JAX AIR NEWS, NAS JACKSONVILLE, Thursday, April 23, 2009 11



Comfort is focus of naval hospital IAs


By Loren Barnes
NH Jax Public Affairs


S seventeen Naval
 Hospital Jacksonville
 Individu a l
Augmentees (IAs) deployed
from Naval Station Norfolk,
Va. aboard the hospital
ship USNS Comfort (T-
AH-203) April 1 in support
of Southern Command:
Operation Continuing
Promise 2009
 They joined hundreds
of other volunteers from
numerous government and
non-governmental activities
for a 120-day humanitarian
and civil assistance mis-
sion to various Caribbean
and Central American and
South American ports.
 These volunteers pick
up the torch from IAs
who served in Continuing
Promise 2008. In that mis-
sion, NH Jax IAs lent valu-
able assistance aboard
the Comfort and the USS
Kearsarge (LHD 3) in an
equal-partnership humani-
tarian assistance mission
involving the United States,
Canada, the Netherlands,
Brazil, France, Nicaragua,
Colombia, Dominican
Republic, Trinidad, Tobago
and Guyana.
 In a recent message to
Navy Medicine, Surgeon
General of the Navy Vice
Adm. Adam Robinson Jr.
said, 'Navy Medicine's
humanitarian civil assis-
tance missions offer a
positive vision of hope and
opportunity rooted in our
history and in the promise
of our future. HCA mis-
sions reflect our belief in
the worth, dignity, equality
and value of every person
in the world."


 The 2008 Kearsarge
cruise lasted from Aug. 2
to Dec. 2. More than 1,500
volunteers served with per-
sonnel from the U.S. Armed
Forces, as well as those vol-
unteers from other nations
and varied non-govern-
mental agencies includ-
ing Operation Smile and
Project Hope.
 The Kearsarge not only
provided medical assistance
to the people of these coun-
tries, but also aided hur-
ricane recovery efforts in
Haiti, providing medical
and public health resources
as well as Seabee engineer-
ing assets.
 NH Jax Public Health/
Environmental Health
Officer Lt. Cmdr. Celeste
Santana, Physician Lt.
Carmon Harmen (NBHC
Jax) and Pharmacy
Technician HN Shanisha
Fitch recalled their experi-
ences working long hours in
a sweltering, rudimentary
and difficult environment.
 The mission participants
saw first hand the poor-
est of the poor struggling
to survive in often appall-
ing living conditions with
little medical care. Health
issues virtually eliminated
in more developed countries
are still big problems in
many of these areas.
 Santana said the health-
care teams dealt with the
entire spectrum of mala-
dies of poor tropical coun-
tries malaria and wide-
spread, often untreated,
tuberculosis; parasitic
infections; malnutrition;
untreated injuries and
the full range of sexually
transmitted diseases. Her
efforts, recognized with a
Navy and Marine Corps


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Commendation Medal,
dealt with issues ranging
from educating teens about
hygiene, dental care and
STDs to a crisis in Colombia
in which cyanide entered a
local water supply when a
barge accident sank drums
of the deadly poison into a
river.
 Fitch, who organized and
dispensed medications,
also helped de-worm more
than 7,000 children, saw
more than 300 in sick call,
cross-trained in the ship's
ward and in surgery and
was amazed by the people's
resilience to dire circum-
stances.
 She said there were
always people they couldn't
reach during their short
stays, many of whom had
walked for days to reach
this thin hope of medical
care.
 Santana pointed out
that they were desperate
for medical care, for them-
selves, their children and
even their livestock not
necessarily in that order.


In 2008, Lt. Cmdr.
Celeste Santana
and Cmdr. Dermot
Killian, physicians
embarked aboard
USS Kearsarge (LHD
3), give young men
in the Dominican
Republic a basic per-
sonal hygiene and
sexual health educa-
tion class.


Photo by MCI Emmitt Hawks


One father explained that
he can always have more
children but not a new ox.
For him, livestock meant
the basics of his family's
meager income.
 She was also impressed
with the deep bonds the
medical teams developed,
sharing in their concern for
each patient. She recalled
one team gathering outside
the room of a mother facing
a difficult birth and they
took a moment to pray for
her. Tragically, the mother
died but the child survived.


She said when she saw that
group with heads bowed,
regardless of their back-
grounds and beliefs, none of
them had a dry eye, includ-
ing herself.
 Despite the plight of the
local population, Fitch said
the people were generous
and grateful of spirit. She
noted they always said
"thank you." That came
from the poorest patients
to high ranking dignitaries
who visited the ship or the
clinics. For instance, she
recalled that many national


leaders visited her pharma-
cy aboard ship and in the
in-country clinics and they
seemed very excited about
what they saw. Politically,
the visits gave them the
opportunity to demonstrate
what they were doing for
their people with ties to
other nations, including
the U.S., in providing vital
medical assistance.
 The volunteers were also
grateful for this experience
and said they would love
to go on such an adventure
again.


 Photo by MC3 Maddelin Angebrand
Navy Nurse Lt. Carmen Harmon, embarked aboard USS
Kearsarge (LHD 3), shares a computer game with children
from the Santa Rosa medical site during the humanitarian/
civic assistance mission Continuing Promise (CP) 2008.



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