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THE PARENTS OF a seven-year-old autistic boy were left “gobsmacked” last weekend when a used syringe, lodged down the side of the seat on a DART, became stuck in his finger.
The family were on their way to catch the Christmas steam train from Pearse Street Station in Dublin on Saturday when the boy put his hand down the side of his seat. When he pulled it back out, there was a syringe stuck in his finger, his father told TheJournal.ie.
“He had to get a series of tests in Crumlin Hospital because we don’t know what was in it but there was blood in the syringe,” he said. “We won’t know now for six months what the situation is but he’s on a course of injections against hepatitis B and hepatitis C.”
‘Like being stabbed’
The concerned father said that while he and his wife were “just devastated” when they saw the syringe hanging from their son’s hand, it gave the seven-year-old himself a major scare.
“The slightest little thing feels like a mountain for him – a pin prick to an autistic child is like being stabbed,” he explained.
He said his son does not “understand the repercussions it could have” and though doctors have said the liklihood of his having hepatitis is low, “no one knows what the outcome of it will be”.
The boy’s parents notified staff at Iarnróid Éireann as soon as it happened last Saturday and wrote to the company this week. His father said they will also be seeking legal advice on the matter.
Reviewing CCTV
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, a spokesperson for Irish Rail said it was obviously a very distressing incident for the young boy and his family and the company has been liaising with them since the incident.
We are reviewing CCTV both in terms of the incident itself, and to see if it can be identified when and by whom the needle was placed there. It does appear as if it was down the side of the seat completely out of sight.
They said there was an immediate check after the incident happened to ensure there was no other potentially harmful material hidden or visible on the train and “thankfully there was not”.
“DARTs are cleaned thoroughly and regularly, including sides of seats to ensure that such incidents are prevented, so it may have been that the syringe was placed there earlier in the day while the train was in service,” they added.
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Hopefully the little guy is in the clear. Christ I hate junkies.
Jesus Christ! This is horrifying.
And horrifying that Legal Advice seems a priority rather than waiting the outcome and then considering it in the future maybe. Doesn’t add up..
Agreed David. Sure I’d do the same but would not even enter my mind till I’d get the all clear on tests.
Instead of going after the soft target of Irish Rail, they should find and publish the cctv of the junkie.
When they find him or her, they should inject them with smallpox, bubonic plague and a cocktail of other horrifying illnesses.
Legal advice with the intention of suing a junkie on social welfare? Surely not against Ianroid Eireann who could have done NOTHING to prevent this?
A friend of mine working in the area, told me that though it happens all year round, he notices an increase in the practice in winter. Are they using the trains and transport services for heat and comfort while they inject? Seems plausible.
David and Sean how cynical of you. We are consistently advised that if an incident could prove to warrant legal recourse that we document and be able to show lines of communication. This is a dad (of an autistic boy who is presumably well used to red tape and the being given the run around) simply being prepared and organized and doing what he can for his son. I would do the exact same.
Junkies don’t give a shite about who they hurt or annoy. I always confront them if they’re smoking gear or doing whatever on busses, as I’m rarely on a DART. There’s no point in picking on Irish Rail, fair enough you don’t expect to be stuck with a needle while just going somewhere, but how do they expect Irish Rail ro know there is a syringe down teh side of teh seat? They don’t clean them after every stop or anything.
Obviously the family are upset, but nobody is to blame except the junkball who left the syringe there.
Justin, I would be devastated and Medical rather than Legal would be my priority. I just think it’s an unusual reaction that’s all.
Junkies have free travel on public transport so it would be logical to assume they use buses and trains as mobile shooting galleries during foul weather.
Dublin – Junkies Paradise.
They don’t have free travel.
Yes…. Yes they do!
I know the family involved and they have not sought any legal advice yet. They have to wait for 6 months for tests etc and that is their priority. They are upset at some of the reporting which makes it look like they are looking to make money out of this horrible situation. Their concern is for their son’s welfare, full stop.
How…how do they?!
They do. Junkies have free travel on all public transport
Who gives it to them and how do you apply for it?
Horrific
The junkies cannot claim job seekers as they are not in a position to look for work, instead the state gives them disability allowance. One of the qualifying criteria for a travel pass is being in receipt of disability allowance. So yes, junkies have free travel.
