En route treatment of SA victim

[Ridryder 911]

I believe too many get think it is more than what it is. A horrible event. With that saying, it is a legal situation as well. Now since it is technically an assault, do we not ask or intervene with assault victims?

There is nothing wrong with dispatching what the caller stated that it was. How many times a day I respond to "unresponsive" never to find an altered mental status?

As far as keeping it limited, I believe we are doing the patient/victim injustice if we want to keep them quiet for our own personnel reasons to avoid court or be a witness. With that saying, I am not ensuing that a medic asks for great details either.

Paper work (PCR) can be limited to quotations of what the patient stated. I use generic terms such as.."Patient describes being sexually assaulted. Patient tearful, appears frightened by facial expressions and gestures. .."Patient stated he raped me". .. Detailed physical exam deferred at time, no gross trauma noted"... Treatment: reassurance, allowed patient to vent if wanted to... etc.

LEO will asks if she stated anything, and usually this is where one has to fill out those darn third party statement forms, for detail statements if they did say anything. Again, there are very few sexual assault cases I had to go to court for as a Paramedic. Most are transported by LEO.

R/r 911

[uglyeye]

:shock: I think the most important thing here is to get the patient to the appropriate care as soon as we can. Providing their ABC's are fine I tend to leave them in peace if they want no more further examination. (v/s). I write down what they tell me, and I always read back to them what I have written. They will often then make any corrections, and tell me more. They hate when you get the story wrong! I will always use the cell phone to advise ED because not only does the patient know you will not have to tell the whole world (via the radio), they also know that a limited number of people who need to know do so. I explain this to the patient before making the call. Involving them in what is happening, and obviously keeping them advise gives them back a certain amount of control in a very distressing situation. This I do with all psych patients and find it works well most of the time.

I also agree that we get far too little training in these matters, but are often expected to perform to the minimum standard of others who have many years of training.

Keep yourself, your partner, and your patient safe! Then get them to help most appropriate.

[futuremedic35]

In the county where I work at, I am like one of the only people who still uses the radio for reports. Our ER has a "squad line" but it is not a taped line.. The tapes have saved my butt a few times!

[DirtJerZ]

a few things i learned is that most sex assault victims will usally not want to talk to the same gender responder as their attacker. Don't be afraid of the silence and report your suspicions to the ED.

[AnthonyM83]

When there's not much I can do at the moment, I usually say something like "Well, you're safe right now. We're going to get you to the doctors and take care of you." I think people feel pretty safe at the mention of doctors in those situations.

The only spontaneous rape statement I've had en-route she was very intoxicated and just muttering, so spent time trying to figure out if indeed a crime had occurred, what crime, and where...since she could easily pass out and go back to incoherence.

Document what you can.