Erica
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
About 40 years ago, when Erica was in primary school, a car struck her as she was running across the road.
‘I was knocked unconscious for three and a half weeks and I wasn't meant to survive,’ Erica told the Royal Commission. ‘I had to learn to do everything again, like walk and talk and eat and all that normal stuff.’
Erica had an acquired a brain injury (ABI) as a result, and struggled with fatigue, impaired speech and short-term memory loss. Nonetheless, she was so ‘focused on work and pleasing [her] parents’ she finished school and became a trainee nurse in a hospital.
‘After a year of being there, like, I was good with the patients, but they said I lacked confidence.’
The hospital tried to sack Erica, but she successfully appealed. She felt the hospital then tried to make her leave by refusing to make reasonable adjustments for her ABI.
‘They wanted to fuck me up and they did … They put me onto the worst ward imaginable – burns. I was meant to be going to oncology, you know, where I would've been really good because I'm good with talking to patients.’
Erica struggled with the multitasking needed in a burns ward, and the hospital ‘sacked [her] anyway’.
She continued her training at university where she ‘did really well’ and won an award. When she became a registered nurse, her first job was at a faith-based hospital.
Erica said she never considered herself ‘good enough’, but one of the pastoral members of staff was kind to her and sometimes ‘put his arm around [her]’.
‘I thought nothing of it at the time.’
One day, when Erica was dealing with a family crisis, the staff member invited her to his office and kissed her.
‘And his whiskey breath and then he's hugging me and I'm sort of in shock.’
She left his office and later told him that if he did ‘something like that again’ she’d report him.
Later, a hospital administrator took her aside and ‘physically pushed’ her out the door.
‘[They] said, “You're not coping with being at work. We don't want you to ever come back, not ever. Not even to visit. You're never to enter this place again.”’
Erica said she feels ‘a bit’ like it’s her fault because she has an ABI and she isn’t ‘as quick’ at reading other people’s intentions.
‘I never thought about it as abuse. I just thought it was a guy sort of trying to be nice.’
Erica told the Royal Commission her constant effort to try to ‘appear normal’ with an ABI ‘leads to further exhaustion and depression’.
‘Add abuse to that and, well, for someone with an ABI they will assume that it is all their fault. I certainly did.’
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.