Performance

Abstract

The chart diagnosis is “alleged sexual assault,” but the true, bare word is “rape.” When a woman is raped, she is usually brought, or brings herself, to the nearest Emergency Department (ED), where she can be examined, and where evidence can be collected. Rape cases go by many terms in EDs, sometimes “Code R,” so that the staff may be discreet and ensure patient privacy. The term unintentionally sanitizes the circumstance, giving it a clinical aura—as though it were just another kind of “code.” Yet a “Code R” is one of the worst cases you can have as an Emergency Physician; in all ways it is difficult and distasteful. The patient is traumatized, the encounter between doctor and patient is tense, and the collection of evidence is time-consuming and meticulous. No one wants to do a “Code R.” If there are Emergency Medicine residents around, the attendings will often delegate the case to them.