>>

>> emergency nurse maria connolly is leaving her job at the royal hospital, preston, to work in ciudad juarez, mexico. she'll find a city engulfed in a brutal gang war. >> do we know if it's a gun or a knife? >> where doctors and nurses are targets and have to be protected by armed guards.

>> i've never seen so many guns, never, ever. >> and she'll witness, firsthand, what it's like to live and work in a city with one of the highest murder rates in the world. >> dead, nothing they can do. >> these people have chased a president from power, they've torn down a state... >> what's clear is that people don't just need protection, they need assistance.

high-tech resuscitation bays. >> nursing without all the equipment that we have, i think i'd be lost. you can just see at a glance, that all their observations are okay, you can see the heart rate, you can check, you know,

they're getting plenty of oxygen and they're well. obviously we get people that die. well if you can't deal with death and dying, you shouldn't really be in the health profession really, 'cause it does happen, it's a fact of life. >> in a few days, maria's heading for ciudad juarez in mexico, a city where death is very much a fact of life. the murder rate there is up to 100 times higher than in maria's hometown of manchester. >> living on my own in the city, i never feel scared or frightened for my sort of safety. i run, i do a lot of running around manchester. the areas that i run round, they're not picturesque, they're quite sort of cityscape runs, but i feel really safe and i can, you know, jog at night. i feel confident to do anything, anything i want to do.

i enjoy city living, i think it suits my kind of lifestyle, because i'm single, got friends who live in manchester and everything's on my doorstep really. i'm quite laid back, quite a relaxed person. quite a happy person. cheers! i like being around people and like spending time with friends, my family and just generally quite sociable i think. [speaking a foriegn language] does that sound okay? >> out of all of us at work, if we had to say who was gonna go, it would be maria. >> she's got an adventurous spirit. >> yeah. >> any stories that i've heard, since i've found out where i'm going, it's all been about people being killed basically. >> when i read about it, i was quite shocked about the murder statistics and the drugs and the

crime levels... >> i thought, oh my god, she can't go there and i thought of texting you saying, you have to pull out. >> don't know what to expect really, so i think that makes me more fearful really and then, i know when i get there, i'll either be more relaxed or i'll turn round and go home. (laughter). >> ciudad juarez, a city of one million people on the mexican/us border. >> it's a battleground for powerful mexican drug cartels that traffic cocaine and marijuana to america. these ultra-violent gangs are fighting to control a trade worth billions of dollars. hundreds of police officers have been murdered.

it's a world where multiple executions, torture and kidnapping have become a fact of everyday life. since 2008, nearly 11,000 people have died on the streets on juarez, more than baghdad and mogadishu combined. >> just thought the streets would be empty and you'd have this sense of kind of danger or fear and, yeah, i think in that sense, it just feels like a sort of normal city. >> juarez general is the only public hospital in the city. it treats thousands of people caught up in the violence. for the next two weeks, maria will be working in the er, joining the nurses on the frontline of the drug war.

>> pablo! >> ola. >> ola. buenos noches. >> buenos noches. >> maria's host is auxiliary nurse, pablo vasquez. he's been working the night shift in the er for six years. on the surface juarez general is a hospital like any other. >> do you do this, do you put the casts on? >> but there are stark differences from britain's national health service. for a start, the emergency care budget in preston is 12 times bigger than at juarez general.

>> what's this lady's name? >> it's evitte. >> evitte? >> here, even taking a patient's blood pressure means getting back to basics. >> we do use manual bps at home but i haven't, gosh yeah, hardly ever, used them. so i'll give it a go. >> nurses here can't rely on state of the art technology. compared to britain, the treatment is basic. juarez general has no ct scanner, no mri and just one resuscitation bed for life-threatening conditions. >> my first impressions, walking in, it just doesn't feel very clinical, it feels just so kind of just basic really. it just looks like, you know, metal beds with thin mattresses and no equipment and yeah, it's

just very different. >> it's not long before the first emergency arrives. it isn't clear what's happened to him, but the man isn't breathing. >> d'you want me to take over in a second? >> it's a race against time to try and resuscitate him. despite their efforts, the patient is not responding. >> when would you decide that you'd call it?

