When 9-year-old Destiny Chase went off to play in the woods near her Brown Street home earlier this month, she had no way of knowing the game could change her life.
While she was in the woods, Chase came upon a discarded hypodermic needle, and with the natural curiosity of a child, she picked it up. Intending to bring it to an adult, Chase decided to see how sharp the needle was, and she ended up sticking herself.
Now Chase has to undergo a battery of medical tests to see if she contracted any diseases, most notably hepatitis C and HIV. And the worst part of it all is her family will have to wait up to six months before they know if she is healthy.
“I’m scared,” said Chase’s mother, Vicki Chase. “I’m worried about what we’re going to find out. I know this area, and there’s nothing but drug addicts and stuff like that around.”
While Chase’s situation is a tragic one for both her and her family, there is also a lesson for the rest of the city as well. The city and its residents need to start paying attention to its parks and vacant lots and do whatever is necessary to clean up the dangerous debris littering the ground.
Finding a discarded hypodermic needle on the ground is not an isolated incident in Westbrook. Police Chief Paul McCarthy said police find needles about 10 times per year, and they are never in the same place. And it’s not just one or two needles. McCarthy said police sometimes find 30 to 40 needles on the ground. Just last month, the Westbrook police found several discarded needles in Riverbank Park near a playground popular for families with young children.
It doesn’t take a doctor to diagnose the potentially serious health risk this poses. Diseases such as HIV and hepatitis are transmitted when drug users share needles, and those diseases don’t differentiate between an IV drug users and a curious kid checking out something strange they just found on the ground.
In an ideal world, improperly discarded syringes would not be a problem, because there would be no one abusing drugs. But the reality is, people are going to continue to illicitly use drugs and dispose of the needles irresponsibly.
This means both the city and its residents need to start to do whatever they can to take care of this situation. In fact, it is vital for residents to get involved because the city just doesn’t have enough employees to do the job itself.
The Frenchtown Neighborhood Association has done a good job in cleaning up that neighborhood, and the city has provided assistance with the group’s annual neighborhood cleanup, and McCarthy said the department is always willing to help wherever it can. “If they bring it to our attention, we’ll help get it done,” he said.
Efforts like the annual Frenchtown Neighborhood cleanup are a good start, but the city needs to look at trying to initiate a large-scale effort to try and clean up woods, parks and vacant lots throughout the city. Because of the hazardous nature of some of the debris, the cleanup would have to be done under careful supervision.
The city could also work with one of the local hospitals to set up a needle exchange program similar to ones in other cities, or failing that, establishing a place for people to dispose of their needles safely and anonymously.
While these programs wouldn’t stop people from abusing drugs, they would help curb the spread of disease both in drug users and innocent people like Destiny Chase.
After all, woods and vacant lots are a natural draw for kids, they always have been and they always will be. It’s everybody’s job to make sure they are as clean and safe as possible, so no other families will have to suffer like the Chase family is suffering now.
Mike Higgins, assistant editor
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