Emergency Room Series: The Assault Case

The Emergency room is really a place of diverse and unpredictable cases

Before I go on to discuss this chapter I would like to thank everyone who has taken time to read and has learnt a few things from this series.

 I also want us to bear in mind that each case is treated in line with the standard ethics of nursing and medicine in this part of the world. Not everything done in the management of the patients is discussed here as I try to be brief and straight as possible. 

The Emergency room is really a place of diverse and unpredictable cases


A young lady in her mid twenties was brought to the Unit this morning. She was accompanied by a police woman and her father. She had the most depressing look I had ever seen. She wouldn't look at anyone, she had cuts and bruises on her body. I told her to sit on a couch while i informed the doctor on call. Her father and the police woman did most of the talking while getting her health history. We learnt that her parents house was attacked around 4am this morning by armed robbers. 

The father explained that they lived in a developing estate with very few houses. The robbers were 6 in number. They took most of their house gadgets and the money they had in the house. The father said they raided their house for about 45minutes and they couldn't get help because their house was far into the estate. He also said that his wife and other kids had travelled.

The father further explained that while they robbed, he and the lady were told to lay down facing the floor as one of the robbers pointed a gun at them. He said when the robbers were through moving stuffs into a car packed outside, one of the robbers said he found his daughter attractive and the other robbers excitedly hailed him. The father was asked to turn and face the wall with a gun to his head, he couldn't dare talk.


The lady knew what they meant. She pleaded and cried. She struggled but they slapped her and they cut her with a dagger in the process. She was later raped by two of them. 

As if that was not enough she was hit several times with the butt of the gun because she struggled. When they left, the father called his brother who was a top police officer who sent policemen to the house. They got a report at the station and she was brought to the hospital

To be honest, I didn't know how to talk or relate with her. It was hard for me to take her blood samples because I felt like I was causing her more pain but I was glad she cooperated with us. We put up IV fluids to rehydrate her and I stitched the deep wounds and cleaned the minor wounds. I can't imagine the psychological trauma she would be going through. 

The doctor ran HIV test and we started her on PEP to prevent HIV infection. We also gave her Postinor2 just in case she was ovulating, she also had antibiotics. She had a pint of blood as she had lost a lot from the dagger cut and We later booked her to see the psychiatrist. 

I'm sure some of us have a friend or relative or neighbour that has had a similar experience or worse. its our responsibility to look out for such people. Rape is an enormously important and often divisive topic for all people. Rape occurs in several different contexts, under many different guises, and it is the context that seems to shape our thinking about whether the act was in fact a rape. At one end, when a male stranger attacks and rapes a woman on the street, we understand this to be rape.

 We understand the violation, we want vengeance, we consider the rapist to be a criminal. There are rape myths that sees rape victims as seductress and/or liar, and stereotypical depictions of the brutal stranger-rape as the only legitimate rape, and placing all responsibility for the occurrence of rapes on women. 

Rape survivors who speak out about their assault experiences are often punished for doing so when they are subjected to negative reactions from support providers. These negative reactions may thereby serve a silencing function, leading some rape survivors to stop talking about their experiences to anyone at all. Some victims even go as far as blaming themselves for what happened. 

Victims experience what could be short-term or long-term effects such as Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – feelings of severe anxiety and stress,.Depression, Flashbacks – memories of rape as if it is taking place again, Borderline personality disorder, Sleep disorders, Eating disorders, Dissociative identity disorder, Guilt, Distrust of others – uneasy in everyday social situations, Anger,.Feelings of personal powerlessness – victims feel the rapist robbed them of control over their bodies. Its really not easy going through all that torture. 

I'm sharing this story to improve or knowledge on what rape really is and it's high time we understood what victims go through and improve on our act of kindness towards them. 

Thank you.