US Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) returned to Naval Station Norfolk afternoon providing life-saving medical care to the people of Puerto Rico.
Comfort departed Virginia Sept. 29 and had been in Puerto Rico for almost two months providing disaster relief support after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.
Comfort worked with the Puerto Rico Department of Health and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to treat patients since the first day it arrived in Puerto Rico, Oct 3.
Since departing Norfolk to provide humanitarian relief, Sailors aboard Comfort have treated 1,899 patients, performed 191 surgeries, provided 76-thousand liters of oxygen and ten tons of food and water.
The ship conducted nearly 200 total surgeries to include 44 general surgical procedures such as hernia repair, gallbladder removal and appendix removal; 25 major orthopedic surgical cases; 17 amputations and 15 urologic procedures.
Several notable surgeries included a modified radical mastectomy for an advanced case of breast cancer, a complex multi-organ abdominal cancer resection, an urgent drainage and exploration of a complicated neck infection, and an emergent open repair of a ruptured aortic aneurysm which comprised the largest, most complex surgery ever performed on a hospital ship.
There were two children born onboard Comfort during the hurricane relief mission. The first was a baby girl, Sara Victoria Llull Rodriguiz, Oct. 14 and the second was a baby boy, Isaias Valerio-Fonseca Nov. 3.
