£2,500 compensation for stress after needlestick injury

Certain blood-borne diseases have a lengthy incubation period and consequently it is not possible to tell if someone has been infected immediately. It is usual to wait for three months and take a second blood test to ensure that the illness has not been passed on.

Understandably, the stress of having to wait three months to see if you have contracted a serious blood disease such as HIV can be enormous.

Such was the situation for a client of Bartletts personal injury solicitors in Chester.

Our client was cleaning the toilets of a large supermarket and in picking up a bunch of paper from the floor he was hurt when a hypodermic needle, hidden within the paper, punctured his hand.

The needle-stick injury was immediately reported to his manager and he was taken to the accident and emergency department of the local hospital for treatment and blood tests. However, he then had to wait a further three months for subsequent tests to see if he was clear of all potential infections.

There was a potentially high risk of HIV infection, as it was known by the supermarket management that this particular toilet was used by drug addicts.

Under ordinary circumstances, cleaning staff should be given appropriate equipment to ensure their safety, for example a telescopic litter collector or a dustpan and brush. The supermarket was failing to fulfil their obligations under health and safety legislation particularly as they were aware of the drug problem.

Fortunately, our client was not infected. However the three months of stress and anxiety, while he waited for the results of the blood tests, had a serious impact on his health, such that he needed psychiatric support at one point in time.

Given the failure on the part of the supermarket to protect their client from such an obvious risk, Bartletts Solicitors calimed for personal injury compensation and were successful in obtaining £2,500 on his behalf.

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