For Anoch, in just one day her whole life has been changed. She went from being a normal 12 year old Sudanese girl, fetching water, sweeping, cooking and caring for her younger siblings to never walking again. How so? She was shot. Not from recent cattle raids, or the fighting in the town yesterday where the police came and fired guns to disperse crowds, no she was not harmed in either of those cases. Her injury came when her grandfather was trying to unload his gun and accidently shot her at point blank through her thigh. Her family carried her writhing in pain and distressed but thankfully the bullet had passed right through her leg. After stabilizing, cleaning the wound and praying our ambulance drove her the following day to the nearest hospital 75 miles away in Wau. But what happened next was quite unbelievable. The hospital refused to admit or treat her without a police report because it was a gunshot wound. Despite pleas and explanations from our staff that it was an accident and even with the child’s family verifying the story the hospital would not change their mind. This was so disheartening to me and a picture of how hardened South Sudan has become from the years of suffering and war. This poor child was transported back to Tonj, a three hour drive on a dirt and bumpy road in sweltering temperatures where she spent her second night in our clinic. By now the leg was very swollen, an infection had set in and the blood flow was disrupted. Our whole team was praying for options, medevac to Kenya or Juba, try and go back to Wau? These arrangements are challenging, requiring time to arrange transport, care and translators. Meanwhile we could see her leg was dying, smelling very bad and she was afraid. We encouraged the family to put their trust in the Lord and not to lose heart and not to call on the local magicians and witchdoctors. Sabet reassured Anoch we were going to take care of her and she would be OK. No matter what, we were here for her and would stay with her to find someone to take care for her medical needs. After the family received the police report Sabet decided to call the doctor and talk to him directly. He was told to bring her back to Wau. Knowing that Wau is our best option but very unreliable we prayed for her and sent a medical worker with her back to Wau. Sure enough on arrival they were told they could not be helped, but Moses, our community health worker (CHW) refused to return to Tonj and insisted they help Anoch. After hours of persistent pressure and negotiating, the hospital admitted our patient. Moses waited around until he was confident they were taking proper care of her and then returned to Tonj. By this time there was no other option but to amputate her leg. Please pray for Anoch and her family during this difficult time.