[GregGolden]

I know this may sound crazy, but I've been thinking about it....

The needles I use for my Humalog Pen are very small, very thin. What if one of the needles was faulty, or if someone pushed you when you were injecting, and the needly breaks off into you..... What would happen?

CRAZY, I know, and the odds of it happening are probably 39128312830128903 to 1, but never tell me the odds.....

[Penny]

I often wonder about that Greg. The closest I ever came to it happening....I was injecting lantus when someone bumped into me and the needle bent. It came out at almost a 90* angle, scare me and hurt a little, but it was OK.

[BlueSky]

Originally Posted by GregGolden

..... The needles I use for my Humalog Pen are very small, very thin. What if one of the needles was faulty, or if someone pushed you when you were injecting, and the needly breaks off into you..... What would happen? .....

The needle would very quickly become encapsulated, making it harmless. And it would drift around your body indefinately ....

[KickStart101]

Yes, I'm sure it will happen to you since you mentioned it Greg. J/K

It's never happened to me through all my years and I've used Novo Pens.
I doubt very much that it will happen to you so please don't stress about it.

It only happened to one Person that I've heard of and I think it was
Theresa(Correct me if I'm wrong). Didn't seem her Doc's made much
of it. So it can't be too bad of a deal and said they wouldn't operate
to get it out.

[zic]

It nearly happened to me using my nova pen ,i injected and that went fine it was only when i went to pull the needle out it hurt like anything,it was only then that i noticed that the needle had bent on a 45 degree angle some how when i was pulling it out,but that has been the only problem that i have had ,and it has only happend once,so i would'nt worry about it to much

[Funnygrl]

It can happen, but isn't likely:

http://www.diabetesforums.com/diabet...-stomach.html?

[Diana]

What would I do? I'd get a big 'ol magnet....

Nah, just kidding. I have wondered about this every now and then, but I think the liklihood is fairly low. I'd probably try to get it out with tweezers and some carefully applied pressure (AKA squeezing). Eek, just the thought of it freaks me out.

[JJeenn]

I had someone bump me really hard once while I was injecting with my Humalog pen and the needle just bent but didn't crack off, thankfully!

If it did, though, I'd think it would be like trying to get a huge splinter out. Might hurt a lot but I doubt it would do much harm.

[JasonJayhawk]

I read about a case where a needle fell off in a woman. It ended up embedding itself deeper in her body, and while x-rays could show it, nobody would help her remove it. She had a lot of mental trauma due to having the needle stuck in her body, but no doctor would help remove it, despite her knowledge of where it was (she'd drawn a circle around the suspect site before going to the ER room). Her story was basically that a pen needle broke off in her (actually, it was loose and stayed in her skin, and burrowed deeper when she pulled the pen out, but the needle remained in the skin).

I've had a few BD syringe needles that were not held by the plastic vial, encountered whilst jabbing into a vial, before injecting into human tissue. The syringes were 100 unit BD 31G with unknown lot numbers, as I bought them off of eBay in huge quantities (about 1,400 syringes for $150 back when I didn't have insurance). My endo thinks I bought them from a dead person (probably did) as they all came in bags without the boxes, so someone was trying to unload them quickly. I don't blame BD on the issue -- the syringes are probably as old as can be, and without lot numbers to trace the issues, I'm always careful when using up the rest of these syringes. I've never had it happen with "fresh" needles.