Hospital ship brings tales of hope

JUST over a mile off the coast of Haiti lies the world’s largest hospital ship.

The US Navy Ship Comfort took aboard more trauma victims in the first four days after Haiti’s earthquake than those it carried during both Iraq wars.

The near 900-foot long vessel – bigger than the Titanic – can treat 1,000 patients. Only its sister ship, the USNS Mercy, is the same size.

Sea Hawk helicopters land aboard its deck every few minutes from dawn to dusk, offloading injured survivors.

Inside, specialist doctors and surgeons treat children with broken limbs, pregnant women with broken pelvises and patients with the most extreme injuries.

The vessel’s arrival in the Caribbean Sea a week ago heralded a new phase in the international aid effort for the victims of the 7.0-magnitude quake.

US navy medical teams on board so far have treated nearly 600 of Haiti’s survivors, many who cannot access specialist care on the mainland.

The extent of the injuries is overwhelming, says ship captain Robert Holley

“The scope of this event here would challenge even the US if this happened in one of our major cities.”

In scenes similar to a war zone, patients are stretchered off helicopters every few minutes before the aircraft then fly back into the dust and debris over the capital’s crumbled remains.

“There have been patients that have come through here and we’ve had some that have expired on board and we didn’t even know their names.

“Where at all possible, we’ve run what are called ‘angel flights’ that have transported the remains back ashore,” says Captain Holley.

Built during the cold war under then-US president Ronald Reagan, the vessel has since attended some of the world’s worst conflicts and disasters, including both Iraq wars, September 11 and Hurricane Katrina.

The ship became operational in 1987, a year and a half after its interior and deck were carved up and converted from an old oil tanker.

It sailed from its base in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 15, three days after the earthquake, with mostly eastern-based US military, and its first patient from the flattened capital was brought aboard on January 19.

Originally deployed for treating the wounded in combat zones, the USNS Comfort left for Haiti last week with 5,000 nappies.

Some 24 babies are among its patients, including two who were born on board.

One of those was tiny baby, Isabella Rose. Her mother spent two days trapped under the rubble of a house before rescue workers got her to the ship.

The falling debris had crushed her pelvis which had broken her water and disconnected her womb from her vaginal wall. After performing a C-section, ship doctors thought the sick infant was unlikely to survive, explains Captain Holley.

“The interpreter explained to the mother, ‘your child’s going to possibly expire here’. Initially the mother didn’t want to hold the baby. ‘I don’t want to get too close. I never had a chance to be a mam with my baby,’ she said.

“We asked her ‘what name did you give your baby?’ and she said ‘I haven’t even done that’.

“She said to the interpreter ‘could you give her a name’ and she said ‘well, my niece is Isabella Rose.’

“At that point, the mother took the baby and was stroking her cheek. Minutes turned into more minutes and she kept hanging in there.

“Finally somebody said, ‘wait a minute, let’s get her back in the incubator’. They did and hooked up to the fluids and everything else and she’s down there and still going strong.”

Below deck, the ship’s casualty is filled with patients in casts, with burns and amputations. Another part of the vessel holds a dozen operating theatres.

IN another story of hope, a wife and husband separately admitted to the ship on Tuesday were reunited with each other for the first time since the quake.

But for the ship’s 1,200 medical staff and crew, there’s not much real time for comfort.

The 18-hour days are only relieved by a work-out in the ship’s gyms or a good meal.

“There’s very little time for that [relaxation] and my staff have been prepared for that,” says the head of casualty, Lieutenant Commander Dan Daurora.

In the operating theatres, surgeons are working in a completely different scenario to Iraq, explains surgery coordinator Commander Robert Featheresta. “The most difficult cases are pregnant women who have fractures and are ready to deliver. Here the trauma is immediate amputations where there it was shrapnel wounds.”

Haiti will witness a whole generation of amputees, he says.

“We amputated a one-month’s old arm last night… I don’t know if this country is set up for that. It’s going to need a lot of help.”

Washington has ordered the USNS Comfort to remain in Haiti’s waters for up to another 60 weeks.