Mother asks for needle exchange program after daughter gets heart infection

A Colorado Springs woman gets a heart infection after using a dirty needle and now her mother want’s to know why there is no needle exchange program in town that could have possibly prevented this from happening.

Britney Rhodes was in the hospital for more than a month undergoing heart surgery to save her life.

Her mother Jayme Blanks says, “The doctor had to go in and do open-heart surgery to try and repair the valve.”

Blanks says her daughter was a drug addict, “She was on the streets using needles for the heroin.”

She brought her daughter to the hospital after her daughter got sick. She later found out it was caused by using a dirty needle.

Rhodes is slowly recovering but after seeing what she went through, blanks wants to know why Colorado Springs doesn’t have a needle exchange program like Denver or Pueblo.

“I feel like now, the needle exchange problem would help the community,” Blanks says.

At first, she was against the idea of such a program, saying she thought it would enable users. Now she thinks that same program could have prevented this situation.

“My daughter wouldn’t be where she is at right now maybe.”

Dr. Mike Nerenberg currently runs the needle exchange program in Pueblo. He says there is a group that is trying to put a program together but says local leaders, do not want it.

“We all know they are going to do it regardless let’s do it as cleanly and safely as we can,” Nerenberg says.

Blanks hopes a program will happen in the Springs so parents like her don’t have to see their children go through this.

If you would like to help with their medical costs, you can visit their GoFundMe page here.