Our client was a 31-year-old phlebotomist who contracted HIV from an on-the-job needlestick. After drawing blood from a patient, our client attempted to dispose of the needle in a sharps container. Design defects in the sharps container made it impossible for our client to ascertain that it was already full of needles, pointing up towards the opening. As she went to flip off the needle into the sharps container, she pricked her right thumb on the protruding needle of a previously disposed of sharp. We sued the designer and manufacturer of the sharps container and the manufacturer of the flip-off needle holder she was using.