1.
GV PAN EXTERIOR Hospital. (2 SHOTS)
0.10


2.
CU Wounded Nicaraguan Juan Murillo in wheelchair being interviews on balcony. (Spanish SOT)
0.43


3.
TVs PAN Injured under therapy in main hall. (2 SHOTS)
1.01


4.
SV Wounded walking on crutches with nurse.
1.16


5.
SVs & CU Wounded soldier receiving physiotherapy. (3 SHOTS)
1.27




Initials BB/JRS





Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Nicaragua's over-burned and under-supplied health system has been grappling with such severe shortages of medical equipment and medication that its government troops wounded in clashes with rebel units have been sent to Czechoslovak rehabilitation centres for treatment and therapy. Juan Murillo, 34, interviewed by a Spanish-speaking Czech journalist on September 9, explained that he was wounded in November, 1983, by anti-Sandinista rebels in Zelaya Province, near the Costa Rica-Nicaragua frontier. Murillo, seated in a wheelchair, added that the two of his friends were killed in the military action, apparently initiated by Washington-supported "counter-revolutionary" forces operating from neighboring Costa Rica. While in Czech medical facilities, the wounded Nicaraguans receive intensive therapeutic treatment. The routine begins at 6 o'clock each morning, and a programme of walking with crutches, use of prosthetic devices, and other physiotherapy is designed to rehabilitate each injured soldier and return him as soon as practicable to his country. Nicaraguan government officials have publicly accused the United States of creating artificial difficulties for the Sandinista administration's much-admired national health service, considered exemplary by the World Health Organisation (WHO).