>> well 15-20 minutes. >> so you'd always do 15-20 minutes then? >> yeah, mostly 15-20. >> yeah. >> the man has died, but in juarez general, there is little time to stand on ceremony. with another emergency arriving, the dead man will habe moved out of resuscitation. as usual, the hospital me is full. >> and they need to make room, yeah, they just sort of moved him into a bay with other patients just sitting in there, so that's just, yeah, really weird, he's been wheeled around quite a few places. they do care and, you know, they're doing everything they can, you know, all the equipment, all the drugs that they have, you know, they're using. but yeah, i think that attitude must just come with a kind of

daily occurrence of lots of deaths. it's almost kind of, right okay, package up and okay and not even a mention of kind of what's happened. >> the man was found on the street and has no id. >> what happens now with this gentleman? >> sad. yeah. >> so far it's been a quiet night and now pablo has some time to show maria the department's records.

>> so every patient. >> total, everybody, total. >> everybody. okay. >> okay. okay. >> so there's lots of gunshot wounds and stabbings on every page. and is this just this month? ah, right okay. gosh. they came in here? through there? and they come in with guns?

and did anyone stop them? what happened? you just laugh about it. (laughter) >> with the threat of gangsters roaming the hospital, it is now patrolled 24 hours a day by heavily armed guards. >> i think we'd be offered counseling if somebody kind of shouted really loudly in our face, you know, you'd be allowed a few days off and possibly more. but that, we'd shut the department, you know, people wouldn't come back to work. >> you're watching: toughest place to be a nurse >> join us on consider this... >> president jimmy carter joins antonio mora >> my administartion has a very strong human rights element. >> his perspective on the conflicts facing the world in

the state of america. on al jazeera america

you're watching: toughest place to be a nurse >> it's just before midnight and maria is about to get her first experience of violence in juarez.

>> a teenage girl has been shot through the neck. the doctors are worried she's paralyzed. >> can she move her feet? >> no. >> the bullet passed straight through her neck, just missing an artery. >> does she know why?

>> the girl faces a long road to recovery. her friend was not so lucky, shot dead in the street for not joining a gang. not everyone who comes to the hospital is an innocent victim. a man arrives at the er in an agitated state. he's been stabbed three times in the back. >> shall i check his stats? maybe he's okay, yeah? oxygen? d'you have like a dressing for...?

these? just having a look at the wound. they do look quite superficial, doesn't look like he's had lots of blood loss. but they're just checking his blood pressure and his pulse and they've taken all his clothes off, so they can just see if there's any more stab wounds that, you know, we've missed. but i think they're just quite superficial. i think he's obviously really anxious and worked up, 'cause he's just come from something horrible. >> the man gives his name as alfredo. his tattoos show member-ship in a notorious street gang called the aztecas, the foot soldiers of the juarez drug cartel. >> what's happened to you tonight? what happened?

and has this happened before? these are gunshots? and how old were you when this happened? have you got any family? >> juarez wasn't always like this. ten years ago it was just another border town, with factories making cheap goods for america and bars and clubs catering to the tourist trade. the drug traffickers controlled

their own territories and paid off the local police. but in 2006, the mexican government launched a war on drugs, trying to crush the cartels with thousands of troops and federal police. it didn't work. violence erupted along the border. in juarez, the chaos led to a vicious three way war between rival cartels and the authorities. the bloodshed has left no-one untouched. for her first few nights in juarez, maria will be staying with pablo and his family, at his house in one of the huge

ramshackle suburbs of the city. >> oh wow, wow. oh it's beautiful. it's beautiful, you're all inside. ola. >> ola. >> ola. ola. ola. hi, nice to meet you. hi. mwah! >> hi. pablo. >> mucho gusto. >> mucho gusto. >> mucho gusto. >> hi. (laughter) >> pablo and elvira met as teenagers and they've been married for 21 years.

