ADVANCING HEALTH-CARE PRACTICE

3.3     Susan's Story

What I didn't think was good about the hospital was how they kept pushing me. You go in there and they pressure you, you know, to give names, to press charges. But, if you give his name, he's going to come back for you, right? They were like, 'Let's nail him, he's not allowed to do that'. Well, I know that. Nobody has the right to hit anybody. They would say, 'Well, put a restraining order on him', but what good's that going to do? You know, they can't protect you 24 hours a day. When I finally did put one together, it was just as I said. They weren't able to protect me. He kept coming back and back and back.

One time he ended up in the house, he smashed the back window, broke in and came in, there was blood everywhere, he was screaming and shouting at me. Six foot four, two hundred and forty pound Viking, just raging. I called 911. I got put on hold. And then the police show up, and they're outside waiting. Waiting for what? Waiting for him to actually kill me? It was nuts. Eventually, you just don't bother with that. And the amount of red tape that you have to go through to even get a restraining order. So you just forget it and you keep taking it. Better to try to make him happy than to try to get him upset and have him on your back all the time. Or, have him hit you, cause you don't know how bad it's going to get the next time.