctor.
"He needed to use a magnifying glass light to see where the hole was on her skin," Lisa Gagliano, Anna's mother, said.
Even though the needle didn't break all the way through her skin, Anna now has to undergo a series of blood tests over the next 24 weeks to check for HIV and hepatitis.
"I'm actually still very upset and shaken up by the fact that there could be some health risk to my daughter right now," Lisa Gagliano told CBS New York.
Anna said she is anxious waiting for the results of blood tests.
"I'm very scared. I'm very anxious to get my blood results back -- very nervous," she said.
A Jones Beach official told WCBS 880 Radio that the sand is routinely cleaned, and that every year one or two needles are found on the beach.
The family said they are looking for a medical lab that will test the needle to see what it might have been used for.