>> amen. >> amen. okay. ah got some, oh okay. i can see the chillies. i can see chillies in here, yeah. argh. (laughter) >> maria has been up for over 24 hours and it's time for bed. >> pablo, who i've been working with, has been amazing. he's just really funny and laughs at everything and i think he just worried i thought he wasn't being sensitive, but i mean he is, he's lovely. he is really caring, but as he said, it's just his way of coping and some of the stories he's told me about already, you know, people coming into the department and shooting people.

yeah, you'd have to have a coping strategy to keep working there. i'm glad i've kind of done the shift already and i'm a bit prepared. i won't find it as difficult, 'cause i'll know what to expect. yeah, try and get stuck in. so i'm gonna go to bed. goodnight. you're watching: toughest place to be a nurse >> al jazeera america presents a global finacial powerhouse >> the roman catholic church, they have an enormous amount of power >> accusations of corruption... >> there is a portion of the budget that takes care of all the clerical abuse issues. >> now we follow the money and take you inside the vatican's financial empire. >> when it comes to money, this is one of the sloppiest organizations on earth... >> al jazeera america presents... holy money only on al jazeera america

you're watching: toughest place to be a nurse >> it's eight pm, time for the next night shift. working nights means leaving the house in darkness, the most

dangerous time in the city. precautions are essential. >> does that happen? have nurses been kidnapped on their way to work? oh gosh and is it dangerous when you actually get to work? i can't imagine having to think about all of that. i'm just sort of straight down the motorway, don't have to think of anything, just, have i

got enough petrol, that's about it and can i get a space to park at work? and then i'm in and, yeah, it's the easiest part of my day. >> it's maria's second shift and two severely injured teenagers have arrived in the er. >> okay, so this is the pelvis. can you straighten your arm? there's been a really bad train crash and these two guys have just been brought into us. they were on the top of the train, they were trying to smuggle themselves into america. back home, these blokes would have come into resus, you know, and there just isn't the room here. they'd have had all the equipment that we've got to kind of use. you know, we'd have got x-rays done in resus. they'd have probably had

ultrasound scans, to make sure there's no internal bleeding as well. so, you know, we've just got access to so much more. >> it's not long before the violence of the streets begins to arrive in the hospital ward. >> feel a bit of a stab. sorry. brilliant. okay? sorry, was that sore? was that worse than the... >> these men have all been brutally beaten. police officers, armed with assault rifles, keep watch over the more dangerous patients. >> never seen so many guns, never, ever and they're big guns, you know, they're not just pistolis, they're massive great

big guns. okay, bit of a scratch. >> all patients receive equal treatment, no matter which side of the law they're on. >> done. perfecto. [sirens] >> the ambulance crews provide a steady flow of victims. >> do we know if it's a gun or a knife? i've been shocked by what i've seen. i think it's the numbers of people that are coming in, involved in violent attacks. i mean, there's so many that don't obviously get to a&e as well. that's kind of in the background. you hear about the people that

are killed just every night. >> but there's another hidden tragedy in juarez, that rarely makes the papers. after their shift, pablo takes maria to one of the most notorious roads in the city. hundreds of women have gone missing in juarez in recent years. many have never been found. the bodies of others have been discovered dumped by the roadside, with signs of horrific violence. >> who are these women that are going missing? where are they from? do they know what happens to them?

and how does this make you feel with your daughters? >> [luz elena ruis] is one of pablo's neighbors. >> ola.

oh i'm so sad, i'm so sorry for you. you know england, if this happened, just to one person, there'd be a lot done by the authorities and it's just so wrong that this happens, even to one person, but it's happened to so many women.

as a woman, it does make me feel angry because, you should be free to walk round, you shouldn't go into town for a job interview and then disappear off the face of the earth and have nobody care, apart from your family. >> it's estimated that 96% of all murders in juarez go unsolved. the police seem powerless and have been accused of widespread corruption. in the face of the chaos and violence, the people of juarez have to get on with their everyday lives as best they can. >> gracias. >> gracias. >> thank you. >> after the other night, pablo,

when the girl came in, the young girl, that was shot in the neck, you were talking about how worried you are for your children. you know, i can't stop thinking about it, really, how you cope? you just must live in this constant worry. i mean is it safe here? does anything ever happen here? you still? si. yeah. >> pablo keeps a close eye on his kids. they're not allowed out at night. >> does it make you very angry that this has all been happening, while you've been trying to grow up?

well i think it's amazing how you've ended up with such a wonderful family. you should be really proud of them, really, really proud and proud of what you've achieved and what you've done. it'd be a tough act to follow. it's been a really nice day, to get to know the family more. they've got huge worries about their children dying and being killed and it's very real.

so it's very moving listening to him and his children talking about how they cope and it just make thi l lucky i am. you're watching: toughest place to be a nurse

you're watching: toughest place to be a nurse

>> maria's back at juarez general. she's come to work the day shift with head nurse trine de la cruz. trine looks after the most critically ill patients in the hospital. but trine also has to deal with another group of patients, because on this floor is the prison ward. constantly locked and guarded by armed police. >> what kind of criminals are in there, what have they done?

