Do You Feel Safe at Home?
Is anyone hurting you?
I tripped on a broken sidewalk yesterday and fell, hard, on my left side. The top of my left shoulder immediately turned a bright shade of purple-tinged-with-red. My knees were scraped, checker-board style, and my severely bruised hand immediately began to swell twice its size.
I managed to fish my cell phone out of the grass where it landed when I fell, and called my husband. We drove to the nearest hospital emergency room so I could get checked out.
While my husband parked the car in the off-street garage, an R.N. called me back to the triage area. She smiled, took my vitals and made small talk while she retrieved an ice pack for my knee. She examined my injuries, including a small cut on my lip and some swelling on my cheek. She said, “Just need to ask you a few questions. Do you smoke? Have you fallen in the past year? Use recreational drugs?” I answered “no” to each of her questions as she ticked off obligatory boxes on the laptop.
My husband arrived, back from the garage, and waited nearby for her to finish. She saw him come in, nodded and continued. “Do you feel safe at home? Is anyone hurting you?” I hesitated. She looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. I said, “No.”
While I was glad she asked the questions, I was beyond disturbed that she asked them…
