I had a friend who did this and the turntable had been spinning for weeks. He was horrified and sent it into Steve at VAS for inspection. Steve pronounced the cartridge as A-OK, and as far as I know my buddy is still using that cart.
Needle resilience
Finished a 7 night stretch at work. Comes up every 16 weeks. Came home and put some vinyl on. Should have just streamed. Foolishly, I thought I could stay awake. Nope! 8 hours later I awaken in a panic. It is only a Sumiko Blue Point No. 3. but it is absolutely fine. Not sure how, but it is. Amazing that such a delicate structure could with stand an insult like that for 8 hours. And it was a record with a pronounced bounce at the end. Impressive!