Sexual assault survivor waits hours but Novant SANE nurses didn’t show

INDIAN LAND, S.C. — An Indian Land woman, who did not want to be identified, says that in August 2024, she was sexually assaulted. She wanted to press charges and build a case, so she says police told her to go to the hospital and see a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, more commonly called a SANE or SANE nurse.

The woman says he drove to Novant’s Ballantyne hospital.

“Before even checking in, I asked them at the desk, ‘Do you have this type of nurse available?’” she said. “The lady there, she actually made a phone call somewhere, and it was a few moments, and she said, ‘Yes. This person is here.’”

However, that person was not there, and it took nearly seven hours to find that out.

“I was ashamed. I was embarrassed,” she said. “I was lost and confused.”

She says during that time at Novant Ballantyne, she had to keep re-telling her story of sexual assault. Each time, she heard a different reason as to why a SANE nurse wasn’t available.

“I was given all kinds of reasons as to why this person wasn’t there,” she said. “‘We’re looking for this person. We’re waiting for them to answer the page. Someone may be in the facility that can do it,’ and it just kept changing. And I kept waiting because I need this done.”

After seven hours, she says a nurse came in and gave it to her straight.

“She just kind of felt bad for me, and she came in and she pretty much told me, ‘No one is here. No one is coming,’” she said.

She says she was told to come back the next morning and that she would be prioritized.

So she left, didn’t shower, and returned the next day.

“It was just like insult to injury,” she said.

Again, no SANE nurse was available.

“I was told then that these nurses, or this nurse, was at some sort of convention,” she said. “It was a SANE nurse convention. I never heard anything of a sort.”

She says she felt defeated.

“No one touched me,” she said. “No one looked at me. I really needed that evidence.”

She filed a complaint with North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services. The agency conducted an unannounced site visit in December and found Novant Ballantyne did not have a SANE nurse available to do a sexual assault examination.

Novant declined to speak with Channel 9 on camera for this report.

“Our emergency medicine teams, including physicians, advanced practice providers, and nurses, are always equipped and available 24/7 to provide care for patients who have experienced sexual assault,” a Novant spokesperson said. “These exams are offered whenever clinically appropriate, at all Novant Health medical centers, with the utmost concern for each patient’s dignity, safety, and healing.”

The sexual assault survivor wants to know, if that’s the case, why wasn’t an exam offered to her?

“This is the part that I don’t understand,” she said. “You would think they would have a female doctor just come in like, you know, humor me or something.”

Novant did not answer follow-up questions about her care and said they do not have a way to confirm if all of its SANE nurses were at a convention.

An online registration page shows there was an International Conference on Forensic Nursing that weekend in Colorado.

Neither North nor South Carolina require hospitals to have a specialized SANE nurse on duty. There’s no easy way for patients to find out if there’s one available at a given moment.

“I think that there is an ongoing need for sexual assault nurse examiners, not just across the state. I do think Mecklenburg County as well,” said Safe Alliance Chief Program Officer Cori Goldstein.

Cori Goldstein with Safe Alliance says while an ER doctor may be able to perform the exam, there are advantages to seeing a SANE nurse.

“A SANE nurse is going to have extra training around ensuring that they’re not only meeting the medical pieces and meeting the medical obligations, but they’re also going to be working in that trauma-informed manner in supporting a survivor throughout the process,” she said.

According to the International Association of Forensic Nurses, only 17%-20% of American hospitals have SANEs on staff.

In 2022, then North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, announced a new program aimed at training 50 North Carolina nurses to serve as SANE nurses.

State Sen. Woodson Bradley, who is a sexual assault survivor, says North Carolina should find ways to get more SANE nurses in hospitals.

“No person in the greatest time of need, having this amount of trauma, should go seeking help and not find the qualified person that they were told was going to be there,” she said.

The sexual assault survivor who sought care at Novant Ballantyne says she was not able to move forward with criminal charges in her sexual assault case because she didn’t receive an exam during those two days. Now she says she wants to be a voice for others, so they won’t go through what she did.

“I need to know that this is going to be fixed,” she said.

Safe Alliance is building the Umbrella Center in east Charlotte. The center will provide services to survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and abuse. One of the services which will be offered is access to a SANE nurse.

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