http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/03/world/meast/syria-desperate-family/index.html?hpt=hp_c3
[CNN]
One Syrian story: A sniper's bullet, a dying child, a family's desperation -
CNN.com
By Nick Paton Walsh , CNN
September 4, 2012 -- Updated 1412 GMT (2212 HKT)
CNN.com
Aleppo, Syria (CNN) -- Rena was playing on her lounge floor, in her mother's
lap, when the shot tore through her cheek. She grimaced, cried for her mother
and then went silent, as the blood began to flow in her mouth.
The bullet came from nowhere, bursting through the frosted-glass window on the
family balcony, knocking out one of her teeth, and shattering her family's
world. But in Aleppo, their ordeal had just begun because the struggle here is
always to find medical help, fast.
Her neighbor -- the women looking after Rena can't leave their home
unaccompanied by male relatives -- then rushed her to the street, carrying her
body. That's when we saw him, the sight of a man carrying a limp girl still
striking even amid the daily atrocities of Aleppo.
He flagged down a truck and they began to race towards the hospital. We
followed, unsure what had happened. After a minute, the neighbor noticed us and
clearly decided our car might move through the traffic faster. He stopped the
truck he was in, leapt out and ran towards us, Rena bleeding in his arms, and
screamed for help.
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He threw Rena onto the back seat and told us to race to the hospital, saying,
"Guys, she's choking."
Amid the traffic and blast of our horns, the sound of Rena's struggle to
breathe was clear. A sucking sound, coupled with a gargle. The blood was
flowing down her cheeks. Her neighbor screamed out of the window for cars to
pass. After a minute that seemed to creep by, the car arrived at the hospital.
Dar Al'Shifa sees trauma every hour in many forms. But a child shot in the face
still causes doctors to jolt. They raced her into the back emergency room and
began to work on her face. The bullet had entered her mouth cleanly but had
torn up the other side of her mouth. Soon it became clear they thought she
would live. She was breathing more easily. The bandages made the wounds seem
less severe.
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But one problem remained. Dar Al'Shifa is in rebel territory where medical
supplies are exhausted and hard to replenish. The decisions doctors take daily
defy belief. In Rena's case, she could not get the surgery on her face she
clearly needed there, so the doctors dared to think the unthinkable, and sent
her across the front lines to the better equipped government hospital. She was
piled into a truck and then vanished.
The women who were caring for her when the bullet struck -- her grandmother and
mother -- were still at home trying to understand what had happened. On the
stairs up to the apartment was Rena's blood. Inside the apartment was her
tooth. In the window was the small hole that the bullet had made.
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A military-trained safety adviser working with the CNN crew assessed the hole
made by the bullet and the trajectory when it hit Rena.
It was clear to him that it must have been fired from one of the high apartment
blocks opposite Rena's home. These buildings are inside rebel territory, but
snipers -- particularly those working for the infamous pro-government militia
known as the Shabeeha -- are thought to work inside rebel-held areas, and few
could explain why the Free Syrian Army would shoot into areas that were
sympathetic to it.
The glass through which the bullet passed was frosted, meaning the gunman would
not have seen exactly who were his targets. But the deliberate nature of how
indiscriminate this was made it all the more chilling.
The family members were, at that time, calm. They believed that Rena was
getting the best of care and prepared for their hazardous trip to government
territory to see her. It seemed like there had been a miraculous escape.
The next morning, we returned. Locals in the street broke the news to us. Rena
was dead. It was hard to believe that the girl we had seen recover, and who
appeared so free from the bullet that should have killed her, had died from her
wounds.
The family refused to speak to us at first. We were told the father was angry
we had entered the home and feared reprisals.
After an hour, one relative met us outside. They said Rena had been rushed to
two government hospitals. At each, they said, doctors had tried to help her. At
each, they failed. It appears the bullet, which we did not find inside their
home, had lodged inside her throat.
A sniper's bullet had killed a four-year-old girl, leaving us wondering how the
violence now engulfing Aleppo will ever end, whether its civilians will ever
recover life as they knew it.
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© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
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