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Comfort Crew Continues Mission in Nicaragua

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS070722-03
Release Date: 7/22/2007 1:27:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joshua Karsten, USNS Comfort Public Affairs

CHINANDEGA, Nicaragua (NNS) -- After three port visits to Belize, Guatemala, and Panama providing thousands of people with free health care services, the hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) is continuing its mission in Nicaragua.

One of three locations the Comfort team is serving is the Quince de Julio Health Care Center, lying at the foot of the San Cristobal Volcano in the rural area of Chinandega.

Medical doctors and personnel from the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Public Health Service and volunteers from Project Hope and Operation Smile were operating a full medical clinic within moments of arrival. The services provided at Quince de Julio included adult and pediatric primary care, dentistry, optometry, immunizations, and prescription services. Navy Seabees from Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 202 also made repairs to the site.

“We’re putting a footprint here and hopefully someday they’ll remember the U.S. was here,” said Cmdr. Linda Nash, Comfort’s director of nursing services. “We were able to administer health care to the people and take care of ongoing health problems that they hadn’t been able to take care of before.”

Children from the Montica Berio Education Center supported Comfort’s mission by providing translation assistance to the medical personnel. This assistance helped expedite the check-in process and further assured the patients and medical teams were communicating properly to provide them with quality assurance in their specific needs.

“We are helping our community by translating for the doctors and patients,” said Ana Villanueva, a Nicaraguan translator. “I feel great about being here working with the U.S. to help with translating generally because we think that it pleases our heart to do something good.”

Comfort is spending three days at la Rancheria Clinic and is also providing care at the Jose Schendal Hospital in Corinto and Health Care Center Realejo in Chinandega.

Comfort is currently deployed as part of the U.S. Southern Command’s Partnership for the Americas initiative, an on-going training and readiness operation designed to strengthen regional partnerships and improve multinational interoperability.

“By helping these people and training them by practicing with other professionals, they’ll carry that knowledge and that relationship with them for many years and always remember it,” said Nash. “Hopefully that’s what we are doing here in Nicaragua is establishing some long-term relationships.”

Military and civilian medical staff from across the United States and Canada are deployed with Comfort on a four-month humanitarian assistance mission to Latin America and the Caribbean providing health care services to people in more than a dozen countries.