A Better Pill to Swallow

Ut Tyler Professor Presents Health Care Framework At United Nations

BY ELIZABETH NEWSOM

DR. CATHY MILLER, professor of nursing at The University of Texas at Tyler, recently presented her research on human trafficking to the World Health Organization at the United Nations.

She was accompanied by two UT Tyler Honors students, Andrea Reyes and Kevin Larios, alongside the dean of the Honors College, Dr. Paul Streufert.

Miller’s work specifically focus ed on developing a framework for how health care workers should respond when they treat trafficking victims.

According to their research, 88% to 96% of trafficking victims see a health care provider at least once during their captivity—though most of them see a health care provider many times.

Miller was first inspired to start this program back in 2000, when she’d only been a nurse for five years. She was working in pediatric trauma and treated a 9 -year- old trafficking victim who had been found by border patrol. The girl had been kept in her captor’s trunk for months, so long that her arm and leg muscles had atrophied and she could no longer straighten them.

Miller says that she went home that night, knowing that while she’d treated the girl medically, she didn’t do everything that needed to be done.

This girl inspired Miller to become to principal investigator for a four - yearlong initiative involving five health care systems to try to present their findings to the WHO director. Miller created this framework so that no other health care worker would have to experience the helplessness of not knowing what to do with a human trafficking victim.

In speaking about the 9-year-old trafficking victim, Miller says, “She’ll never know it, but she changed the course of my life.”

Dr. Berry

Medical expert brings a passion for health to School of Medicine