Comfort Ship in Haiti

I'm posting this from our AC list, This is from a man on the US ship Comfort now in Haiti.

January 22:
Another long day in Haiti... But a good day. Nobody died today and
hopefully that's all over. But There is some bad news. Kids are going to
hospitals ashore and disappearing and they're afraid they're being
kidnapped and sold or if they're very young being sold for "adoption." It
appears the Haitian police are ripping off incoming aid and selling it
though black market. The 22nd MEU is out talking with locals as part of
their public relations S-5. What they're hearing from the people is the
perception that the Haiti government is not providing any services. They
feel everything good is coming from from the United States.
Today we admitted 63 people with a total count of 257. We did 59 surgeries
for a total of 109. And 2 discharges. We have 1200 crew on board now.
The two discharges were burn victims and in pretty bad shape. The
University of Miami said send them their. So we put them in a helo and
took them to the airport where they were loaded onto a US Air Force C-130.
The Haiti government got word of this and wanted to show how they're IN
CHARGE. Remember... these are politicians who don't give a ____ about
anybody but themselves. So as these two patients are lying there suffering
the pilot of the plane got word of what was going on. So he just left...
End of discussion. What's the Haiti Air Force gonna do? Go Air Force!

January 23:
The crew of the Comfort is now 1242 people. I never understood when people
write "The Officers and men of the Comfort." Aren't officers men? If not,
what are they? Anyway...
At 0400 today the 1MC (that's the PA system over the ship) called a code
(that's an emergency) for a kid in ICU. He didn't make it. Another child
was lost to renal failure. Allot more deaths that I just can't talk about.
It is just God Awful. This afternoon I was walking down a passageway and
passed a gurney going the other way with a tiny baby perhaps 4 or 5 months
old. Tubes and respirators and everything. And the mother following behind
sobbing. You guys know me and how stoic I am... yeah. At the same time I
had two intense emotions. 1] Why did I do this and come here because this
really really hurts. b] This is why I come to help these people in need.
That long letter I wrote I edited. These notes now are just what I'm
feeling and experiencing. Part of me thinks I should delete all that stuff
about my emotions because it sounds like I'm saying poor me. That's the
last thing I want. I just want you to know what it's like here for me.
Other people walked right by the baby and never flinched. We become to
hardened to pain and death. At least they didn't show it. Anyway...
The surgeons have done a lot of amputations. But we learned today that in
this culture a very high percentage of amputees commit suicide. A large
part of the culture feels that if you are not whole, you are worthless.
The surgeons are going to try to not amputate. But because of this
cultural belief, a lot of patients with broken legs have not come in. So
their broken leg developed gangrene. We end up that a patient whose leg
could have been repaired, looses it. So sad.
A mother brought her 18 day old child who has a deformed heart to an
Israeli army field hospital. They knew right away they couldn't help and
sent the baby to the Comfort. We did an echocardiogram and determined it
is operable. One of the doctors called a friend at Children's Hospital in
DC and agreed to send the baby. The med ops department called the Air
Force and they agreed to put the baby on the next plane. Then guess what
happened... You got it. The Haitian Ministry of Health said no. And
they're still "angry" about the two burn patients that were flown to
Miami. So now a baby is suffering because of some "idiot" politician. Do
those people have no sense of what is right?
So the good side. We had another baby on the ship. And a lot of lives have
been saved. Saving lives is what it's all about.

January 24:
There are people out there trying to find flaws in what we’re doing here
and I don’t want to give them anything negative from somebody on the
Comfort. Let me tell you what happened yesterday.
One of our helos landed at LZ Tomahawk to pick up patients and loaded up a
child with a doctor who had been treating her. They arrived on the ship
and went into Casualty Recovery. The doctor who had come out reached into
her bag and pulled out a microphone and camera and began asking questions
and taking pictures to document “the United States ’ medical crimes
against humanity.” She was escorted away… There are people out there who'd
love to make this look bad.
It was pretty cool that today a French Navy ship dropped anchor nearby.
Eight days ago they were of the coast of West Africa when they got word to
go to Haiti . In eight days they sailed all the way across the Atlantic,
stopped in Martinique to load cargo, and got here. Their CO and engineer
and senior medical officer came over for dinner tonight and to meet the
crew. It was nice. Maybe now they’ll have French Fries in the
Congressional restaurants. Ooops! There I go with politics!!! In tonight’s
briefing, with the French guys there, one of the issues listed on the
briefing slides was that the Comfort crew may want to go to the French
ship for chow.
Local authorities are saying 150,000 dead. Today an American civilian
nurse who has lived in Haiti for years came aboard. She said that in the
first days after the quake, flat-bed trucks went through the city
collecting bodies. People just threw them aboard but as they drove along
some would fall off. She said it was like something from a nightmare that
she just couldn’t believe even when she saw it.
Some of the UN security forces fired warning shots over the heads of some
unruly crowds today. Several of you have written to me about being careful
and it not being safe. That’s not really what we see here. There are
isolated incidents but the people are very nice and it’s OK down here.
30% of gas stations are open. Venezuela is sending 800,000 gallons of gas.
22nd MEU intel says that outside Part au Prince local government is
non-existent. That doesn’t mean anarchy. The social networks and churches
are keeping everything going fine..
Right now we have a surgical backlog of three weeks on the Comfort just
taking care of the patients we already have on board.
The JTF (Joint Task Force) has said that the involvement in Haiti is five
phases. Initial Response, Relief, and Recovery. They acknowledge that’s
just three… the other phases or TBD… Oh well.
CNO was surprised that Facebook, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. are blocked from the
crew. I’ve got hotmail because I’m with the NGOs. So CNO directed sailors
be allowed to get on Facebook and Twitter. But to please be careful what
they write. “We can’t tell you what to write but don’t write anything that
could be embarrassing to the Navy or the United States .”
Now the numbers. 57 admissions today bringing our patient count to 372. 18
surgeries today bringing that total to 101. We are packed to the limits.
We have room for only two men and eight women in berthing. They have
talked about the possibility of bringing a berthing ship here. Especially
if the USNS Mercy comes to Haiti .
Unfortunately we’ve had 9 deaths today. But out of 372 patients from a
disaster, perhaps that's not too bad. Today we had returned the first
remains. The sister of one of the children had been on the ship with her
brother. They flew them ashore today. Those who were there said it was
very touching.
Tomorrow we’re moving five burn patients to University of Miami hospital
with the permission of the Haitian Ministry of Health.