Years later, I can still close my eyes and visualize her bruised, swollen, toothless face. The young mother of three had secretly obtained birth control pills from a clinic. Upon finding her medication, her husband repeatedly struck her in the face, one blow dislodging her full dentures, which he then stomped to pieces. A neighbor accompanied her to the hospital and cared for her children in a small waiting area.
Clif CleavelandThe hospital was in a depressed Appalachian community where I had a temporary assignment to assist an overworked staff. My exam and X-rays of the woman showed no fractures. Her chief concern was replacement of her dentures, which she wore after all her teeth were extracted as a consequence of severe decay.
I contacted a very able young social worker who joined me in urging the young victim to allow contact with the sheriff’s office. The victim declined. All she wanted was to replace her dentures and return home. I will never know what became of her and her children.
This was the first of a number of encounters with victims of domestic violence that I would have in my years of medical practice. Fortunately, these patients had access to an array of supportive services – if they were willing to accept them. At no point in my medical training was the topic of domestic violence raised.
Domestic violence – physical or psychological abuse of an intimate partner – is a major public health issue. The crime knows no economic, social, religious, ethnic or racial boundaries. More than 20 million Americans are abused by an intimate partner in a typical year. One in five women and one in 17 men are victims of physical violence by an intimate partner during their lifetimes. At an extreme, violence may escalate to rape and murder. Seventy-two percent of all murders and suicides involve a partner, while half of all female victims of rape are assaulted by a partner.