What Every Woman Needs to Know

3.  It is a sad fact that women are more vulnerable to sexual assaults than men, including while in hospitals, where women are undressed and extraordinarily vulnerable.  Assaults are a manifestation of disrespect and inequality.  Women need to receive equal protection under the law — and equal respect, including equitable representation at the top levels in medicine to fairly protect our rights and advocate for our interests. Women must achieve a greater measure of bodily protection as a patient and equality in the profession.  Women need to be equal partners in the field of medicine. 

What Every Woman Needs to Know

2.  The sudden medical emergency I experienced could have happened to any woman. I was simply a physically helpless woman who did not deserve to be assaulted. I could have been any woman or girl — you or your loved one.

What Every Woman Needs to Know

I wish to save the next woman from the trauma of “medicine’s dirty little secret” that some hospitals and doctors do not want you to know about.

1.  I was personally and intimately assaulted in a medical setting while disabled and powerless.  I have been highly traumatized.  I have enduring feelings of violation, outrage, and harm.  The experience has been life-altering.  I suspect that the trauma will never go away.