SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Help has arrived!
After leaving Norfolk to assist in humanitarian relief efforts after Hurricane Maria, the Mercy-class Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) arrived in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, according to a press release from the United States Navy.
While in San Juan, Comfort will host a summit with key stakeholders to synchronize efforts for the ship’s mission throughout the area.
Comfort is a seagoing medical treatment facility that currently has more than 800 personnel embarked for the Puerto Rico mission, including Navy medical and support staff assembled from 22 commands, as well as more than 70 civil service mariners.
The ship has one of the largest trauma facilities in the United States and is equipped with four X-ray machines, one CAT scan unit, a dental suite, an optometry lens laboratory, a physical therapy center, a pharmacy, an angiography suite and two oxygen-producing plants.
Its primary mission is to provide an afloat, mobile, acute surgical medical facility to the U.S. military that is flexible, capable and uniquely adaptable to support expeditionary warfare. Its secondary mission is to provide full hospital services to support U.S. disaster relief and humanitarian operations worldwide.
Related links:
Full Coverage: Hurricane Maria
