3/12/08

Our first call of the day came out as a rape/assault. We pulled up first on scene and made sure we were "clear to enter" since the cops weren't there yet. Our dispatcher informed us that there were no notes in the information about staging out for PD and told us to "enter with precaution." My partner laughs...irritated at the inappropriate word usage. "What does "enter with precaution" mean?" I pull out the gurney and start down the driveway of the motel. Part way down I decide wait for my partner to catch up with me...after all, we are supposed to use "precaution" and he, being the awesome partner that he is, is very protective and I know I will hear about it later if I keep heading towards the room by myself. As I wait for him I see the room door open and a young woman walk out, purse in hand. She walks up to us and I can see the makeup streaming down her face from crying. I can tell she's been beat up around the face and she has blood on her shirt. The first thing she says to me is "I don't need that", looking at the gurney. Still, we have her sit down and try to get the story. "My boyfriend beat me up" she tells us. I ask if he is still around. She states that he might be, but that he "probably got on a bus around here." By this time the fire department has arrived. The medic asks if I am riding in the back today. I assure him that I am. Even if I wasn't I would have jumped in the back on this call. He asks me to get her loaded up then try to get the story from her. I jump in the back with her and ask her what happened...and this is what her story was.

After being raped last night by a stranger and being taken to the hospital for a "rape kit" and some medications including a "morning after" pill and something to prevent gonorrhea, the police gave her a ride back to the motel where her boyfriend was. She came in and didn't feel like talking about the rape with her boyfriend (he was aware of what had happened) and went to sleep. In the morning she woke up to her boyfriend trying to "do her." Still torn and sore from the night before she told him to get off. He insisted. She thought he was messing around. "Get the f--- off me!" He still pushed himself on her. She started to fight him. He asked her "did you fight him? did you fight him?" She starts to scream. He covers her head with a pillow. She is still trying to figure out whether or not he is serious or just messing around. The more she fights the more violent he gets, eventually choking her out. I look into her eyes and see the blood vessels in one of them are all blown. Her eyelids are so swollen I have a hard time getting them to open so I can check her pupils as she continued with her story, tears streaming down her face. She gave up fighting and just tried to not think about what he was doing to her as he continued to choke her and beat her. Finally he stopped and she escaped to the bathroom. After a few moments, she tried to make a break for the door of the room. He shoved her into the wall then kicked her in the stomach, hard. She lay on the floor curled in a ball as he pulled on his clothes and left. She walked to the reception desk where she asked the lady behind the desk to call the cops. The lady asked what happened and the girl said "never mind what happened, just call the cops." The woman insisted to know what had happened before making the call then finally decided to turn the phone on in the room so the girl could call from there. The girl returned to the room and called us.

After relaying the story to the medic, a female police officer I recognize comes to the back of the ambulance and informs me that she is going to ride in with us. I am thankful to have another woman there with me. I continue with my assessment of the 19 year old girl. She has neck and back pain from being beat up and choked. Abdominal pain and tenderness from where she was kicked. Wrist pain. Her eyes are bloodshot from being choked and her face is swollen from the beating. She looks at me and asks "does my face look really bad?" I tell her that I can tell she has been beat up, but that it doesn't look that bad. She is a beautiful girl. I splint her wrist and give her a cold pack for her face. At the hospital one of the nurses asks me if I think she is a prostitute..."there's just too much going on here" she states. I disagree. The girl is too upset about everything to be a hooker. There is too much pain in her eyes.