CG cutter Tahoma helps bleak clinic in Haiti - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

CG cutter Tahoma helps bleak clinic in Haiti

Coast Guard Storekeeper 1st Class Scott Hutton said he and his cutter crew had expected to arrive at a makeshift hospital when they got to Haiti on Thursday with a load of medical supplies.

Instead, they made their way less than a quarter-mile from the pier to a building with one Haitian nurse.

“She didn’t have anything,” said Hutton, who has first-aid training and was able to assist with splints and bandages.

The devastation caused by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake Tuesday and the lack of an organized system to deal with it stunned Hutton. Later on, a Haitian doctor and two more nurses arrived, but the clinic — as they refer to it — was soon overwhelmed by 100 patients.

The Tahoma is one of four cutters and multiple aircraft that the Coast Guard deployed to Haiti to help bring in supplies, evacuate American personnel and set up communications. The Tahoma is scheduled to stay for a week, but the 100-man crew is not really sure how long it will have to stay, said executive officer Lt. Cmdr. Mike Fisher.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Coast Guard aircraft evacuated some 300 people to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and transported 16 people by medevac to Cuba and Florida, according to the rescue service.

The Tahoma crew received orders Wednesday to load the 270-foot cutter with medical supplies and blankets at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Hutton said. The cutter arrived about 1 p.m. Thursday at Port-au-Prince and offloaded all of the supplies.

At first, there were just 20 people — including four children — awaiting treatment at the clinic, Hutton said. A young girl, about 6 or 7 years old, came in with a crushed right hand. Her left arm had a compound fracture.

They splinted her left arm and bandaged her right hand, but there was not much else they could do, said Hutton, who was amazed at the response he got from her.

“She was getting up from the table and saying, ‘Merci, merci, merci,’” Hutton said. “She said it at least 10 times. She was smiling at us. She was in bad shape, and she was still smiling.”

The other children similarly were very receptive for what little help they could get at the clinic.

“There was definitely screaming, but a lot of the children we worked on were … very receptive to the help we gave,” Hutton said.

Members of the Haitian Coast Guard and other locals helped translate as more patients came to the clinic. At night, the Coast Guardsmen left to return to their cutter. They returned Friday morning to offload their personal stock of medical supplies.

“There is a lot we can do,” Hutton said. “There’s just so much more that needs to be done.”

Among the Coast Guard assets that continue providing support to Haiti are:

• The 210-foot medium endurance cutter Valiant, homeported in Miami, Fla.

• The 270-foot medium endurance cutter Mohawk, homeported in Key West, Fla.

• The 270-foot medium endurance cutter Forward, homeported in Portsmouth, Va.

• Coast Guard C-130, HU-25 and C-144 planes and HH-60 and HH-65 helicopters are deployed throughout the Caribbean region in support of relief efforts by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

More on disaster relief efforts in Haiti:

Bataan heads for Haiti

Mullen: 10,000 troops on scene by Monday

Airmen providing relief after Haiti quake