Reply to The Pitt, Season 2

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I thought the story in this most recent episode about Dana serving as a SANE to the rape survivor was riveting. I'm a rape survivor and worked for a time on a crisis hotline for sexual violence. The actress who played Ilana was phenomenal and the writing of that storyline was obviously very well researched. I'm not sure I've ever seen that situation portrayed as accurately and honestly as that.

I also love how that story was paired with the scenes in the last episode where Dana cleaned Louie's body. In both situations, she brought the new nurse, Emma, along and narrated what she was doing, and why. These are activities nurses do but few people talk about. People think about nurses taking your BP, administering meds, assisting doctors. But this -- a nurse wiping the blood and fluids off a man who just died and is unlikely to be claimed by loved ones, walking a rape victim through evidence gathering -- people don't think about this. And this is set against the backdrop of Dana being assaulted last season and saying she was done, and then returning to work. You're thinking about why she came back, and also why she wanted to quit. And you're looking at Emma who is on the far other end of a nursing career and thinking about what is ahead of her too.

Also Emma saying "let's go find the good snacks" to Ilana.

If this is "slow" or "disjointed" or "not enough happening" for you, you are entitled to your opinion. But I think that's very compelling storytelling, about people and events that don't ever get told with this much factual accuracy or tenderness. [/quote]

Did you find the way they were talking to her to be condescending? I realize it was supposed to be super compassionate but I just wondered.[/quote]

I thought it sounded like the script that SANEs are trained to follow, said with real compassion by someone who definitely wants to help. I also thought that Ilana's reaction, of being annoyed, impatient, and frustrated by the situation, was completely spot on to how many rape survivors behave when engaging with any institution to report their rape. One of the hardest aspects of being a rape survivor, and helping rape survivors, is that nothing about the process is really designed to give people what they actually need, which is true agency. Dana was administering the rape kit professionally and correctly, AND she was clearly sensitive to Ilana's state of mind (it was obviously not Dana's first rape kit). However, the clinical nature of a rape exam is horrible. And really think about this. Think about what it is like to be raped and violated in that way, and then to place yourself in a hospital gown in a sterile hospital exam room with multiple strangers who will examine your body, take photos, and collect evidence. They will take your clothes away.

The moment where Dana is doing the blue light test and then takes a swab of Ilana's arm? Dana does it right, by explaining exactly what she is doing and why. But Ilana is still in a state of physical and mental shock. She is not processing, or she's processing through trauma. When Dana uses the cold swab, Ilana in theory knows it's coming, but her whole body is on high alert. SANE exams are incredibly stressful, even when the nurse is amazing, even when there is an advocate there.

Our society doesn't know how to deal with what rape does to people. And I have worked in rape crisis and I am a rape survivor myself, and I don't know the answers either. The SANE exam is designed to try and facilitate a criminal justice solution. It still places survivors in situations that can be traumatizing and degrading. Plus that rape kit? It gets sent off to a lab where it may be [b]delayed in processing or processed incorrectly.[/b] Ilana's friends may side with her rapist (who is also their friend) against her. If Ilana chooses to press charges, she may face not only her rapist but her friends sharing information about her (her drinking habits, her sexual history, her relationship with the rapist) that will be mortifying to have disclosed to the police, much less discussed in court. And in the end, there may be no conviction, or a plead out to lesser charge due to lack of evidence. And in the process, she will lose friends and change the way everyone in her life sees her.

Obviously the show isn't getting into all of that, but I honestly can feel this in how they are treating the storyline. I think Dana knows and understands all this, even as she also hopes Ilana decides to finish the exam and press charges.

People rarely understand what rape really does to you. It's not talked about enough and when rape is portrayed on television and in movies, it is sensationalized and the emphasis is on the act itself. The aftermath of rape, sometimes for the rest of your life, is so much bigger than the act in the moment. The Pitt seems to get this, they must have consulted with survivor who has worked in rape intervention or recovery. This is what it is like.[/quote]

I said to my husband while we were watching this: "It would be a whole lot more impressive if all this evidence weren't going on a shelf somewhere, never to be touched again."[/quote]
And they showed that tonight with the older kit that was way overdue for pickup. Loved Dana’s call to the police about that![/quote]

Did she say there was another, older kit waiting? I thought she was just referring to the one she's just collected.

In any case, it was definitely meant to highlight how often those kits go ignored or abandoned, and to show why it's so frustrating. It took so much courage for Ilana to come in for the exam, it was hard for her to go through, and doing the kit took real resources from an already taxed healthcare system. But then the police regularly drop the ball on the next step. It's infuriating. Dana's shooting at the cop on the phone was satisfying when you know what's behavior and it. A while category of horrible, violating crime that police routinely just refuse to investigate even when the victims have gone through hell to come forward.[/quote]

Yes, a kit had been there for two weeks. They’re supposed to be picked up with 72 hours. [/quote]

Dana threatened the cops not to treat them immediately when they come in for treatment. But she sat on that kit too. It was right there in the room in a fridge with a glass door. The hospital should have been tracking those kits until they were picked up.[/quote]

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