Child Injected Accidentally With Atropine


HONOLULU, 10:36 a.m. HST September 10, 2003 - A 12-year-old boy from Waipahu suffered an accidental injection of an anti-nerve agent. Health Department investigators were called to an apartment off Waipahu Depot Road Tuesday.




The investigators found dozens of medical syringes, medicinal vials, and children playing amongst the potentially hazardous waste.
The Trendon Amuzie, 12, didn't get a full dose of the anti-nerve agent in him. The Health Department said he was injected with atropine. It's a chemical used by the military to protect soldiers from chemical nerve agents. Health officials said even a small dose could be toxic or fatal to a child.

"It made me jittery, my heart was beating faster and I was very nervous," Amuzie said. "My thumb went numb and then my whole hand went numb."

Amuzie (pictured, right) shot himself with a vial that was labeled No. 1. He said he didn't know there was a needle or the chemical atropine in it. Atropine counteracts the effects of a chemical nerve agent.

"I was lifting weights and my sister found this thing that looked like a Crazy Glue bottle and I didn't know what it was and I pressed something and it injected me with atropine," Amuzie said.

"When it first happened he thought he was going to die, I could see he was excited when it happened to him, and I got upset," Amuzie's father, Walter Senegal, said.

Senegal said he's seen needles before in the dump area outside his apartment in Waipahu and always warns his children not to touch them.

The Health Department doesn't know where the atropine vial came from. It's the only one found so far and it had an expiration date of 1993. Health investigators also found dozens of syringes in and around the dump area. They don't believe the syringes have anything to do with the atropine vial.

Military officials were also called to the Waipahu site because supposedly only the military should have access to atropine.

"A civilian shouldn't be having this. This is for troops being deployed into combat areas where the enemy may have chemical warfare agents," Army National Guard Sgt. John Andoe said.

The Army National Guard said there's no way the military would have accidentally dumped its medical waste in the backyard of a Waipahu apartment complex.

The Health Department said it's contacting the city to clean the illegal dump area.