That is terrible :( hope they identify the junkie who left it there, he ought to be charged for it. Whatever people want to do to their own bodies is their own business but putting others at risk is just not on.
And Alan Kelly believes Irish people don’t like to use public transport because of snobbery
I think Alan Kelly has made a name for himself. Oh I envy those inside the doors he will be knocking on shortly!!
How terrible for this boy’s family. They will have a shadow over them until they can be sure he is alright. The next few months will be hard. I hope the boy will be ok.
I fear for my life when junkies are injecting themselves on public transport ..Common practice in Dublin unfortunately! I hope that innocent boy is clear of any diseases! Something needs to be done about it!
Hated junkies b4,iam afraid to say what i would like to do to them now.That poor kid.Not safe to take your kids on the train now.V angry!
Darts are cleaned thoroughly and regularly. That’s a press release written by someone who drives to work. Who do they think they are kidding.
Regularly just means at a constant interval, perhaps they are cleaned once a year?
That’s a disgrace dis day and age
Its terrible Joe!
If they call the state of them clean I give up , there filthy and always smelly
Bus passengers are even smellier.
And Leo Varadkar wonders why more people dont use public transport.
It’s very simple minister,public transport in Ireland is crap, Unreliable, too expensive and as we can see from this article, it can be very dangerous.
Shocking. Poor kid. Excuse my ignorance, but why does it take 6 months to know what the situation is? Can’t you tell sooner than that if you have been infected with anything?
Sometimes it can take upto six months for something like HIV to manifest sadly.
The poor family!!!
They can test immediately to see if anything has been introduced, but have to do tests at three months and 6 months to make sure you didn’t catch anything. The risk of HIV is extremely low, I think 0.05% but hepatitis is the biggest risk with junkies in Dublin.
Thanks Karen. Poor kid, imagine having that hanging over you. I know the article said the chances are low, but still, poor kid.
https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/165919_10151535108336081_757600723_n.jpg found one my self a while back
The lowlife who left that needle there would want to do everyone
a favour and jump on front of a dart
That would be hardship on the driver and all of the commuters, He should jump in the liffey with all the other shit from this city!
Agreed – they won’t be doing the driver any favours..
Can you imagine how it must feel to be driving the train along a track where there are not supposed to be people when you are coming through – at all, and someone jumps out in front of you? Stopping distance on a train is huge, you have pretty much no hope of stopping. The trauma of killing someone – even though they may have deliberately jumped, is a lot for an unsuspecting driver to cope with. It can ruin their lives too.
I’ll drive the train.
Dublin is a kip.
Dublin is grand, it’s just some of the people that are the problem. The same as in any town or village across Ireland.
Ah sure it’s grand!
It certainly isn’t just Dublin.. From what I’ve been told there’s a flourishing heroin problem in many small towns and villages the country over.. There’s just less people. In Dublin you have a massive chunk of the whole country squished into a much smaller geographical area. More people means that the small percentage who are junkies equates to a higher number of people. The vast majority of people in Dublin aren’t junkies..
This is a failure of public policy which the unfortunate child was victim to. Safe needle disposal is a public issue. The government needs to implement more syringe bins in the public to allow drug users to dispose of their needles safely. If we know that there is a prominant use of opioids in Dublin inner city then we should ensure that safe practice is allocated for. We cannot act surprised everytime needles turn up in public areas anymore – it happens regularly so either we find the obvious solution and create safe needle disposal, or else we ignore it and repeat this event time and time again.
Do you honestly think the person who left it there would bother carrying it to the nearest needle bin. Why not put the emphasis on the junkies to take a bit of responsibility for their own disgusting habit? They are not victims, we are the victims of their behaviour and habit.
In Cork there are safe needle disposal bins in public toilets and 90% of all needles are disposed of here.
Be careful not to use discriminatory language and label all drug users by this belittling term “junkie”. You are falsely assuming that all drug users want to litter the streets with needles. How do you come to this conclusion?
We need to construct our drugs policy around evidence and follow in the path of the Canadians, Portugal, Netherlands, etc.
I never said they want to litter the streets with needles. What I’m saying is that they don’t care about anyone but themselves and blame anyone but themselves for their mistakes.
