Yesterday evening we had an 18-year-old female come in for abdominal pain and nausea. The triage RN, Joseph noticed that the two women with her were just off. They hovered over her. He asked the triage tech to do an EKG on her - not protocol but he told them it was. After getting the patient alone, the triage tech asked if she was ok. The patient stated she had been raped nine times today and in order to get away, she faked being sick.
They took her to an exam room and had the visitors wait even though they opposed and proceeded with the patient exam. The visitors attempted to come back and Joseph instructed Moreford (security) to not let them back and if they left, he must try to stop them. They indeed tried to leave, and he raced out and stopped them and placed them in the quiet room. We had already called MPD for the patient so they involved them so that they could interview the two visitors.
The visitors confessed to trafficking this girl. MPD took the patient for a SANE exam and hopefully she will be safe now. She is from Clarksville and had met an old friend. She was tased and forced to do cocaine and has been in captivity in Nashville for two weeks. The fact that Joseph recognized subtlety from the visitors is amazing. He saved her. This was a team effort but if I have to pick one person, it would be Joseph for recognizing that something 'just wasn't right.'