>> byron: tonight, children in the crossfire. >> hey, i need 911. my daughter. >> is she pleading anywhere, ma'am? >> she's bleeding a little bit. i don't know what happened. >> byron: the ricochet effect of gun violence. >> they're on the way, we got them on the way. >> byron: one girl's story, shot while sleeping in her own bed. >> where's she at? >> right here. >> every tiny second counts. >> i've got pressure on the wound. >> byron: her heart-stopping on the way to the hospital.

>> she received greater than 50 units of blood product in total. >> that amount of blood products is about ten times her actual blood volume. >> byron: the number one killer of children, firearms. bullets wounding many beyond the children they hit. what's being done to stop the epidemic. >> we're fighting here, and i believe that we will win. we will win because of people like her. >> byron: the milestone her family feared she would not live to celebrate. this special edition of "nightline," "one girl, one bullet," will be right back. it's nothing... sounds like something. ♪when you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion♪ ♪upset stomach, diarrhea♪ pepto bismol coats and soothes for fast relief when you need it most.

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♪ >> byron: good evening. thank you for joining us. we start with a stunning statistic. one child in america is shot virtually every hour of every day. at least yea 88 children are killed by gunfire every week. for the last five years, guns have ended the lives of more american children and teenagers than car crashes, random accidents, drugs, or disease. when a bullet hits a child, so many others are also wounded. theirs are the stories we don't often hear. here's abc's chief justice correspondent pierre thomas. >> reporter: it's shortly before 3:00 a.m. in concord, north carolina, and stacy foolmore

awakens to the sound of her daughter aaliyah screaming. >> hey, i need 911, something with my daughter. >> what's going on? is she bleeding anywhere? >> she's bleeding a little bit. i don't know what happened. what happened? please hurry up. i don't know what's wrong with my baby. >> she wasn't talking. she was turning blue. >> they on the way, we've got them on the way. >> reporter: a sergeant was close by on what seemed like a routine night when they got the call. when they arrived, twin sister aaliyah runs outside in her paj pajamas. >> what's going on? >> i don't know, it's my sister. >> hello? >> reporter: inside, her mother, confused, distraught. >> where's she at? >> right here, between the beds. she woke up hollering. she woke up hollering. i don't know what's wrong. >> reporter: alaya losing

consciousness, lodged between her bed and the wall. >> she had a gunshot wound to her stomach. i knew i had to do something. >> i've got pressure on the wound. >> i put gloves on, held pressure to the wound. >> every tiny second counts. your job was to save ten seconds, then ten seconds. the surgeon has 20 seconds to play with to save someone's life. >> reporter: each second feeling like an eternity. >> how old are you, baby? talk to me, talk to me. >> reporter: gunfire had erupted outside of the formoores' apartment. one of them striking then 13-year-old alaya in her stomach. >> it's not bleeding now. there's no exit wound. >> okay. >> i was saying, take me, don't take her. take me. >> we're getting an iv on you, okay? >> reporter: one girl, one bullet. a moment in time that would change alaya's life forever and

impact so many of those around her. >> that's one thing i've been thinking about. what if this was my kid? that hurt. >> she needed every fight that night in order to live. >> reporter: alaya fighting to survive after being caught in the crossfire. like thousands of other children just like her each year, gun violence is now the leading cause of death for kids in the u.s., surpassing car accidents. so far this year, more than 1,500 children under the age of 18 have been killed by guns. over 270 under age 11. from firearms left unattended -- >> bless in jacksonville, florida, are investigating a 9-year-old who reportedly shot and killed a 6-year-old -- >> reporter: to kids getting caught in the crossfire -- >> tonight, a little boy is in the hospital after he was shot. >> reporter: innocent children shot by neighbors. >> a man in louisiana is accused of shooting a 14-year-old girl who was playing hide-and-seek around his property. >> reporter: over 4,000 children

were injured. these injuries and deaths, increasingly common. every day an average of 23 kids are shot in the u.s. >> this hearing will come to order. >> reporter: the situation so dire, last year a civic committee held a hearing entitled, "protecting america's children from gun violence." >> i plead with you to pass commonsense gun legislation so children and youth can grow up in safe communities. >> i'm tired of seeing sidewalk shrines with teddy bears and candles. >> reporter: still, efforts by congress to pass any impactful gun control measures have fallen apart-time and time again. >> i think it's becoming normal. it's becoming like, did you hear about the shooting down the street? or did you hear about the shooting at the mall? even if you're not directly impacted, you feel it. >> what will your message be to the american public about the damage that guns can cause? >> before you pull the trigger, think about if that was your friend, your family member, how would you treat the situation? one little bullet can shut down everything.