>> with patients like these, the nurses have to take precautions. >> well, it's just mad that they've got a jail on the ward. really bizarre; you know, having to cover your name and your face at work... i would... i'd just say "no, that's not in my job description"... not at all. >> doctors and nurses are seen as wealthy and are a prime target for kidnappers. many have been held for ransom and even murdered. hundreds of medical staff have fled the city, leaving more than a third of the clinics and hospitals abandoned. it's part of an exodus that has seen a quarter of a million

people flee juarez since the violence began. >> i can't imagine being threatened. you're not involved, you're just looking after people.

>> four years ago, trine used her life savings to buy her dream home in an upmarket family estate. but within months, the drug gangs took over the area. this is what it looks like now. this is the first time trine's been back. >> yeah it's my home. this was my room. >> this is your bedroom. >> yeah. >> why did you have to leave, what was happening?

gonna say, it's a lot of sadness inside that you must carry around all the time. my life's so, so different. you know, they're doing the same job as me, they're working, they've got families and they seem to be so strong and positive and happy and then you find out what really goes on in their lives and yeah, it's just really depressing. 'cause it's just so unfair isn't

it? >> but trine is luckier than some. her family has dual nationality and now live just across the american border in texas. she goes to visit them whenever she can. >> just a stone's throw from ciudad juarez, the texan city of el paso might as well be on a different planet. it's one of the safest places to live in america. >> it just feels really weird, having been in juarez and not being able to go out on the street at all, it just feels amazing to be back to normal. >> yes, i feel free here. >> yeah. >> we go to the store or we go to the restaurant. we go to the park, we can go to

everywhere you want. >> yeah. >> and you feel free. it's safe here. >> yeah. it just feels so different. >> trine's husband and children live with relatives on the outskirts of el paso. her son ricardo is 17. >> i get very worried when she goes to work because, you know, juarez is very dangerous and sometimes i get worried because, i don't know if she's coming back, to see her again. >> so you'd rather she stayed here and didn't go back to juarez? >> well yes, yes, i would prefer for her to stay here, but it's her passion and it's her life. >> d'you feel guilty? how do you feel about it? >> of course. >> she is guilty of me having a good life and i just say thanks.

but i know she loves what she does, so, what can i do? >> i'm proud of my son. >> yeah, you should be. >> i'm proud of my mum too. [laughter] >> ah! >> in 2010, there were five murders in el paso. in the same year in juarez, there were 3,075. unlike in mexico, guns are openly and legally on sale in texas. >> i've never seen so many guns. >> hunting or fishing or whatever you want. >> hello. >> hi. >> hi. >> this is maria. >> hello. >> maria, i'm shane, i'm the manager, welcome.

>> hi shane. oh hi shane, hi. just having a look at all your guns. now what are some of these? >> these are your semiautomatic pistols. they range anywhere from 3.80 calibre, all the way up to 45 calibre. >> and what are some of these? >> these are shotguns as well, these are more personal defense shotguns. 12-gauge. the barrel is too short to do any damage to a bird that's flying far away. but, for self-defense in your home. >> and do people come in and buy these? >> absolutely. >> how often, how many people would buy? >> every day. >> how many handguns would you sell every day? >> i would say, on an average day, five to six. >> it's estimated that 90% of the guns used in the drug violence over the border originate in the us. many are bought here perfectly legally and smuggled into mexico. >> if somebody comes in and, you know, they look a bit dodgy, you're worried, what do you do? >> well, we do reserve the right to refuse service to anyone we

feel is suspicious, if we have any reason not to want to sell them a weapon we can. >> god i've never seen so many guns. i got quite sort of giddy almost when i walked in, i couldn't stop laughing, 'cause it's so different, you know, i've never been in a gun shop, i didn't really realize how easy it was to buy guns and the guy was lovely, but he was talking about buying guns, you know, as if i was in buying a pair of shoes. >> one in eight gun shops in america are situated on the border. it's thought that the mexican cartels employ people with no criminal record to buy guns in the us. it's a shocking irony that a brutal war to smuggle drugs to america, is being fought with military grade weapons smuggled the other way.

