Six months after being raped by an acquaintance, Katrina received a call from a friend seeking support after a sexual assault. She brought her friend to a SANE facility, and saw an experience that was “night and day” from the nightmare she endured only months earlier.
“It brought tears to my eyes and I held her hand during the exam. I really think that SANE saved her life,” said Katrina, whose last name is being withheld by the Herald.
“I remembered my own experience, at a non-SANE site,” Katrina said, adding that it began with nurses telling her that their shifts were ending soon - and so were reluctant to start an exam - and ended with Katrina herself having to do portions of her own rape kit
“I was retraumatized. (The nurses) were scared, and fumbling around with the kit. I couldn’t believe it was happening,” she said.
It comes down to training, she said, and those nurses lacked it.
Katrina said the difference is in “victims” versus “survivors.”
“Without SANE, you just perpetuate the victims. It takes a group of people that really care to see someone survive and thrive.”
