Episode 09: Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies, I’m your host Julie Mattson. Over the years as a sexual assault nurse, I’ve interviewed a lot of victims, and even perpetrators. One thing that always breaks my heart is the fact that a lot of people feel like they deserve what happened to them. I always hated to hear that when I would talk to the victims and the first thing they would say is; “I shouldn’t of worn that short skirt, I shouldn’t of wore that cut off shirt, or I shouldn’t of had that third beer”. The truth of the matter is, you should be able to wear what you want to, and go where you want to, and hang out with whoever you want to, and not have to worry about someone taking advantage of you. Today I want to share with a few of the stories that I have encountered in my life as a Sexual Assault Nurse.
Are you ready? Let’s go…
SHOW NOTES:
• There’s two different kinds of exams, and acute exam is one that we do on someone at the hospital that’s been assaulted within the last 20 hours or five days, those are the ones that come to the hospital that could potentially have life-threatening injuries that may need prophylactic antibiotics that would still be effective because of the time frame that can be discharged from the hospital and monitored and offered some form of counseling. A non-acute exam is one that someone might report years after it happened, and obviously there’s not going to be any injury there, outside of psychological injury, and so there’s really no need for them to see a doctor. There’s probably not going to be anything that needs to be treated urgently, they may have an STD, but we can still have them tested and have it treated, but there’s no acute reason for them to see a physician or go through the expense of being seen in the emergency room. So they’ll go to a different facility and go through the exam and actually have the interview process done and be checked for STDS and receive a counseling that they need. (04:39)
• We can get semen on a swab and we can get DNA as far as skin cells or saliva or other bodily fluids. So when I’m doing a sexual assault exam, if someone says he kissed my ear, then I’m going to swab the ear… If someone says he kissed my neck here, I’m going to swab that area. If they have a hickey, obviously, they’ve been sucking on their neck, and I’m going to swab that area. So this is why the history is very important, so we can know exactly where to collect the evidence and what we’re looking for. I did swab her anus, and of course, all of the swabs that I took from her went to the crime lab, and we do also put their underwear in the kit and the underwear goes, because many times, if there’s DNA it’s going to come off or slip off on the underwear. So it’s an important part of evidence collection, and almost always, unless someone completely refuses, we will include their underwear as part of the evidence. So, did the anal swab, sent her underwear to the crime lab and it was processed. And actually, the boyfriend’s DNA or skin cells from touching her were actually found on the swabs, and that in addition to the scratch that I found and took very good pictures of were actually presented in the courtroom when I was subpoenaed. (09:55)
• Several years ago, there was a male nurse who was working at a hospital and he was taking care of a female who had a hip fracture, she had actually had surgery, she was on the surgical floor, she was about two days post-op and still on pain medication, which we would expect. So getting oral pain medication, I believe she was on hydrocodone, which is normally what they kind of graduate you to from IV pain medication after a couple of days. Knowing this, she was aware that she was not really going to be getting any more medications through her IV because she was taken hydrocodone orally to get ready to be discharged home. So one afternoon, a male nurse walks into her room and he said, We’re going to take a nap today, and she kind of looked at him and she was like, I don’t wanna take an nap… I’m not tired. And he said, Well, too bad, pretty much, and he closed her blinds and proceeded to walk over to her and inject something into her IV. She basically falls asleep, and when she wakes up, she finds him fondling her. (15:33)
• So the Texas Attorney General’s Office stepped up and they said, You know what, this shouldn’t be happening. All these children, all these adults should all be examined, they should all have a voice, and so even though back then the police were reimbursed by crime victims compensation in our state, they had to wait for reimbursement, they still were on a budget, and so now the Texas Attorney General’s Office actually pays the nurse straight out instead of the police department paying the nurse. So, that the decision to do the exam doesn’t always have to come from the police, that was such a great change that needed to be made because there’s no reason for money to be the deciding factor. And that was always a shame, and I feel like there were probably a lot of cases that didn’t get investigated that should have because of lack of money and lack of funds. So that has changed over the years. And for that, I am very, very happy. I know that now the sexual assault kits, there’s a bit of a back up, having them processed, but I know that a lot of that is due to budget, and a lot of that is due to lack of staff, and hopefully those things will resolve and the process of actually having the kits analyzed will start happening quicker. And again, I know that sexual assault is not a pleasant subject, it’s not really one that anybody wants to hear about… Believe me, when I came to the hospital, everyone looks at me and I was like, Oh, did someone get assaulted or did someone die? It’s like this black cloud over me, everyone’s just always wondering, how on earth do I deal with it? That’s how… You know that you’re helping people, you know that you’re empowering people, and you’re allowing them to have a voice and talk about what happened. (23:38)
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