the mexican government complains bitterly about the flow of weapons, but it seems to do little to check what's actually crossing the border. >> you don't have to show your id? >> no. you don't need nothing to come here. you're watching: toughest place to be a nurse

you're watching: toughest place to be a nurse >> it's maria's last night in juarez.

she's spending the rest of the night in the hospital, for her final shift with pablo. her first job is to help treat a 21 year old man. >> he's got a head wound that was bleeding when he came in, with like an arterial bleed. so it's quite a sort of pulsing bleed. so that's why the doctor's kind of come in to tie that artery off, otherwise they can lose quite a lot of blood, so. >> he and his friends were subjected to a mock execution and badly beaten. they're lucky to be alive. the hospital begins to fill with case after case of violent crime. >> how did that happen? can you say how that happened? a hammer?

better get some clean gloves on. they stamped on his shoulder or his scapula, so certainly his shoulder's deformed and they need to get an x-ray. but it's incredibly painful. he's got grazes and cuts like all over him. he's been stamped on and hit and it's all over his back and his legs and his arms. great big graze across his shoulder. >> there's one man, tucked away in the corner of the ward, whose story epitomizes the cruelty of mexico's drug war. >> what's happened? yeah. >> yeah.

>> and set you on fire? >> yeah. >> luis and his son were kidnapped and tortured. an armed gang poured gas on him, then set him on fire. >> 'cause you've got open burns haven't you? >> yeah. >> they must be sore. >> this is okay and this one isn't. >> yeah. okay. that's worse. >> yeah. >> it's terrible isn't it? absolutely terrifying. how long were you held for? >> two days. >> god, you're lucky to be alive i guess? >> yeah. >> it's terrible. >> it was a case of mistaken identity. when the gang realized, they released him. >> if that happened in our department, it would have been news, you know, it would have been the first thing somebody would have said, that this had

happened to one of the patients and you just kind of walk around and have a little look at what a patient has come in with and this is sort of, yeah, normal i guess. it's crazy. >> for the night shift at juarez general, life goes on. pablo and the team have bought maria a treat to say goodbye. >> wow. both for me? >> si. [laughter] >> oh thank you very much. thank you for having me and letting me work here with you, i've had a brilliant time, you've all been great, thank you. [applause]

i'd describe juarez people as warm, friendly, incredibly welcoming, happy, brave, positive people, who have this amazing kind of spirit. i wanna hug everyone. oh. when you actually come to a place and you talk to people and it just drives it home really that it's individuals it's happening to and it's families are living under such terrible circumstances. bye pablo, thank you so much. yeah that's right. yeah, i'll see you soon, thank you for everything. okay. i've come now to juarez, i've

spent a couple of weeks here and i could stay another couple of months and still not really understand what's happening and it just made me think a lot about, i guess, the world and everybody living in it and how lucky i am. >> maria has been back at the royal preston for a month. >> right, alan, so you alright if i do take some blood? i'm maria, i'm one of the nurses. felt really different when i came back. i'd done something and it was a real challenge. it's made me more grateful for what i have and it's made me vow to stop moaning about the petty things in my life. when i was in juarez, if somebody had said, would you stay or would you wanna move out?

and i remember just thinking, oh no way, no way i'd stay and then i think since i've come home, just reflecting on how dedicated they are, it's renewed my belief in nursing and how important it is. it made me just think, you know, maybe i've forgotten a bit of that really.

iran, it was interesting that he didn't know in his words but we are all suffering from terrorism and have a big need to fight this phenomenon and we heard earlier for the outgoing for president of the arab summit, his thoughts on terrorism and i believe the prince is speaking so let's listen in to what he has to say. >> translator: