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Comfort Works to Expand Care Capability

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS100209-20
Release Date: 2/9/2010 6:02:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Timothy Wilson, USNS Comfort Public Affairs

CANGE, Haiti (NNS) -- Personnel from USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) scouted possible helicopter landing zones near Cange, Haiti Feb. 8 that would expand the hospital ship's capability to transfer and receive patients injured in the earthquake that left hundreds of thousands of Haitians injured or dead.

Currently, Comfort is operating with 16 medical facilities near functional landing zones throughout the Caribbean nation in an effort to maximize efficient movement of patients. This also allows the ship's staff to admit new and urgent cases. Many of these sites have been open since Jan. 24 screening new patients and providing after care for those who have been discharged but still need care.

Before any site is approved for operation, a team of experts must ensure that there is a safe landing zone nearby, that there is an adequate route from an already established medical facility to the landing zone, and that the medical facility has the capability to meet the long-term aftercare needs of patients treated aboard Comfort.

"Today, we are evaluating the medical and surgical capabilities of Cange Hospital," said Cmdr. Zsolt Stockinger, a trauma care surgeon and on-site commander for assessing the hospital. "We are not going to operate on patients and just put them on the street."

While Stockinger met with medical representatives to assess their post-operative care capabilities, Lt. Tracy Parsons air operations officer for Task Group 48.1 embarked aboard Comfort, surveyed routes for the safe transfer of patients to and from the landing zone.

"My goal is to evaluate landing zones to make certain we can safely transfer patients," Parsons said.

Since Jan. 21, Comfort's staff has treated 741 patients and performed 644 surgeries. More than 500 of these patients have already been discharged back to their homes or to sites like the one at Cange.

Cange is a small remote village located on the Central Plateau of Haiti, east of Port-au-Prince. Its general hospital is an American funded organization administered by the non-governmental organization Partners in Health.