11.07.2012

Seoul Rape Medical Treatment and National Police Hospital (Located on Line 3, exit 1)


Sharing information about rape kit in Seoul from:

You Are Not Alone

First, thank you to youarenotaloneseoul for sharing this experience with us all so that we can be better informed about how get medical treatment and report rape in Seoul. This is a repost:

Where To Go: If you are raped you first instance after the shock has settled in might want to go straight to the shower to wash the filth of away, but DO NOT DO THAT! You need to go straight to the police so that they can take you to a hospital to have the DNA of the perpetrator collected from vaginal secretion cultures, clothing and saliva.  I personally, skipped the part of going to the police, because I went straight to the hospital. The hospital that I went to told me that in Seoul when these things happen (RAPE IS EXTREMELY COMMON IN KOREA BUT IS ALSO EXTREMELY UNDER REPORTED IN THE MEDIA) the place to go to is the National Police Hospital. This hospital is located on line 3 heading towards Ogeum. It’s one stop before the end of the line and the stop is called National Police Hospital. This hospital has a section that deals with sexual violence called the “One Stop Center”. You can get to the “One Stop Center” by going out of exit 1 of the National Police Hospital station and make a left walking towards a tiny bridge that takes you directly into the hospital. The hospital has an emergency room connected to it and the doctors speak enough English to help you.
How Are You “Helped”: Once in the One Stop Center inside that National Police Hospital you will have a network of people helping you. You will have detective assigned to your case who will come and question you to get your statement. If you cannot speak Korean a translator will be brought in to translate. After getting your account of what took place you will be taken into an small hospital room to be examined by the resident OB/GYN who will conduct all tests for sexually transmitted diseases and infections ,cultures will be taken to be sent to a crime lab and you will provide two urine samples. After these exams have been taken you will be given Plan B (the morning after pill), 4 antibiotic tablets to be taken at once and an antibiotic shot on the buttocks to prevent infections/diseases. This process is a bit traumatizing but needs to be done. After this you will questioned in an interrogation room which will be recorded. Police officers will be dispatched to collect the rape kit and start looking for the perpetrator. If you need to speak to councilor, because of such a traumatic experience one will be provided to you for as long as you need. Everything is kept confidential. Your school, parents, boyfriend/girlfriend shall not be contacted unless you give the staff and/or police officers permission.
How You Might Feel: You will be grateful for having such a network of people to help you, but also exhausted from the questioning and exams. Other feeling such as shock , disgust, fear, nausea, self-loathing, hate etc. I suppose will vary from person to person. Personally, I was shocked, angry, nauseous and in tears 98% of the time. Never once did I blame myself for what happened and you shouldn’t either. Rape is never the victims fault! 
How Much Will This Cost You in Medical Bills?: Everything I mentioned above is FREE. The government covers the cost. All you need to do is get yourself to this hospital.
The Outcome of My Experience: This happened to me 1 month ago so nothing is settled. I am still going to doctors visits, working with detectives to try to retrace my steps and getting all of help and support I need from the hospital staff and friends. I am extremely worried that this person might have given me HIV/Herpes/HPV, but  I won’t have peace of mine for that until 5 months from now when I would have been tested twice reaching the 6th month mark. So for now everything is pending.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous7/11/12 21:54

    Dirtbag who ever he is! You are a brave and special woman. Thank you for thinking about other women and writing a very resourceful piece. It's sad but true that living abroad this kind of information needs to be dug for. My sympathies and more go out to you...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I completely agree with you, I am really thankful to the original poster for sharing this experience so that we can know about resources. It is difficult to find information, so I hope more readers will educate us about available facilities and resources. Thanks for writing!

      Delete