Navy hospital ship Comfort leaves for Haiti

ABOARD USNS COMFORT (WUSA) — The Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort has departed from its home port of Baltimore to support relief efforts in Haiti.

The Comfort, ready for its biggest humanitarian mission in at least two decades, pulled out shortly before 10 Saturday morning. It is expected to arrive off the coast of Haiti Wednesday night to help survivors of that island nation’s deadly earthquake.

The hospital ship is three football fields long and one wide. It has 250 hospital beds (but can accommodate up to 1,000) and a 550-person medical team that includes trauma surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, head and neck surgeons, eye surgeons and obstetricians and gynecologists.

The medical professionals are from the Navy, Army, Air Force and U.S. Public Health Service, as well as nongovernmental organizations. Most of the Comfort’s medical staff come from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.

WUSA9 Reporter Scott Broom is aboard the USNS Comfort and will be providing continuous reports of the ship’s operations in Haiti on 9NEWS NOW and WUSA9.COM.

 Written By: Samara Martin Ewing
9NEWS NOW & WUSA9.COM

The link: http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_story.aspx?storyid=117564&catid=14