Cat Otway, Rn, Sane-A, Sane-P Email & Phone Number

Cat has a passion for improving the knowledge and response of healthcare providers and law enforcement to strangulation violence. She also cares deeply about increasing awareness of the signs and symptoms of strangulation and teaching providers and law enforcement better documentation methods to hold offenders accountable when their case is brought before a judge and jury.Cat has worked as a forensic nurse examiner and forensic interviewer with First Step at ProvidenceSt. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Montana for 14 years. First Step Resource Center provides medicalevaluations, forensic interviews, and referrals for children and adult victims of physical trauma andsexual violence. She has been a registered nurse for over 34 years and a forensic nurse for 16 years.Prior to coming to Missoula, Cat was a forensic nurse at the University Medical Center in Las Vegasand has served in other nursing positions throughout her career.Her skills, education and experience coalesced when she joined First Step. Cat continues to workwith patients in a medical setting, but she also provides training and consultation to healthcareproviders, law enforcement, and legal professionals with particular emphasis on the importance ofcommunication and developing relationships among members in the criminal justice and healthcaresystems for the benefit of the victim.A particular focus of Cat’s training has been on the topic of strangulation. Since 2010, Cat hasconducted numerous presentations to nurses, physicians, law enforcement officers, judges, socialworkers, advocates, dentists, attorneys, and emergency medical/first responders throughoutMontana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah. Cat currently trains nationally as a certified instructor for theTraining Institute on Strangulation Prevention based in San Diego, CA. She has also been invited asa guest speaker to talk about date rape and sexual assault, a topic of particular interest onuniversity and high school campuses across the state. Cat is often called on as an expert witness totestify and educate jury members on the lethality of strangulation injuries.Cat authored two strangulation articles for the Missoulian on behalf of St. Patrick Hospital in the“Nurse’s Notes” column to reach a broad public audience and educate the community on thedifference between choking and strangulation, with a powerful message that strangulation leads tounconsciousness within seconds and death within minutes.