TESTS FOR NEEDLE BOY

A NINE-year-old boy is awaiting the results of medical tests after he trod
on a discarded syringe at a bayside beach.

"Drug users are stupid people," young victim Dylan Crump of Seaford said
yesterday.

"The bin was just 20 metres away. They could have put it in the bin."

The needle stuck in Dylan's left heel.

"I tried to squeeze the bad blood out of my foot. Dad said that might help,"
he said.

He knows he could get sick if the needle contained any diseases.

Parents Darren and Katie are hesitating to tell him just how sick he could
get.

The syringe that pricked Dylan on Wednesday night was on the beach, just
metres from the water.

The family had spent the afternoon at Seaford beach and were getting ready
to pack up when Dylan stepped on the needle as he was about to put on his
sandals.

Wrapping the syringe before putting it in a bin, the Crumps rushed the boy
to Frankston Hospital, where he had blood tests and injections for hepatitis
B and C.

Mr Crump said he often saw syringes on Seaford foreshore and wore shoes when
walking down to the beach.

"What do we do now? Wear them the whole time, in the water?" he asked.

Mr Crump called on councils and the government to do more to reduce the
number of dumped syringes.

There should be greater pressure put on needle exchange services so more
used needles were handed in and collected.

"It's shocking, the number of syringes around here," Mr Crump said.

"We've got some beautiful beaches here but there's always evidence of drug
use. We see syringes here all the time.

"Drug users don't realise an infected syringe could be a life sentence for
someone."

Dylan and his brothers - Jake, 7, and Dalton, 3 - have had to learn about
the dark side of drug-taking from an early age.

Two years ago Dylan brought home some syringes in a box he found in a lane
on the way home from school and asked his dad what they were.

Shocked his children had been in contact with the syringes, Mr Crump sat
them down and told them not to touch needles because they could get sick if
they were pricked.

Syringes often litter a lane at the back of the family's house, through
which the children walk to school.

Needles are also scattered in the toilets at the local oval, where the
children play football.

Dylan said the scare would not stop him going to the beach.