>> i'm hungry, you know i could eat. >> i want a roast, i want rice, i want cornbread -- >> reporter: a smile. a laugh. a mouthful of grandma's homemade comfort food. these small moments, precious to alaya's family. >> how you doing? >> reporter: reminders of what they could have lost one year ago on the night of july 8th, 2022. >> i was going to sleep. a man was like -- boy, he was outside arguing, so loud, cussing. i hopped up and ran. >> you heard a sound, a series of sounds, you knew it was gunfire? >> yeah. it was loud. so loud. >> reporter: a single bullet left a trail of destruction inside her body, ricochetting from organ to organ, tearing through her intestines, her colon, and the main artery carrying blood to her legs. >> there was a very high risk

that she was not going to survive her initial injuries. >> her heart stopped once en route. they were able to perform cpr, give her medication, restarted it. when she got to the atrium cabarras facility, emergency department, her heart stopped again. they had to perform emergency surgery on her chest to open it up. >> what's going through your mind? is it, lord have mercy? >> save her, let her survive, keep her heart beating. >> they were telling us, your daughter is very sick. they were pretty much saying, she's not going to make it. the more blood they gave her, the more blood she bled out. >> in that first five hours of resuscitation, she received greater than 50 units of blood product in total during that time. >> to put it in perspective, that amount of blood products is about ten times her actual blood volume. the shockwave around a bullet can cause major injuries to especially a small body such as

alaya's. >> one bullet can cause an incredible amount of damage, yes, certainly. >> this is the bullet that is lodged in the back of her pelvic region. >> reporter: to this day, it's still there. never removed, out of fear that the extraction could cause more damage. >> she had all all these tubes, she had chest tubes on this side, this side. she had, like, wounds on this side from her leg, her stomach laid open. it was a lot. >> reporter: alaya's road to recovery would be a long one. two months in the hospital and a dedicated medical team on call 24/7 to save their young patient. how many surgeries did she have in the first three days? >> i counted around 26 surgeries that she has had in total. and about two-thirds of those occurred in the first week. >> reporter: her family always at her bedside. >> love you, alaya. love you, girl.

>> reporter: eventually, tiny miracles. the first time alaya opens her eyes. and after a few weeks, finally being able to leave her hospital bed. how did the air feel on your face for the first time? >> it felt good. i hadn't been outside in so long. i just wanted to go home. i thought when i get on the regular patient floor, i could go home. then they dropped another three weeks on me. it was the longest three weeks ever. >> reporter: finally, the moment when doctors said she could go back home. how would you describe her case in one word? >> simply, miraculous. her recovery, her ability to survive this horrific type of injury is nothing short of miraculous. >> reporter: but like many families impacted by gun violence, surviving is not the end of the battle. nearly a year after she was shot, alaya was still using

crutches, waiting on surgery to help fix her leg. >> see you after school, mama. >> reporter: alaya couldn't go back to school for six months. even then, she could only make it through half a day of classes. taking a special school-provided car instead of making memories on the bus with her sister. the trauma what was alaya's gone through still lingers. >> cars and stuff doesn't bother me. it bothers her more. >> a couple weeks ago, she had a panic attack at school. because they was doing some kind of project at school. >> loud noises? >> yes. >> scared me. >> popping noises and stuff. >> they didn't give us a warning. >> what do you want to be able to do freely, without crutches? >> walk. that's what i've wanted to do for the longest. >> reporter: stacy moved her family to a new house where they could feel safer. authorities have not yet identified a suspect in the shooting. >> i wasn't going to put her

back in that environment. i wasn't going to put neither one of them back. i didn't want to stay there myself. >> reporter: she had to reduce her hours as a health care worker to take care of her daughter, has relied on donations from a gofundme to help pay the medical bills. so far, she says those bills have come out to more than $500,000 and counting. alay's family, including her aunt roselin, putting their lives on hold to care for her. >> when i first realized that she had another day of life, i made a conscious decision, i'm going to be there for her, whatever she needed along the way. no matter what it was. >> and specifically, what did that entail? >> being her caretaker. helping her mom. being here almost 24/7. just being available wherever i could be of use and need. i was going to be there. >> reporter: all these changes have not dampened the spirit of this brave and determined teen. >> i'm ready to get my first job at 14, but she won't take us to

get our worker's permit. >> where do you want to work? >> somewhere i could eat at. chick-f chick-fil-a. i'd rather work at mcdonald's where all the big macs are at. >> reporter: she's trying to live life as normal as possible. celebrating big milestones like her middle school graduation. and her 14th birthday. surrounded by her family and friends. ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ >> reporter: a day that almost did not happen. coming up, the youngest member of congress says, enough is enough. >> doing nothing is not an option. >> reporter: doctors on the front line taking matters into their own hands. i told myself k with my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. with my psoriatic arthritis symptoms.