Nonsense. These people have no interest public health. Whoever shoved their used needle down the side of a seat on a public train obviously has no concern for the safe disposal of it!
90% of needles are disposed of safely in Cork? Great. That still leaves 10% of needles lying around, despite the safe disposal bins. What’s the solution? More bins? A bin on every corner? There are always going to be a hardcore of users who just don’t care who they hurt or what misery they cause. Sorry to use “discriminatory” language and “labelling” but these are the people I would call junkies. The pure scrotes who rob and steal and shoot up on the streets.
I’m sick of pandering to those who couldn’t give a f*ck about anyone else.
@Graham Where are these needle disposal bin-toilets? Never seen one or heard of one in Cork.
Why is it that they don’t care?
Couldn’t have anything to do with the addiction no?
Did society care about them before they wound up on heroin?
If the needle was shoved down the side of the seat then *some* action was taken to dispose of the needle, it just wasn’t sufficient action. They could have just left it on the seat – that would have shown they didn’t care who found it.
They shouldn’t be using public transport as a shooting gallery – they should have somewhere that they can go and know that the needles are clean, everything’s safe (and Gards can get there quick). Because unfortunately they have an addiction that’s essentially screaming throughout their whole body and no matter how hard they try, focusing on anything else is extremely difficult, maybe even impossible.
For goodness sake, there’s barely even enough rubbish bins around Dublin, never mind sharps bins..
It doesn’t make a difference if there are some drug users who don’t abide by the rules: many people don’t but we still provide health services for our community. If needle disposal bins and safer injecting facilities lessen the risk of spreading blood borne diseases among the users and non-users then it should be embraced.
You criticised my suggestions that are rooted in hard science and health. So what constructing argument are you proposing?
Absolutely agree….
Thats just sick! if the firty ducker is found he should be made inject bleach into himself.
Could be a “she”.
Our current drug policies have accidentally normalized urban public spaces for sick addicits.
It’s time we re-think our failed drug policies and set up 24/7 supervised injecting rooms for addicts.
SSDP is currently planning an event in UCC ‘Dealing with Heroin; Options and Alternatives’ to put UCC students in direct contact with academics and health professionals. Speakers from INEF, Anna Liffey, Merchants Quay, CityWide and more have been invited
One wrong infection AGAIN. IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. AGAIN.
Well said..
Real classy Dublin !!!
Yeah, the city of Dublin is made up of 1 million junkies. Read the comments to see how upset people are over this.
Where are all the ‘legalise tax it clowns’?
Hiding because in their magical world drugs can do no harm.
You don’t inject cannabis. No one is talking about legalising heroin.
How is legalising cannabis and leaving dirty heroin needles on trains the same thing? What happened is disgraceful
But you don’t inject cannabis or marijuana.
Well just think – if it was legal..
A) some of the money made from taxation could be used to fund shooting galleries – to keep users from injecting on public transport or in public amenities – this also means that health problems associated with IV drug use could be managed.
B) some of the money saved on Gardaí time and resources could go into rehab – and hopefully reduce the number of people shooting up over all.
C) if people were given honest, unbiased education about drugs, based upon evidence and successful drug policies – the number of people getting themselves into that state could be reduced. After all – prevention is better than cure.
Safer towns, more Gardaí free to protect the public from actual crime and harm, more tax revenues. Less kids getting their hands on drugs as their sale would be regulated. Less money in the hands of criminal gangs who’s only concern is making money and settling violent feuds with each other.
If you think that we should continue with the current drugs policy then I am afraid you are insane. We have been using it for decades, do you see the problem improving or is it as plain as day that it has failed? Time we started using an evidence based approach rather than this brainwashed notion that you can arrest every dealer and stop people experimenting..
And this the reason I dont use public transport anymore. Ive seen all this before on the 27 bus and red luas. Its shocking what goes on on public transport these days.
Im glad that politician said what he said because ever since you are reading more articles like this story. Maybe now Iarnoid Eireann, Luas & Dublin Bus will make travelling safer for the public
yeow the 27!
Of course this is a traumatic event for this child and his family.
The attitude to our fellow man and woman who have addiction issues and are at such a low point in their lives that they will leave needles about is appalling.
