Editor’s note: This article discusses sexual assault. If you need help, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or look to Mirror Indy’s resource guide.
In a sterile hospital room, Eileen Poore took off her clothes from the attack.
“This is all a dream, right?” the 36-year-old mother asked through tears. “I’m going to wake up tomorrow.”
“I hope so, honey,” said the nurse as she took photos and swabs for a rape kit.
Her body had become a crime scene. And for the next few hours, her nurse documented it.
During the exam, Poore said one thing, over and over again: “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” her nurse replied.
Poore had been sexually assaulted in Broad Ripple by her ride-share driver on July 27, 2019. Months later, the DNA collected that night would be tested. It matched a sample taken from the driver, investigators found, leading to his arrest. The nurse would later be added to the witness list in a court case.
When Poore left that exam room, she was unsure what would happen next. She had new clothes, a folder of resources and the nurse’s email address. She saved it on her phone.
One day, she would thank the woman who had guided her through hell.
Eileen Poore credits her forensic nurse with saving her life.
“Having somebody that can put you at ease and believe you and get you through that first step of the process is so important,” Poore says.
Indiana’s sexual assault nurse shortage
The nurse that night had special training.
She is a sexual assault nurse examiner — the first point of contact for a survivor at a hospital.
Nurses like her provide medical care, including pregnancy and HIV prevention, treatment for sexually transmitted infections and referrals for counseling and advocates. They are also specially trained to collect evidence that can be used in court.
Not everyone pursues charges. But if a case goes to trial, the nurse becomes the prosecutor’s favorite witness — someone who can explain the DNA evidence to jurors or share the survivor’s demeanor during the exam: what they said, how they felt, their tears.
“In my experience, the conviction rate is higher when a survivor gets an exam from a trained nurse,” said Amy Blackett, a former Marion County sex crimes prosecutor who now trains others at the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council. “Their testimony is invaluable.”
Indiana, though, has a shortage.
Months after she was sexually assaulted by a ride-share driver, Poore ran a marathon whose route crossed paths with the place she was attacked. She wore the sweatshirt and pants the hospital had given her as her throw-away warmups and left notes of forgiveness along the route.
“I needed a finish line and I needed to know that the fire was still there even though I had barely started going through it,” Poore recalled. “It was sort of the start of a path to working through it and trying to heal and trying to forgive.”
One in five Hoosier women are sexually assaulted, according to the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking; yet a 2022 Indiana University School of Medicine report found that only 493 nurses in the state were trained to provide sexual assault exams — a fraction of the 114,000 health care workers surveyed.
That leaves large gaps, including in the areas surrounding Indianapolis: Hamilton, Johnson and Boone are among 45 counties that have zero hospitals with sexual assault nurse examiners.
Nearly 70% of rape kits performed at Marion County hospitals last year were for out-of-county survivors, according to the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. The state agency reimburses hospitals for sexual assault exams, which remain free for patients.
But that doesn’t cover the full cost of retaining nurses or equipment, said Natalie Calow, a coordinator at IU Health Methodist Hospital’s Center of Hope, which sees about 250 sexual assault victims per year.
“Forensic nursing programs are expensive, and we don’t generate any revenue,” Calow said. “I just wish hospitals would look at it as a community benefit.”
Forced to turn away survivors
Barriers to collecting evidence can quickly mount.
Some survivors travel a long way to Indianapolis, waiting for a nurse to become available.
If they shower, drink, eat, use the bathroom or change clothes, DNA could be lost.
The exams can last so long — four to eight hours — that some people cope by listening to music on headphones. The time commitment for survivors and nurses is substantial.
Marion County hospitals most often can handle the influx of cases from other parts of the state, Calow said, but doing so can limit what resources are available to residents here.
“If the police or another hospital calls and I already have a case,” Calow said, “I can’t take another.”
It happens to her about four times a month. But there’s hope that will change.
IU Health received a $1.39 million grant to train more sexual assault nurse examiners across the state for the next three years. That adds to current efforts at the University of Southern Indiana, which since 2018 has offered financial assistance and training to nurses who perform sexual assault exams.
“If you do the exam right, it gives the power back to the survivor,” said Angie Morris, the coordinator of Southern Indiana’s training. “It meets their needs, connects them to resources and allows them to decide what happens next.”
At least 63% of sexual assaults are not reported to the police, according to the National Sexual Violence Center. Specialized nurses still see survivors who opt out of the exam.
“Many people don’t realize they still need medical treatment after a sexual assault,” Calow said. “We go over their options.”
It’s a deeply personal decision — and one that could have been different for Poore.
“To be able to have reminders that you can keep going is so important and critical, in the form of love and affection and softness,” Poore said.
‘I wouldn’t be alive without her’
Poore, now 42, was just a few miles from IU Health Methodist Hospital after the ride-share driver assaulted her in 2019.
“If I would have had time to think or drive,” Poore said, “I probably would have talked myself out of the exam.”
The legal process stretched on for two years, in part because of systemic courtroom delays in 2020 tied to the pandemic. The case changed prosecutors three times.
“I was in a really dark hole, and I didn’t feel believed,” Poore said. “It was just agony, going through it over and over again. I just needed it to be over.”
Eventually, she told the prosecutor’s office that she would be comfortable with a plea agreement. Her attacker pleaded guilty to criminal confinement and was sentenced to six years of probation. It still brings tears to her eyes today.
“Quite frankly, it was a gift to him that he wasn’t convicted of rape,” Poore said. “I wanted to give my kids their mom back. I had been through enough.”
The one part of the process she found helpful was connecting with her nurse. She had support from someone trained to gently examine the parts of her that had been violated.
“She was really influential in my aftercare and helped me get counseling right away,” Poore said. “I wouldn’t be alive without her.”
After the court case ended, the two women got dinner and hugged. That’s when Poore learned her nurse had been praying for her.
“My forensic nurse was really influential in the exam, my aftercare and me having the resources to get to counseling right away. Had I not done that, I might not still be here. It’s pretty dark,” Eileen Poore said. “I just can’t imagine that’s not commonplace for every hospital. It just it blows my mind.”
The starting line
Poore has always been a runner.
In 2019, she ran the Boston Marathon. From there, she was looking forward to completing her 21st full marathon in the fall.
But after the assault, she stopped going outside to train.
On July 29, 2019, two days after the attack, she ran on the treadmill in her downtown apartment. She titled the run in an app on her phone: “not taking this.”
July 30 was 5 miles: “just try.”
July 31: “watching my legs run.”
There was rage at the thought of giving up, of letting him win. She’d been to the therapist recommended by her nurse. They’d talked about how her healing process could exist outside the courtroom.
So that November, even though she hadn’t eaten or slept well in months, Poore stood on the starting line in downtown Indianapolis.
Part of the Monumental Marathon followed the same route that her attacker had driven just a few months earlier.
Right before the race started, she took off her warm-ups: the blue sweatshirt and sweatpants given to her at the hospital by the nurse.
She threw them on the ground and ran.
Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.
How to help
- Get training to become a sexual assault nurse examiner.
- Donate to IU Health Methodist Hospital’s Center of Hope.
- Run in a NO MORE 5k to support survivors.
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