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2007 Humanitarian Mission

USNS Comfort’s humanitarian mission, which began in June, was a major component of the president’s “Advancing the Cause of Social Justice in the Western Hemisphere” initiative. Comfort visited 12 Central American, South American and Caribbean nations where its embarked medical crew provided free health care services to communities in need. The mission offered valuable training to U.S. military personnel while promoting U.S. goodwill in the region. In all, the civilian and military medical team treated more than 98,000 patients, provided 386,000 patient encounters and performed 1,100 surgeries.

On June 15, Comfort departed Norfolk, Va., beginning a four-month deployment that took the ship and her crew to 12 nations. The U.S. Southern Command-sponsored mission was the first of its kind to the region.

 

 

What the Comfort crew provided:

 

 

Medical: The embarked medical crew was made up of more than 500 military and Non-Governmental Organization (Project Hope and Operation Smile) doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals. Their primary focus was to support medical humanitarian assistance efforts ashore. A secondary mission was outpatient shipboard health service support.

 

 

During the deployment, the crew provided:

 

general surgery

ophthalmology surgery

basic medical evaluation and treatment

preventative medicine treatment

dental screenings and treatment

optometry screenings

eyewear distribution

public health training

veterinary services

 

Other: Also supporting Comfort’s medical mission was a SEABEE detachment from the East Coast-based Mobile Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 202, which performed civic action repair and minor construction projects in the host countries. Also on the deployment was the U.S. Navy Showband from Norfolk, Va, which performed in each port.

 

Comfort was operated and navigated by a crew of 68 civil service mariners (CIVMARS) from the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC).

 

Key Points

 

 

This mission incorporated various non-government organizations and government agencies, such as Operation Smile, Project Hope, the Atlanta Rotary Club, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army, U.S. Health and Human Services and the Canadian Defense Force.

 

A variety of medical conditions and concerns are common to the region. This deployment helped share best-practices for the most effective, economical treatments that can be made available by regional medical teams.

 

Comfort’s deployment to the region exemplified the U.S. commitment to cooperative partnerships in the region.

 

A key element of this deployment was the potential for a variety of medical staffs to collectively address regional medical concerns and develop effective, economical solutions that can be used through the region.

 

This deployment provided another opportunity for U.S. military services to work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) so that strong partnerships are in place and can be called upon in the event of a regional situation that requires cooperative solutions.

 

Patient encounters include a single patient receiving multiple treatments, students in training sessions and even veterinary care services.

 

Dentists and staff treated 25,000 patients, extracting 300 teeth, and performing 4,000 fillings, 7,000 sealings, and 20,000 fluoride applications.

 

In addition to treating patients, bio-medical professionals fixed about a thousand pieces of medical equipment at local health facilities. The ship’s crew also delivered nearly $200,000 dollars worth of donated humanitarian aid.