After her visit at an adolescent medical clinic in Los Angeles in January, 19-year-old Serena was afraid to go home. Six days before, her boyfriend had beaten her so badly that she had to go to the emergency room. Serena’s name has been changed to protect her safety.
“She was so sad and so scared,” said Monica Sifuentes, my colleague and an adolescent medicine pediatrician at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, who treated Serena. With visible sadness, she told me Serena’s story.
Serena, who is Latina, isn’t currently in school or working. She hasn’t been able to support herself. She knew her boyfriend was in a gang, but she said he was attentive and took care of her—at first. Then, he became controlling and mean. She broke up with him, and he became angry, punching her in her head, dragging her across the floor and choking her. He ran away when the police arrived.
[For more on this story by ChrisAnna Mink, go to http://www.calhealthreport.org...d-but-underreported/]
Comments (0)