Thanks to you, sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) Sherece Sullivan is done with seeing victims dismissed due to a lack of evidence. Your gift provided Mercy Health — Lourdes Hospital with the high-tech equipment SANE nurses use to collect proof of heinous crimes.

“Sexual assault can be easy to dismiss if you don’t see injuries,” Sherece says. “But injuries can show up several days later.”

In the past, it’s been an uphill battle for victims when their injuries aren’t immediately visible. But advances in photographic technology mean those days are gone, provided a hospital has the resources to acquire it.

Thanks to you, Sherece has access to a Cortexflo camera. It uses ultra-high contrast to capture images that ordinary cameras can’t. This technology allows Sherece to document bruising that may be too faint for the human eye or find trace amounts of body fluids. This documentation is the evidence that law enforcement uses to bring a perpetrator to justice.

“I can testify all day long but that’s just my word,” she says. “When there is clear-cut evidence of injury with these pictures, it’s hard to dismiss. It will often be an automatic guilty verdict.”

A sense of justice provides emotional healing for victims. It also aids in public safety by putting sexual predators behind bars. Sherece is grateful, both as a nurse and as the mother of a daughter, that you are looking out for victims — today and in the future.

“You have provided a lot of justice to people in our area by giving this piece of equipment,” she says. “We really appreciate that.”