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♪ ♪ it's been 16 months since alaya fullmore was struck by a stray bullet while sleeping in her bed. the road to recovery has been long and difficult, but she's lucky to be alive. alaya is one of tens of thousands of americans impacted by gun violence each year. just one of the most divisive issues in washington. it's had congress in political gridlock for decades. >> it's not who we are, and we have to act. we have to act now. >> reporter: in september, president biden trying to take action, launching the office of

gun violence prevention. standing by his side, freshman congressman maxwell frost. >> i'm often asked what got me involved in this work, and the answer is quite simple. i didn't want to get shot in school. >> when you hear the cdc officially announcing it in recent years, that more children die from gunfire than any other cause in the country, what does that say? >> it says that our priorities are not straight. i always like to point it to looking at cars. when those deaths hit a high, the country came together and said, look, we need better laws here to keep us safe in our automobiles. we've seen over the years that automobile accidents have gone down. these things don't exist at that same level for a firearm. >> reporter: at only 26 years old, frost is the first gen-zer to be elected to congress. since that shooting at sandy hook when he was a teenager, he's been on a mission to find solutions for america's gun violence epidemic. >> it was seeing the images on

the television of these little kids being marched out of their elementary school. and i remember seeing their hands in the air. their little book bags. surrounded by s.w.a.t. really shook me. >> reporter: many americans like frost believed that change would come. but since then, more than 38,000 children have been either injured or killed due to gun violence. in total, more than 245,000 people have been shot and killed in that time frame, enough to fill the largest stadium in america twice over. compared to other countries, the u.s. far outnumbers other high-income nations in firearm homicide rates. 33 times higher than australia. 77 times greater than germany. still, getting gun reform legislation passed is proving to be exas operating. >> it's very frustrating. and i don't like to play the blame game. i like to focus on how we're going to fix this. but obviously the republican party has been the top reason why we haven't been able to pass

this. >> reporter: many republicans fear new laws will infringe on their right to bear arms. >> the democrats are out to destroy the second amendment. >> they want to continue taking away guns from law-abiding citizens. >> our children are paying the price, and it's not even enough to be in your own room anymore. you'll be shot in your own room. >> reporter: that's exactly why frost proposed the first federal office of gun violence prevention. can you guarantee the american public that office is not just window dressing? washington people believe it can be effective? >> we can guarantee that because they're already doing it. we believe we needed a coordinating entity in the white house, and that's what we have now. >> reporter: some experts say it may not be enough. now many doctors who are on the front lines of this epidemic are coming together to develop their own approach. >> lately, it's been more and more kids were injured by gun injuries. >> reporter: dr. sothie heads the north wealth health center

for gun violence. >> it's about safety. having data-informed approaches including policy that can help approach this gun violence. >> reporter: he leads a nationwide initiative with 600 hospitals. >> we do talk with all of our patients -- >> reporter: including screening every patient with exposure to guns and teaching gun owners to implement safety measures at home. >> headache, urinary tract infaction, you're going to get these questions because we want to normalize the way we talk about gun injury risk. >> reporter: one small step, he says, towards saving lives. >> it's not just gun laws. we need to up the standard of living in this country so people don't feel they need to use a gun to solve their problems. we need to look at mental health care. i don't believe a gun bill is going to save everyone from gun violence, but one step at a time. >> reporter: it's stories of violence and resilience, like alaya, that keep people like frost advocating for change.

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♪ >> byron: finally tonight, henry kissinger has died. born in germany, kissinger became a u.s. citizen in 1943 at the age of 20en in 1943 at the age of 20. he would serve his adopted country for decades to come, leaving an immense and at times controversial footprint on u.s. foreign policy. in 1969, as a political scientist at harvard, kissinger was plucked from his post by then president richard nixon to become national security adviser and eventually secretary of state. henry kissinger died tonight at his home in connecticut. he was 100 years old. and that's "nightline" for this evening. catch our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here, same time tomorrow. thanks for the company, america.