Nineteen-year-old Cortney Fry was strangled and her body set on fire in 2004, just two weeks after she’d given birth.

William Bottenfield, 13, and 43-year-old Ashley Boyce both were shot in 2004, the same year Christina Colon’s discolored, decomposed body was found in a quarry where the pregnant 24-year-old had been shot in the head. Seven-month-old Karissa Lynn Shaub was killed that year, too.

Twenty-one-month-old Vance McNeil was beaten to death in 2003. Later that same month, all four Birster children — Andrew, 10; Tylor, 9; Brianna, 7; and Kirsten, 4 — burned to death in an arson fire.

Lois May Bawell was 41 when she was strangled to death in 2000. In 1991, Andrea Marie Roschel was killed. In 1990, 31-year-old Kathy Sue Axe was strangled. In 1989, 33-year-old Barbara Keller was shot.

The list of domestic violence victims goes on forever.

And those are just the ones who died. Many more live with it every day.

In spite of all these Lancaster County victims, domestic violence is not a popular discussion topic here.

“The Coalition Against Family Violence came together in 1999 with the thought that our community didn’t talk about it as much as other communities,” said Alice Yoder, LGH community health director. “There was just a feeling that it was something people didn’t feel comfortable talking about.”

That’s also why Lancaster General decided to incorporate domestic violence screening protocol. For the past year, patients entering Lancaster General’s emergency department were screened. About eight months ago screening was added at Family Health Services and recently at Women & Babies Hospital. It’s a matter of asking patients four simple questions:

Has your partner or other family member ever hit, pushed, shoved, punched, kicked or physically hurt you?

Are you currently or have you ever been in a relationship where you were threatened or made to feel afraid?

Does your partner or a family member frequently criticize you, insult you, blame you or try to control your behavior too much?

Have you ever been forced or pressured to participate in sexual activity when you did not want to?

But in the course of training Lancaster General employees how to do domestic violence screening, the health care system learned something startling about its own staff, of which 80 percent are women.

“We quickly found out we had an issue with our own staff and domestic violence,” Yoder said. “I should have thought about it ahead of time because one in four women are current or past victims of domestic violence. We’d have 20 employees in the room for a training session and two or three of every group had been victims.”

So the first programs installed were for employees.

“We started education programs for our own employees so we could nurture and provide support for them so they would also feel comfortable enough with the issue to be able to screen our patients,” Yoder said.

The health-care setting is an ideal place to screen. Yoder said studies show confidentiality is essential for domestic violence victims to disclose abuse. Because physicians already are obligated to confidentiality by law, victims are more likely to feel safe enough to tell a physician about abuse.

Yoder also said patients may see the results of domestic violence without even recognizing it. A black eye clearly suggests abuse. But so can stress-related disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome if a physician knows a patient is in an abusive relationship.

Wednesday is national Health Cares About Domestic Violence Day, when a point is made to talk about the links between stemming abuse and the health-care community’s role in prevention and support.

“This is a way to bring attention in the health-care community to addressing this issue,” Yoder said. “We have done training with many physician practices in this area to tell them about the issue and what to do. We’re really encouraging it, so it becomes normalized. We need to provide a very trusting and comforting environment when people are screened.”

Normalizing a discussion about abusive relationships is no easy task. There’s shame and embarrassment, and victims and abusers alike might not recognize what they’re experiencing as abuse because it might be just like their parents’ relationships. Victims can feel trapped because of money or the welfare of their children.

On Wednesday, the public may attend any of three screenings of “Voices of Survivors,” a half-hour documentary about dozens of survivors who tell health-care providers and the public about the cycle of domestic violence. After the video, staff from Domestic Violence Services and Samaritan Counseling Center will lead a discussion about local resources and the documentary.

“We feel we’re still not reaching everyone we need to reach because we’re still in training,” Yoder said of Lancaster General. “But if women are so isolated and their spouse is abusive, they might not even know there’s another option. You don’t have to live in that type of environment. It’s a choice to stay in that relationship.”


“Voices of Survivors” will be shown today at Women & Babies Hospital, 2nd Floor Conference Room of the Women’s Pavilion at 9 a.m.; Lancaster General Hospital, dining room number 2 at noon and 2 p.m.