WARNING!

Acupuncture. Put needles in. Take needles out. All out? Yes, all out. Periodically, patients with fluffy hair or slippery clothing may have a souvenir left when they put on their hat or pull on their socks due to obstruction of the needle. However, the following is a serious example of when not having a system for insertion and withdrawal can cause a heap of trouble.

Acupunture patient left with 'forgotten' needle

May 9 2008 Media Wales

An acupuncture patient returned home from treatment with a two-inch needle stuck in her back, she said today.

Back pain sufferer Wendy Dempsey had her first acupuncture session on Wednesday at a hospital in Newport, South Wales.

The 54-year-old claims she suffered excruciating pain as she drove the five miles to her Llanmartin home and only realised what was wrong when her nephew Ieuan Edwards started screaming.

Mrs Dempsey said: “I was a bit apprehensive before the treatment, as I’d never had it done before.

“At the end, he said he’d removed the needles, and I felt fine.

“My eight-year-old nephew lives with me, and as I was driving us home I had this most tremendous pain in my back.

“I was in absolute agony. I thought I wasn’t going to get home. I kept slowing down, and every time I changed gears the pain got worse.”

When she arrived home, Mrs Dempsey said she had to wait 15 minutes before moving from the car because of the pain.

She said: “I asked my nephew to have a look at my back when we were in the house.

“He let out an ear-piercing scream. Once he had seen the needle, he was petrified.

“It’s just scared him – and it’s not done too much for me either.

“By driving home, I think I’d pushed it in further.”

Mrs Dempsey was driven to the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, by a neighbour, where the needle was removed from near the bottom of her back.

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