After working here for a while, I’ve seen (well, heard) most things. After a while, I started composing a mental checklist of things I needed to do: deliver baby, cot death, bomb, embarrassing sexual accident, hanging… tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. One thing I hadn’t had until today was a rape. Ambulance crews do deal with people who have been raped reasonably often, but the person who has been raped usually calls the police, who call us, so call takers rarely speak to the victim themselves. However, this woman had also been badly beaten as well as slashed with a knife and was having breathing problems as a result of being punched in the chest, so her priority was to get medical help.
When I first started work here, I always wondered what I would say to someone who had been through such a thing. Sometimes psychiatric patients (the variety who just ring for a chat) mention that they have been raped in the distant past and I never quite know what to say to that. “Oh dear, how awful” is about all one *can* say, but it doesn’t really cut the mustard. In this case, of course, there were practical matters to attend to like finding out where she is, whether it’s safe for her to stay there and if there was anything she could do for her injuries while she was waiting for help. There was also a lot of stuff that I wanted to say but as the professional, impassive face of the Nee Naw Service I couldn’t, like “All men who do things like that should have their balls cut off” and “Give me his address and I’ll go round and do it myself”, nor did I feel it was appropriate to remark that she had the dubious honour of being the first rape victim I had dealt with. Then it was just down to reassuring her that help was on its way and that soon police and ambulances would be descending with their lights flashing and taking charge of the situation with a big wavey magic wand to make it all go away.
I suppose sometimes it’s not just a simple case of fixing the injuries and sending them on their way.
October 20th, 2005 at 8:32 pm
Thanks for your empathy and sensitivity. You sound like someone that a rape victim could trust.
October 20th, 2005 at 9:26 pm
Perhaps Nee Naw ought to offer this service as a service to all humanity, a la ‘the Darwin Awards.’
On a serious note- I’d imagine maintaining a professional demeanor under this circumstance would be difficult.
October 20th, 2005 at 9:37 pm
Yes, it was… on the one hand my instinct was to exclaim “oh my god, how awful” but on the other hand I thought she probably didn’t want to hear that, and would rather I acted like I was used to dealing with this sort of thing and that I could sort everything out. I kept telling her everything was going to be okay even though I was sort of thinking to myself that it probably wasn’t…
October 20th, 2005 at 11:36 pm
Mark,
I think you have a perfect job for the type of person you are. You show compassion and through thought and yet have a slightly medlodoical slant on the more amusing situations you encounter.
I applaud you and your blog. It cannot be easy.
As for the unfortunate PT, I wish the best, I hope that your thoughtful and sensible voice, gave warmth and confidence of which they would require. It would appear you have a multitude of talent and people skills, that cannot be put down on paper.
You take good care of yourself, the world needs more people like you.
October 21st, 2005 at 9:13 am
Aw, blush, you’re too nice! Although I have no idea what “medlodoical” means… I hope it’s nice!
October 24th, 2005 at 1:25 pm
I think the acting like your ‘used to dealing with this sort of thing and that [you] could sort everything out’ approach was the right choice.
What an awful and terrifying situation for her to be in.