Thursday, November 25, 2004

An Exceptional Story on GHB Rape

There's a terrific story in The Province newspaper in Canada giving details on what a woman goes through, both short-term and long-term, after being the victim of a drug-assisted rape. It's too long to paste into my blog, but you can read it here. Registration is required. Here's a little of the story; caution some of this may not be appropriate for younger readers:

[Annette Orango] got up to use the facilities, returned to the table she was sharing with the man and his friends, and finished her drink. The next thing she remembers is waking up at 10:30 the following morning.

Curiously, the first thing she noticed was the odd way her shoes were positioned on the floor, standing on edge against the wall. Then she realized she was topless.

"I never sleep topless," she says. "I stumbled to the bathroom and there was vomit on the floor and I didn't remember being sick or even coming home." I looked down and there was bruising on the insides of my legs, a hand print on my left leg," she recalls. "I just felt awful and I knew something wasn't right."

Groggy and unnaturally tired, Orango fell back on to her bed and passed out until five that afternoon. She awoke again, still feeling queasy and uneasy. She spent that evening on the phone, talking to family and friends and trying in vain to piece together the lost hours that would never return, the horrible hole that would forever haunt her waking life.

On Thursday, Orango went to her doctor, who immediately sent her to Surrey Memorial Hospital for a rape kit. "They took me into the medical examiner right away," she says. "And had a social worker talking to me."

Orango's blood was drawn for HIV, she was given pills for syphilis and gonorrhoea. Swabs were taken and she was given a shot for Hepatitis B.

"I really felt like I was nothing more than a piece of meat," recalls Orango. "I guess he took me home, unlocked the door and let me in and raped me."

No comments: