• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

USNS Comfort Prepares for Patient Care

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS090409-11
Release Date: 4/9/2009 4:07:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Marcus Suorez

USNS COMFORT, At Sea (NNS) -- As the hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) prepares to drop anchor at its first port during Continuing Promise 2009, the crew is finalizing preparations for bringing patients aboard.

"We've been working every day since we got aboard the ship and we just finished getting everything prepared to treat patients yesterday," said Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Kathryn Scott, a dental technician aboard Comfort.

Everything began with the cleaning of the areas, Scott said. The walls were scrubbed and the floors were mopped more than one hundred times to ensure cleanliness.

"You can't just clean something one time and expect it to be clean," she said. "You have to clean it again and again until you know it's as clean as you can get it. We've worked so hard and so long to get these areas as clean as possible that I think I'm actually growing muscles."

Cleaning was only the first step in the preparations of the Comfort, Scott said.

"Even after everything was clean we had to order a bunch of new equipment, because we didn't have all the right stuff," Scott said.

Lt. Cmdr. Thomas Olivero, the department head for the main operating room aboard Comfort, said there were many items that needed to be ordered to complete mission. A lot of medication and equipment was needed for the full, four-month deployment, he said.

"The [surgery technicians] have done an excellent job getting everything together," Olivero said. "They have pulled together and worked very hard to make sure everything is prepared to complete our mission."

Having so many hard-working members from different branches of the U.S. military, foreign military and non-governmental organizations has made the transformation of the ship over the past four weeks possible, Olivero said. Comfort is staffed by more than 900 Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, Coast Guardsmen, foreign military, nongovernmental organization personnel and civilian volunteers.

"It's amazing to see how fast we've all started working together to get things done," Olivero said. "Without everyone pulling together and working as a team we wouldn't have been able to finish in time to complete the mission."

Scott, who works in the dental department aboard Comfort, said even with personnel from different organizations, her department has come together as a cohesive unit.

"It's like everyone sent their most motivated members [to the Comfort]," Scott said. "Everyone is so open minded and flexible and works together so well. We haven't had anyone complain or had any problems at all."

The only challenge has been the different terminology, she said. Each group has their own jargon for different medical terms, but as the days continue the members of the team have all learned to work alongside one another.
"We are getting along great," Scott said.

"I couldn't ask for better coworkers and all of the hard time [we've put in] cleaning, and prepping our work spaces, and getting to know each other will all pay off once we get to see our patients smile at us and we know it was all for a purpose."

Haiti is the first stop for Comfort, which is on a four-month humanitarian and civic assistance mission to Latin America and the Caribbean region.

For more news from USNS Comfort (T-AH 20), visit www.navy.mil/local/tah20/.