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Comfort Holds Mass Casualty Exercise

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS060502-08
Release Date: 5/2/2006 6:00:00 PM

By Journalist 3rd Class Heather Weaver, USNS Comfort Public Affairs

USNS COMFORT, At Sea (NNS) -- The crew of USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) held a mass casualty exercise in April following a simulated helicopter crash on the flight deck, demonstrating their preparedness should such a real-life event take place.

The exercise was a precursor to an international exercise involving the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom scheduled to take place in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Comfort has 19 Canadian and 14 Royal Navy personnel embarked as part of the crew.

“The drill was held to teach our international guests as well as our new staff on board the practices we currently have in place in a real-time scenario,” said Lt. Cmdr. Carlos Rodriguez, division head of Surgical Services. “We were looking to stress the system we have in place and identify the shortfalls of our system in a drill scenario rather than a real-life event.

Cmdr. Patricia Corley, Comfort’s Military Treatment Facility training officer, said drills such as this are important training tools to ready staff for real-life situations.

“The bottom line is we have to be ready to respond to any kind of emergency or environment we’re put in,” Corley said. “Our highest priority is providing the best patient care possible, which goes hand in hand with maintaining the safety of the staff and the crew and the integrity of the ship.”

The drill incorporated every member of the military treatment facility staff as well as several of Comfort’s civilian mariners, either directly or indirectly. Comfort’s embarked international personnel feel the ship’s mission is an important one and the drills will ensure the future successes of military medicine as a whole.

“[The drill] went very well,” said Royal Navy Lt. Elaine Thorpe, a training team member aboard the ship. “More and more in the future, we’re going to be working together as a team. You never know if you’ll have to come onto one of our hospital facilities or we may have to come onto one of yours. It’s imperative we have an awareness of each other’s processes and practices.”

Moderators gave each simulated casualty a different type of injury, leaving it up to medical personnel to assess the scene. Staff had to decide which patient needed the most immediate care, how to treat that patient and move on to the next victim. Just as staff thought they had the situation under control, an abandon ship drill was called and all of the mass casualty patients had to be transported to the weather decks and loaded into lifeboats.

“Overall, the enthusiasm of the entire crew was excellent and I was very pleased with the outcome of the drill,” Rodriguez said. “We need to work on communications between departments, but that’s an easy fix.”

Among its previous missions, Comfort assisted in relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At its height, the hospital ship had more than 700 medical and support personnel aboard to assist in the Federal Emergency Management Agency-led initiative to provide disaster relief to the Gulf region. The ship also took part in Operation Iraqi Freedom and provided services for rescue workers after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Comfort has unique capabilities for humanitarian relief missions and casualty care, including helicopter lift, advanced medical equipment, a wide range of medical skills, berthing and personnel support, as well as supplies to support medical operations ashore.