Hospital ship Comfort to join Haiti mission - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Hospital ship Comfort to join Haiti mission

The Military Sealift Command hospital ship Comfort is set to cast off Saturday morning from its pier in Baltimore and sail to Haiti to join the disaster assistance efforts.

The Comfort has been taking aboard 550 “doctors, nurses, technicians and support staff,” according to an announcement from the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, who will “provide a host of medical services to include primary care, trauma care, pediatric care and orthopedic care upon arrival in Haiti.”

The ship is expected to arrive off earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince in about a week.

The exact arrangements under which the Comfort will treat Haitians aren’t yet clear: The port of Port-au-Prince was reportedly wrecked in Tuesday’s earthquake, so Comfort likely will anchor out in the harbor, meaning the Navy and Marine Corps will have to transport patients to and from the ship in boats and helicopters.

That hasn’t necessarily been a problem before — as when Comfort visited Port-au-Prince for 12 days last April — but unlike then, this week’s immense destruction left many thousands of people in need of care. On its last visit, Comfort treated 6,731 people, had 30,586 patient encounters, and performed 161 surgeries, according to information from U.S. Southern Command. Its workload in Haiti this time will probably be much greater.

More on the disaster relief efforts in Haiti:

Bataan heads for Haiti

CG cutter Tahoma helps bleak clinic in Haiti

Gunston Hall diverted from APS mission

Mullen: 10,000 troops on scene by Monday

Airmen providing relief after Haiti quake