A team of specially trained nurses armed with high-tech equipment will be assembled to comfort Des Moines-area rape victims and gather evidence that helps make criminal charges stick.
Hospital emergency rooms can elicit a special dread for sexual-assault victims, who sometimes are forced to wait hours while emergency room workers deal with heart attacks, traffic accidents and other life-threatening cases.
To make matters worse, advocates and prosecutors say, emergency-room nurses aren't trained to thoroughly collect evidence, collaborate with police and testify in court.
"If you've been licked or bitten during an attack, saliva may dry up, or other materials that you didn't know were there may get rubbed off," said Dr. Linda Railsback, a gynecologist in Des Moines. "Evidence can decay quickly."
Authorities have no hard numbers on how often that happens or how many victims skip medical exams. But they want to make sure that when evidence exists, it can be collected.
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http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pb...508020376/1042
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