Hypodermic Needles and Trains Definitely Don't Mix

By Alicia Dorr in News on Oct 25, 2006 4:55PM

Remember that terrifying urban legend that had something to do with going to the bathroom at a party and being found passed out in a bath tub later with a hypodermic needle broken off into you with a sign that says you've contracted some disease? We at Chicagoist sure do. We also never took apples from people while trick-or-treating, nor did we relish the thought of bobbing for apples. Nor did we really like taking baths after someone referred to them as "sitting in a stagnant pool of your own filth" -- but we digress.

For every horror story we soaked up as a child, we always find some real-life one that breaks our heart and terrifies us even more. For instance, a kid stuck his finger with a hypodermic needle on the Blue Line this past weekend. We can't think of many things that would be worse than looking over to your toddler and seeing blood coming from his finger, with a hypodermic needle on the ledge beside him.

The worst thing is the mother won't even know what, if any, health ramifications there are until the test results come back from the lab. There is no speedy way to get these kinds of results back, which is just one of the many things that are frustrating the child's mother. The whole debacle is ridiculously scary and offends every germaphobic and urban-legend-believin' bone in our bodies. We'll look for an update, because we're just hoping this kid is all right. Our guess is he'll be one of those people who are deathly afraid of needles when he grows up, and we can't say we'd blame him.