FLORENCE, Ky. — In January, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, R-Ky., released a new manual to help raise awareness on strangulation and prevent it from happening. In northern Kentucky, a nurse in helped create the new tool kit. 

Inside emergency rooms, medical responders often see the aftermath of domestic violence incidences. The injuries aren’t always visible.

Jill Brummett, a longtime forensic nurse at St. Elizabeth Healthcare Edgewood Hospital, said strangulation can often leave behind little physical marks.

“Non-fatal strangulation currently is the most lethal form of domestic violence. And why it is, is because it takes very little pressure for someone to occlude the blood flow to the brain,”Brummett explained.

To help patients show what they experienced, Brummett and her team use tools like styrofoam heads.

After Kentucky lawmakers passed a law making non-fatal strangulation a felony in 2019, Brummett and other experts partnered with the Kentucky Attorney General’s office to create a trial manual to help with prosecuting difficult cases.

The manual was published in January, providing prosecutors across the state a detailed guide to help build cases. For Brummett the guide is more the just pages, but about bringing some justice to survivors.

“I’m hoping that since the manual came out, and it was sent out everywhere that, it gets people talking and doing what’s best for these people in these situations,” she said.