By SUZANNE M. SCHMIDT

While collecting signatures for their petition, Thonotosassa residents Kim White and Opal Colvin met a myriad of people who were behind their cause.
Colvin, a victim of domestic abuse, and White, a nurse, recently sent a petition with more than 700 signatures to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s office. Under current law when a person is a victim of domestic abuse the cost of any medical treatment is the victim’s responsibility. The petition is calling for the abuser to have to pay.
“I left a domestic abuse situation,” Colvin said. “He didn’t hit me until right before our first-year anniversary. By that time, he already messed up my vehicle, my credit and my cash flow...so if it does pass, it will make the abuser be held accountable and at least it will let women know they will be able to go to the hospital and get help.”
If the victim will name the abuser and the abuse can be proven by either general exam or X-rays then the named individual would be responsible for the medical expenses.
“A lot of women don’t ever get the damage taken care of,” Colvin said. “Broken ribs don’t heal themselves. Sometimes they loosen dental work and many women don’t have the money to fix things like that. You get to a point where you have to prioritize and other things are much more important.”
According to the research White and Colvin have found, the costs for medical treatment for domestic abuse victims in 2005 was about $1.8 billion in the U.S. with about 20 percent to 30 percent unpaid. If the bill was passed, they say hospitals would save about $360 million per year.
“For women who are now 16, one out of every four relationships in their lifetime will end in domestic violence and for men, one out of every 14 relationships will end in domestic violence,” Colvin said. “Those numbers aren’t even completely accurate because so many cases are not reported. They gather those statistics from police reports, emergency room reports and death certificates. With such a large part of the population going through domestic violence, you would think there would be better laws.”
Colvin and White are hoping some men and women will join the cause by writing and calling their governor.
“Any attention we can get is going to help. The main thing is for this to get passed. So many people don’t have good jobs with insurance and they need this. There are so many people this will help,” she said.
Colvin said she hopes this goes beyond the state level.
“I would like to try and contact people like John Edwards and Barack Obama. We feel this needs to be done on a national level,” she said.
While collecting signatures in front of libraries, stores and anywhere else people would let them set up, Colvin and White said many people said the same thing over and over.
“Many people thought this was already a law,” Colvin said. “A lot of people we met talked about how domestic violence affected their lives. People were saying this has been needed for a long time.”
In fact, the issue was so important to some people that they would either call or go and get people and bring them back to sign the petition.
“Some women and men would ask if we were going to be there long and would pull out their cell phone to get friends to come out and sign,” Colvin said. “Some people would leave and come back with family members. I met some really lovely people.”
Many of the more than 700 signatures came from people who had been affected by domestic violence.
“They would say they knew family who had been beat up and wanted to help,” White said. “We really need to fix these laws.”
White said she sees many cases of what she thinks might be domestic violence through her job as a nurse.
“When a person is always coming in hurt, but they won’t tell you what happened there is nothing you can do for them,” White said. “I try to take them off to the side and find out what is going on. Usually they won’t tell on the man because they don’t want to get beat even worse. They become like prisoners or slaves.”
White said before she met Colvin she looked at domestic violence in a completely different way.
“I would see them coming in with the same person and getting beat up over and over,” White said. “I would always wonder why they would keep going back until I met Opal.”
There aren’t a lot of resources out there for women or men in that situation. When women go back over and over again, it isn’t usually because they love the man. It is because they have to go back.”
Colvin said when she left her husband and had to leave the state because he wouldn’t leave her alone, she found she had nowhere to turn.
“If you have children or pets it is hard to find a place to go,” Colvin said. “Also a lot of shelters are on a standby basis. It takes you being beaten like a pulp before some places will help you. If you don’t have a family to go back to, you are in trouble.”
Colvin left her abusive husband a few years ago with the small amount of possessions she could.
“I had my important documents always ready in my car,” Colvin said. “I let him use my car and he ran it into the ground as well as stole my documents. He also let all my possessions in a storage room be sold without telling me. He was setting me up from the moment we were married.”
Now Colvin wants to take what she has learned from her experience and help others.
“I want to stress for women to plan ahead and have your documents ready,” Colvin said. “Without your birth certificate, you can’t get anything. You also need your social security card. This has been an education that I didn’t want. I had to hitchhike my way and stay with various people for seven months before I came to this area.”
Many women will go back over and over to an abuser because they feel there is no way for them to get out.
“One of the reasons women go back is because they need to get documents,” Colvin said. “About 70 percent of women who go back to get something from the home after finally leaving a guy will be beat up so much they either have to go to the hospital or they are killed. If you leave him, never go back by yourself.”
Colvin said she wants to help others learn from her mistakes by becoming a public speaker..
“We wrote a paper about recognizing the signs of a potential abuser,” Colvin said. “I want people to know what they do and to get out while they are still able.”
If interested in contacting either Colvin or White e-mail opalandkimdocs@hot-
mail.com or .