Michael T. Svoboda, RN, MSN, CPNP,Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas

“I have been providing medical evaluation of child abuse victims for the past 5 years and in that time I have documented the physical findings of several children who have made outcries of strangulation. I felt that my physical evaluations and documentation on these cases were excellent; however, after your training I realized I was only capturing a small portion of the physical symptoms of strangulation and have since included the assessment of these subtle, but significant, symptoms into my assessments. As a result, my current evaluations include not only the physical findings (petechiae, bruising, etc.) but also a very thorough review of the symptoms of strangulation (ringing in the ears, seeing stars, inability to speak afterward, drooling, thoughts during the event, etc.) that make my notes more complete and my medical opinions more definitive when diagnosing child abuse from strangulation.”