U.S. military embarks on large medical evacuation

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Army and Navy
forces began flying Haitian earthquake victims to the USNS Comfort
hospital ship Thursday in what military officials described as the
largest medical evacuation in the storied ship’s history.

As many as 100 patients a day will be transported for surgery.

“The Comfort is going to full capacity,” said Capt. Richard Sharpe, a Navy trauma surgeon helping orchestrate the move. “We’ve never done it before.”

Lt. Col. Pat Hynes, commander of the 82nd Airborne units helping load ambulances, said the Army hadn’t conducted such an evacuation in more than half a century. “Not since Normandy,” Hynes said.

Some of the buildings in the large hospital complex
near the Haitian presidential palace collapsed in the earthquake; in
others, the walls sag or have big cracks.

But even in the best of times, the hospital would be
hard pressed to perform the kinds of complex surgery required for
earthquake victims.

“What are the operating facilities here?” asked Capt. Colleen Gallagher, a nurse practitioner from the Comfort who would accompany some of the patients out to the ship.

“They’ve got a couple (surgical) suites,” replied Lt. Col. Robert Malsby, battalion surgeon with the 82nd. “But it’s mostly meatball medicine.”

Patients were prioritized, loaded on to stretchers by Haitian volunteers or troops from Hynes’ 1st battalion of the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment and taken to Army
ambulances. The red cross-emblazoned vehicles ferried the injured to a
nearby landing pad where Blackhawk helicopters lifted them to the
Comfort.

Getting patients to the ship and its 11 operating
rooms is fairly straightforward. The bigger challenges come after
surgery. The military has to keep patients flowing off the ship to
allow for the next wave, which means finding a place for them to
recuperate.

Sharpe was working on a plan.

“If we can’t move them off the ship, it becomes a floating hotel,” he said. “The two-way street is a tough thing to set up.”

The injured will require a level of care after surgery for which Haiti
is simply not equipped. In addition to those who undergo surgery, other
victims face diseases and ailments that often follow a big disaster,
such as pneumonia, tetanus or other infections for which Haitians have
no immunization.

Doctors can treat acute tetanus, but a patient requires six months of rehabilitation.

Haitians seemed to recognize the enormous efforts expended on their behalf. Marlene Thompson,
head of patient care at the hospital, said many of the earthquake
victims being flown to the Comfort would be doomed without the U.S.-led
medical evacuation.

“The population needs help,” she said.

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