Hospital Sanctioned Sexual Abuse

A brief word before I start.  I am not going cite a bunch of studies and articles.  That is not to say that I cannot back up my comments because I can but to me, it is distracting to have to read all of the works cited.  This is mostly my opinion from real life experiences and from what articles I have read.  As I build my website, I will be listing various articles and studies that you may review on your own.

 

While it true that when we have medical encounters, we can expect at some time that we may have to expose our breasts, vaginas, testicles, or penises.  However, what we don’t anticipate is the manner in which this may be done, why it is being done, and to whom is viewing our nudity.  What many people don’t understand is the complete lack of sensitivity, compassion, and lack of respect for basic human dignity that many hospital workers have.

I have read that nursing is the most trusted profession.  I am absolutely stunned!  Do people really think that?  Why would they think that?  Could it be that burying our heads in the sand and pretending that nurses are not capable of sexually inappropriate behavior?  Could be denying that those 20 something nurses and techs are not creatures that have sexual desires?  Could we also be denying that like most humans they view are genitals in a sexual manner while they are doing their jobs of prep?  Are we that naïve that we don’t realize that when we are laying there naked and drugged that they are taking inventory and making their own private inventory of us?

There are many articles about male nurses/techs sexually assaulting female patients.  However, it is rare to see such a story about a female nurse/tech.  Why is that?  Is it because females don’t have sexual feelings and act on them?  Is it because in real life females never initiate sexual contact?  Of course, that is not the case especially in today’s age of everything goes and is allowed if you are of the female gender.  Or could it be that males have been subjected to having to have intimate care given by female nurses/techs for years and that society has told them this is acceptable and men do not complain about their personal dignity being abused?

I am female and I have had male doctors.  I like male doctors even less than female doctors but I tolerate them.  However, I have never been in the position of being drugged and defenseless with a male doctor or a room full of male nurses/techs.  For male patients, this scenario is common.  During the course of their lifetime, the overwhelming majority of males will at some point, be naked, drugged, and probably have their memory of the event purposely erased.  They may even remember being in the midst of an all-female team of nurses/techs, naked and exposed.

For anyone undergoing surgery or a heart catheterization procedure, it is scary.  But also what is scary that is either sugar-coated or glossed over is the amount of unnecessary exposure that all patients have to endure.  The even scarier part is that most patients are given drugs like Versed whose primary purpose is its ability to erase memories.  They may label it as an anti-anxiety drug but the real purpose it or a drug like it is given is to erase memory.  It sounds like something from a Nazi concentration camp and to me, it is.  I don’t think that anyone should have the right to decide what memories we are allowed to have or not.  I think this drug and others like it crosses a very serious ethical dilemma.  It should be banned or used only under the strictest regulations and never without absolute patient knowledge and consent.

For females, the surgery team has a greater chance of being made up of mostly women.  However, from several sources I have read that a female requesting an all-female team may in fact get males.  This is done, in my mind, because doctors don’t like patients telling them how to run their operation.  Never mind the fact the operation is on you and ultimately you are the boss and the medical personnel are in fact your temporary employees.  Many doctors have long had the attitude that patients should not and furthermore will and do not have say in the manner in which their medical care is delivered or even a say in what type of treatment is needed.   And even more to the point, many patients let them get away with this attitude.  I feel this is done out of fear as the doctor literally has the power of life and death and the quality of which life may have.  If this is the case, would you let a known car thief borrow your car?  Probably not so why would you let a doctor control something so invaluable as your life without question or asserting your rights?

For males, it is almost a given the majority of the team will be female.  To that, most will be young females.  Today’s society has not done well in teaching our younger society members to be respectful especially of men.  Men bear the burden of everything that has gone wrong with the world since the beginning of time especially now that the MeToo movement has come to the forefront.  I think many younger females may base their actions on what they see and hear from the media.  I also think that many nurses/techs act out against the tyranny the surgeon displays towards the female staff by abusing their drugged, naked, and vulnerable male patients.

