By Sharon Carper
Washington — The U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort departed Norfolk, Virginia, April 1 for a four-month cruise of the Caribbean, Central America and the Colombian coast to bring free medical care to those in need.
Emblazoned with large red crosses on the side and the words “Continuing Promise” painted on the flight deck, the USNS Comfort returns to renew a promise made with a similar cruise two years ago: to extend medical humanitarian aid and improve health care in the hemisphere.
“Continuing Promise represents our commitment to partnering with a region that is of great importance,” said Rear Admiral Joseph D. Kernan, the commander of the Navy’s 4th Fleet. “The team that has been assembled is diverse and brings together not only multiple U.S. armed forces and interagency representatives, but just as importantly, nongovernmental organizations and partner nation representatives who bring a wealth of knowledge and resources to the team.”
The 800-member crew of the hospital ship includes medical personnel from various partner nations, including France, Canada, the Netherlands and Spain, in addition to nongovernmental organizations and members of all branches of the U.S. military. This is the fourth humanitarian and civic assistance mission and follows the 2007 deployment of the Comfort, and other ship visits, notably the USS Boxer and the USS Kearsarge.
In 2007, on a 12-nation cruise, the USNS Comfort’s doctors and nurses cared for tens of thousands of patients in Latin America and the Caribbean. They provided everything from routine physical exams to cataract surgery. During the three deployments of these ships, laden with humanitarian aid, more than 169,000 patients were treated and 1,500 surgeries performed. (See “Latin American, Caribbean Health Workers Aided by U.S. Training.”)
The Comfort’s size and ability to bring assistance to the Caribbean is impressive. Originally an oil tanker, the Comfort is almost 275 meters in length (three soccer fields long) and is so wide that it fits “tightly” through the Panama Canal, a Navy nurse told America.gov.
A U.S. Navy helicopter sets down in Haiti with humanitarian aid.It is one of two Mercy-class hospital ships in the U.S. Navy, the largest hospital ships in the world. They do not carry any ordnance, and firing on either of them is a war crime. The Comfort boasts 12 operating rooms, a 1,000 hospital bed capacity and state-of-the-art treatment centers. The largest Navy helicopter in the fleet can land on the Comfort’s flight deck, which has the capacity for landing two helicopters at a time with patients aboard.
The USNS Comfort has already stopped at its first port in the seven-country cruise. On April 9, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, welcomed the ship and its crew. Throngs of Haitians watched as a Navy helicopter set down on shore with crew and supplies. Over 10 days, citizens of Haiti, mostly those of modest means, received free surgical care or appropriate medical treatment in Cité Soleil (the northern suburbs) and at the Admiral Killick base in Bizoton (in the south) where state-of-the-art equipment is available.
With the presence of the U.S. ambassador to Haiti, Janet Sanderson, and a military band from the ship, the opening ceremonies began.
“The ship’s mission is to bring well-being, dignity, and hope to the lives of the people. Members of the whole team will make a big difference in the lives of those they touch here,” said Sanderson.
Dr. Robert Auguste, the Haitian minister of public health and population, was on hand to express thanks to both the United States and the other partner nations. “With the presence of the USNS Comfort, [you] have proven once more that [you] are working side by side with us for the human development of this country and the further economic development of our country,” the minister said. “We thank the crew of the USNS Comfort for the help they are going to provide our people.”
Enthusiasm was high on the ship as the crew gathered to board passenger boats to take them ashore. “I want to help as many people as I can because I don’t know when I will have another opportunity to come back,” said Air Force Major Maud Oliver-Kelley, a Haitian translator. “The number of people we will have an impact on will be incredible and I’m so anxious to meet them all.”
While in Haiti, the Comfort provided 250 patient beds, four operation rooms, X-ray machines, computerized tomography (CT) scans, pharmacy, dental suites, physical therapy and a variety of other services including veterinarian services. The ship was in Haiti until April 19 and will continue its four-month humanitarian and civic assistance mission to six other countries — the Dominican Republic, Antigua, Panama, Colombia, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
Among those aboard the Comfort is Lieutenant Commander Bryan Buss, a United States Public Health Service officer. His work was to ensure that the Haitian animal population received needed medicine care and assistance during the ship’s Port-au-Prince stop. He reflected the crew’s optimism about Continuing Promise when he said, “I welcome the opportunity to come into this part of this world where poverty and austere conditions are prevalent and do the best that we can to bring some humanitarian assistance.”
