Again, Precious

Kandahar, Afghanistan

I was a little surprised to see our new baby "Jane" out of bed, but I was truly arrested at the tender scene that met me when I walked into the ICU for rounds.  One of our nurses embraced this new Jane, calming her into a dream-like state while her analgesics coursed through her.  She is burned over her chest and arms, having been run over by a bus.  This is not a child of war, but a bit player in the survival-of-the-fittest play known as "growing up in Afghanistan."  In addition to her burns she has multiple fractures and has lost her left leg below the knee, but for this briefest of moments she is a picture of bandaged serenity.