I’ve worked with addicts for many years and it is only the grip of opiate addiction that makes them behave this way.
Certainly very little seasonal goodwill here today.
And before people ask, yes I have had experience of that waiting period of being tested
Anyone who is stupid enough to do heroin doesnt deserve help.
Sorry Paul I know you do good work but I know a few drug dependent people myself who although have an extremely bad addiction they are careful enough to dispose of their needles or paraphernalia safely ,it’s just sheer carelessness and stupidity ,and as for people trying to turn this story around about dirty trains ,if people put there crap in bins provided in stations and platforms trains wouldn’t be that dirty.i have worked in this area and trains are cleaned every night in both depots ,my best wishes for this boy and hope he has a clear result .
Paul, junkies don’t care about the consequences their actions have on society. Mostly they believe its society’s fault they are addicted.
They wreak havoc on innocent people every day.
No one can claim today that they were ignorant to the results of heroin addiction. They chose to take it and therefore chose that life.
We as a society need to get a lot tougher on them. A LOT tougher.
And don’t speak to me about Christmas spirit, save it for all the people that have been and will be the victims of junkies this Christmas. Including this boy and his family.
Yeah because you can go tougher on an addict than their cravings are..
And actually – I know of many people who’s knowledge of drugs is shockingly bad, so yes – they can be forgiven for thinking that somehow they may avoid becoming hopeless junkies..
I mean – we were taught that all drugs (except the legal ones of course!!) were as bad as heroin. We weren’t taught that there were different classifications, different actions, some were addictive and others weren’t – we were taught that all drugs were bad and smoking cannabis WOULD (not could) lead to harder things.
You can see this ignorance all over the comments section any time the subject of drugs comes up (I mean, how many of you high and mighty abstained realise that some psychedelics can treat addiction – and have a very high success rate, yet instead we rely on methadone which is merely substituting one addiction for another – and the location of clinics causes high concentrations of junkies in town centres). There’s also the other reasons people wind up on heroin, abuse / homelessness etc.
But of course – it’s all their own fault and we should kick them when they’re down.. You’re so compassionate it’s really quite a thing to behold..
:-)
From now on l’ll be standing on Dublin bus luas dart and intercity trains,as the father of a young daughter I feel sick that this is happening,hope the young boy will be ok with the results
Poor kid. So close to Christmas…makes it that bit harder
Get people debating , who cares whether an article is true or not! = Journal.
Hi Ken,
The incident was confirmed by both Irish Rail and the boy’s family. Michelle, our reporter, spoke to both – as is outlined in the article. But it seems you needed that to be clarified separately.
Thanks,
Sinéad
News Editor
Go Sinead! :-D
Stop trolling and reading the journal if you think it is bull.
Thanks Sinead, I did actually.
Nice work Daithi…
Moron.
You feckin eegit Healy,do you want the little young fella to drop round to your house with the needle still hanging from his hand. Then again you’ll probably say he did it himself……..
You are lowlife
Thanks for letting us know the dangers around us .When one lives in the countryside we are unaware of the dangers that can occur .no harm to be aware. God help this family a very worrying time for them as I can only imagine
@David
A lowlife? Explain how you came to that conclusion. I prefer not making too many comments on the Journal as it strikes me the majority of people on here are people that don’t get out too often and are familiar all too much with internet chat rooms.
Nice work Daithi? What a sad person you really are. Like I said already,people on here all too familiar with internet chat rooms, AVINA! I SUPPOSE IM SHOUTING NOW!
No need to clarify. The journal is the only agency reporting reality in Dublin. Something maybe done finally.
@Avina
“Go Sinead”
“Good work Daithi”
……..lots of thumbs up!
Jesus are you really that hard up?
Let it go Healy. You made an ass of yourself, get over it.
You rest now Ken.
Hey Ken
Moron x 2
I think you’re the one that needs to get a life :-)
Have a happy day, its almost Christmas…
Time to move on ken. Nothing more to see here for you my friend.
God help him. Pls god it will turn out ok.
And they want us to use public transport when it is over run by the junkies.
did this really happen? It sounds like an urban legend where you accidentally sit on a syringe and get aids.
