Date rape, hospital procedure

In Georgia, a friend of mine was "date raped" earlier this year; she went to a party, consumed several alcoholic beverages, blacked out for the first time in her whole life, and woke up in the hospital.

She has vague memories of something occuring with a guy but she does not know who it was, and she had physical signs of intercourse.

However, no rape test was offered or performed by the hospital nor were any pregnancy tests performed. She did not become pregnant, but she was recently diagnosed with an STD and she has never had unprotected sex.

The thing is... she was brought to the hospital by campus police who were informed by the guy who called the cops that she had been "drinking in her dorm". This was not the case because she knows where she was that night, and it was in upperclassmen apartments. Clearly the police were misled and the police in turn misled the hospital, but are there any procedures that hospitals in Georgia are bound to follow regarding intoxicated female patients who do not know anything that happened? Shouldn't she have at least been asked or questioned about what happened in the morning? Should she have been offered a rape kit, so that she could have had a better idea of what happened?

I don't know the answers to any of this, but since it happened several months ago I am guessing the window for doing anything about what happened with the limited info we have has already run out. She is very sensitive and upset about what happened, and Im hoping that the information I get here can help her get some closure. Thank you so much!

ddreynolds
Drinking in the dorm does not land a person in the ER, neither does being intoxicated. For your friend to have been admitted to the ER for an assessment, there had to be some emergent physical or mental need.

For what reason was she taken to the ER?

EC

"Alcohol poisoning" They supposedly pumped her stomach.

However, they didn't check for any drugs or anything like that...and the thing is she didn't have **that much** to drink. Obviously they couldn't have known that, I'm just wondering how a situation such as this SHOULD be handled I guess.

ellencee said:

ddreynolds
Drinking in the dorm does not land a person in the ER, neither does being intoxicated. For your friend to have been admitted to the ER for an assessment, there had to be some emergent physical or mental need.

For what reason was she taken to the ER?

EC

Click to expand...

ddreynolds
You've presented an important topic in today's women's healthcare as it effects the general population and as it effects women (and as one article states, "really cute guys") on college campuses and the impact on emergency healthcare. You've also presented an interesting psycho-social reaction called "remorse".

The young woman in question, by your own words, "woke up in the hospital"; thus, we can safely state that her recollection of events in the ER is less than adequate and less than accurate.

Whether or not the hospital had a duty to test the young woman for pregnancy depends on several factors, ie. was rape reported or reported as being suspected? were there any physical signs of rape trauma?
(Pregnancy testing at the time of a 'rape' examination are for baseline purposes only to ascertain if the woman was pregnant at the time of the rape.)

Whether or not the hospital had a duty to test the young woman for the presence of date-rape drugs also depends on the factors stated above.

It would be a violation of a patient's rights to drug-test and pregnancy-test each drunken woman who presents to the ER.

For purposes of taking legal action, the young woman in question can request and receive a copy of her lab tests results from the hospital. If the presence of a date-rape drug was confirmed, then she can file suit against the young men with whom she was drinking (she still has time to do so). It is possible to file suit against a "John Doe" when the name of the perpetrator is not known. (I'm not an attorney, but I know it can be done--such an action is published in a local newspaper today.) **I've edited this paragraph because I assumed the info in the newspaper related to criminal issues because of damages being sought as a result of a 'wrong' that I personally consider to be a crime.**

I suggest that the young woman speak with the Dean of Women at the college or university. The Dean of Women will want to know about these events and will want to seek to protect women on this campus.

Protected sex is not 100% effective in preventing STDs or pregnancy. Only abstinence can achieve that.

EC