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Comfort returning home from Haiti mission

The hospital ship Comfort has been released from duty off the coast of Haiti and will begin its journey home to Baltimore this week, the Navy announced Tuesday.

The Comfort discharged its last patient Feb. 27, but at the height of the humanitarian relief effort the ship was taking aboard critically injured people as often as every six minutes. The ship’s master, Capt. Bob Holley, said helicopters brought Comfort its first patients before the hospital ship had even sighted land.

Statistics from different sources have varied, but an announcement Tuesday from 4th Fleet put the total number of people treated by Comfort at 871. The ship performed 843 surgeries over the course of its Haiti mission, according to the latest numbers, and nine babies were born on the ship, including one set of twins, Holley said.

Holley told Navy Times last week he was “in awe” of the work of the Navy and civilian medical staff that pitched in to help in the aftermath of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. Not only did the surgeons, doctors and nurses have to deal with some of the worst trauma injuries they’d ever seen, they saw many patients who had never been inoculated against diseases like tetanus, Holley said, which meant dealing with ailments like lockjaw.

Now that Haitian doctors and hospitals ashore have had time to recover from the earthquake, they can handle treatment from here on in, according to the 4th Fleet announcement. That means Comfort can go home.

“We are immensely proud of the contributions made by everyone who helped treat critically-injured survivors aboard Comfort,” said Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of Southern Command. “Their efforts saved the lives of many patients and helped everyone treated begin the important process of recovery. Their rapid response and contribution to the international relief efforts in Haiti helped the country overcome an urgent medical crisis at a time when access to surgical care on the ground was very limited.”

Comfort is expected back in Baltimore around March 14, where, as a Military Sealift Command ship, it will go back into a “reduced operating status.” By law MSC and the Navy are required to be able to activate the Comfort within five days.