It’s no urban legend, I know of a person that this happened to, it wasn’t on public transport but was in a public place. The syringe barely touched them and they, perhaps foolishly, brushed the incident off, eventually forgetting about it, but years later they started to get sick, couldn’t eat or anything, it took months but they were eventually diagnosed as HIV positive. Happy to say they are still with us and their illness is being kept in check.
That sounds like bs mate.
That doesn’t sound believable tbh
It kind of does. HIV/AIDS cannot survive long outside of the host body. So unless someone is directly injected with a needle that was just used, then there would be far less risk of anything more than hepatitis…though that in itself is bad enough and the person would need to be heavily monitored.
I’m not saying that at all. So many articles in recent months have been published on the Journal only to have them doing a complete u-turn in the days that follow. So many people jumping on the green thumb bandwagon .
Where is that beach ken?
Can you give examples of these articles Ken?
The human trafficked Australian girl was a moral panic that turn out to be something different altogether, but it still sent everyone into frothing at the mouth about disgraceful human trafficking in Ireland as everyone believed the worst about the 25 year old woman pretending to be 14. Similarly before the facts are clear on this story we see the same frothing at the mouth occurring as with the context of the story we are led to believe that the worst case scenario is bound to happen.
And that’s what the comments are good for – the Australian / human trafficking thing wasn’t confined to the journal – all the news agencies were reporting that one..
But let’s see – the junkie shooting into his groin – lots of commenters reckoned that was bunk – no report was made to Luas staff of Gardaí, just Joe..
There was that article from the Indo about a polish girl who was apparently here for generous dole payments – the comments section here outed that as hogwash – the Indo had completely mistranslated her.
Some people will always froth at the mouth – even when the truth is there staring them in the face they’ll choose to run with the version they like best.. It’s hardly indicative of the journal – each comment is however indicative of the one who wrote it. If people are “foaming at the mouth” then that is down to them.
Look at me everybody, I’m Avina Loaf. I’m really cool on the Journal. Everyone loves me. I have a cat and an armchair. I have loads of friends ………. In chat rooms.
Please ken. You need to stop mate. We all make mistakes.
Wow, someone’s a little bitter..
It’s the Internet, you are entitled to write whatever you like – but there’s no onus upon others to agree, if they disagree they will tell you. If you can’t handle that, perhaps you need to take a step back from the keyboard.
Making comments like the one above don’t make you look big or clever – they make you look bitter and childish.
A few experiences close to me are as follows:
A neighbour stood on a used syringe on a beach in Spain, tooks months to get the all clear.
A college friend sat on a used syringe on the tram in Prague, again took months to get the all clear.
When I lived in Melbourne on my WHV my landlord advised me against using St. Kilda beach and instead take a train ride outside Melbourne to the Victoria Coast.
I am sure everybody here has some similar experiences close to them. It’s time to properly get tough on junkies.
It is well known that these junkies and other low lives spend the day on these trains terrorising commuters and no body is willing to do anything about it..
Including the Garda and ultimately the state…
Dam straight sue them ..
Poor Irish junkies. Measuring how many new jobs had been stolen by foreigners……
Whoever is responsible is just a little príck.
Does anyone know if we have PEP kits in use here? if they are used in these situations to stop someone contracting HIV? This would seem like the exact situation they are designed for but I see no mention of them above?
I can’t believe they are only testing him for hepatitis, what happens if he got HIV from the needle and they didn’t test him for it and he has it for years untreated??? He should have been tested for everything, you can never be too safe when getting stabbed with a used bloodied needle.
It takes a couple of months for HIV to be detectable, there would be no point in testing him now.
That depends on the test used.
The standard test for HIV is a western blot and ELISA. Both of which state they are not suitable for determining the presence of HIV in their respective package inserts. These test your antibody levels and your viral load – so as you can imagine if you are pregnant or have an infection, you will get a positive. The hopes are that in 6 months time any infection that may have skewed the result will have passed and a clearer profile can be obtained.
A large chunk of people who test positive their first time test negative on the follow up test, some who were confirmed as HIV test negative a year or two later. This is because testing for a virus that’s next to impossible to isolate is tricky.
I have heard there’s a new test available – but how it works I am unsure.
I hope he’ll be ok!
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