Last night was one of the most painful nights of my life.

She had been missing for over 2 weeks and yesterday early hours of the morning she turned up wearing nothing but a dirty t-shirt. She spent the entire day in the road battling what the doctors later described as a psychotic breakdown.

Up and down the road, talking to invisible friends, agitated one moment, scared the next. One second almost coherent the next making no sense at all. One minute she is wearing her t-shirt, the next she is naked. Cars and taxis speeding past her, people screaming at her and threatening to run her over.

We got to her at 7pm and spent the next 2 hours keeping her safe from being hit by cars and waited for a gap in the erratic behavior so that we could try and communicate with her. 2 hours later and we had convinced her to get into the car with us and we headed to the nearest government hospital. Thankfully it was a good one where some of the staff know us.

It took 2 security guards, a male doctor and myself to get her into the hospital and into an examination room.

I was the only team member allowed to stay with her so the rest of my team went to continue outreach while I helped the medical team deal with this precious girl. It took over an hour trying to get a line in her arm before we had to call back up. It took 7 of us to hold her down so that the doc could get the line in, take 5 viles of blood and then administer a sedative. The sedative didnt work so a second dose of something stronger had to be put in.

I was laying on her chest holding her beautiful face in my hands as her tears flowed and she cried “Mama I love you, please save me”. I kissed her face and told her I love her as her eyes closed and her body gave in to the sedative. I sat on the bench next to the exhausted medical staff and burst into tears. How is this her life? She used to to be a journalism student at the university.

We don’t know what happened to her or where she was for the 2 weeks, but I am convinced that something very very traumatic happened which triggered this breakdown.

Please pray for ‘N’ as the doctors try to help her.

And to the members of the community who harassed her, threatened to run her over and those who ignored her in her distress, SHAME ON YOU.

#unconditionallove #extravagantgrace #hopeforthesoul #durbansextrade