From experience I have had knowledge of, male patients are left exposed unnecessarily.  This is done for who knows why but the fact remains it happens.  Some procedures, such as heart catheterizations, the lower genital region of a male patient may be left exposed during the entire prep (shaving too) time.  There is no need for this but it happens far more frequently than we probably know.  Some facilities say they use a blue towel but the towel usually is not placed until after the alcohol type prep is done and dried but the blue towel has a tendency to move out of place.  There are garments that a patient could put on called Covr that indeed covers the area but still allows full access to the groin area.  However, not many facilities have initiated the use of these garments as they simply don’t think patient dignity concerns are an issue.  After all, we all same the same body parts and they are professional.   However, they are not the ones naked.  Maybe if they were naked with clear plastics covers it would make that argument more agreeable but they do value and guard their dignity but not ours.  It is also a common fact that medical rarely go to the facility they work at for procedures that require them to be naked and exposed in front of their peers.  If it doesn’t matter because we all have the same body parts…?

We know that patients are naked, drugged so they have little or no more memory recall in the OR or cath lab.  We know that the consent forms give them the right to have whoever they want in attendance when the patient is exposed.  We also know that many people are addicted to their smartphones—smartphones are the ones with cameras.  I don’t imagine many people are aware that many institutions allow medical staff to use their cell phones in OR and in other patient care areas.  This is very scary.  It could perhaps be a selfie that that accidentally includes the naked patient in the background or it could be an intentional picture of the naked patient to post on social media to show and make some comment about their anatomy.  You may never know it until someday someone recognizes your face, your breast, or your penis.  By that time, you have been sexually assaulted thousands of time.  There is no way smartphones should be allowed for staff use in patient care areas.  Only devices facility owned without camera ability should be allowed in patient care areas PERIOD.

 

Consider the female nurse in a patient room where the male patient is drugged and not able to defend themselves and this male patient is left with his penis and testicles exposed for hours.  The curtain is not drawn.  Other staff members come into the room.  These may be staff members like techs who draw blood, who do housekeeping duties, IT techs, or even other nurses who come to chat to the nurse.  Why is it okay to leave a drugged male patient exposed?  There is no medical reason for this being done.  In fact, it is detrimental to the patient’s health to leave them exposed and cold.  Not to mention to their mental health.  This is a form of sexual abuse.  If the male patient was not drugged, then the nurse would not have done this.  If this happens to a female patient/male nurse, then the alarm bells would ring but since this happened to a male patient—who cares?  He is only a man and nurses are the most trusted profession.  So what if they fail to uphold their oath of protecting their patient’s dignity and fail to guard their patient from harm both physically and mentally?  This type of sexual abuse is real and occurs more than we probably know.  Unnecessarily exposing any patient is sexual abuse.  Sexual crimes are crimes of control and this is exactly what medical staff do—they try to control us while we are in their facility.  We are told what we can do, what drugs they will give us, what their treatment plan is, what food they will allow us to eat, when we can or can’t have visitors—like I said in another blog article-prison.  Why was is this type of exposure taking place?  A drugged, vulnerable male laying exposed and alone for hours with two nurses while they are laughing.  This is sexual abuse.  What were they doing?  The Versed drug man does not know.  That was intended and furthermore, the nurses know the man’s vulnerable because of the drugs.

There are many pictures all over the Internet of various surgical procedures.  Some of them show male patients getting prepped for knee surgery with his penis exposed and later show a picture of his face.  Why was his penis exposed should be the question?  Access to that area was not needed as no foley catheter was used.  Why are stripped naked for surgeries not requiring access to their breasts, vaginas, and/or penises?  Why do the heart catheterization sites either not address the exposure or say your dignity is respected when it is not?  If they are exposing your genital area without real cause then it is sexual abuse.  My guess it is a power control issue.  It fully makes individuals vulnerable and takes away their dignity.  Medical people don’t like to think of patients as being human.  They tend to think of us as objects placed in their care for manipulation.

 

Many aspects of medical care are kept in a veil of secrecy.  If the general public only knew what really happens then things would change.  It is the plan of the medical community to keep their inter-workings a secret.  When you complain to hospital administration, they sweep it under the rug.  They make excuses or say this didn’t happen.  But they know this happens.  This is why I say sexual abuse of male patients is hospital sanctioned.  It is my plan to expose them.