After delay, Mercy leaves fired up for a mission of help
May 4th, 2012 | Community relations Deployment Disaster response Medical Navy Pacific Partnership | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
With the “global force for good” in mind, some 400 military service members, many of them trained and skilled in the medical and health professions, boarded the hospital ship Mercy at San Diego Naval Base, Calif, on the morning of May 1 for a mission to Southeast Asia. Joining them that day were scores of civilians, volunteers of all ages from universities, nongovernmental organizations and charities who embarked on the ship for “Pacific Partnership 2012,” the seventh iteration of the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s humanitarian and civic action program that grew from the widespread disaster of the 2004 tsunami that struck South Asia. The atmosphere on the pier was one of excitement, as if a cruise ship was heading out to sea. In the coming week or two, nearly 1,000 will board the ship for missions in Indonesia, one of four countries Mercy will visit on this deployment, along with the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Sailors manned the rails for the departure through San Diego Bay, a string of white uniforms interrupted by an occasional Air Force blue dress uniform or Army beret. But just as Mercy was preparing to leave her berth, and crews readied to lift the brow and toss the lines, trouble came with a faulty valve in the forward propulsion section. The crowd waited on the pier. It wasn’t long before the ship’s radar went still, and two super tugs waiting to nudge the former tanker-turned-hospital ship from the pier veered away and headed back to their berth nearby. It would be two days before Mercy, with repairs done, would get underway.
The hiccup probably did little to quash the excitement for the mission. “This does energize you,” said Command Master Chief (SW/FMF) Thomas Twigg, Mercy’s command master chief and a 21-year veteran. “Going to Vietnam is going to be a great opportunity, and the chance to visit some of the remote islands in Indonesia.” Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class (AW) Amirah Roman volunteered for the mission, a break from her regular duties at Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. She described herself as “a jack-of-all-trades corpsman,” and expects to dabble in everything from patient administration to patient care and medical education during the deployment. She’s been teaching herself a little Tagalog but can’t wait to see Cambodia. “It’s going to be amazing,” she said. “These are all new countries to me.”
Life on the 894-foot-long ship will have a different feel than her previous sea tour aboard the carrier Abraham Lincoln. “It’s smaller but it’s more comfortable,” she said of the berthing spaces and lounges. “They’ve got a Fit Boss, and they even have a Fun Boss.” “It’s kind of like a cruise ship atmosphere,” she added. “You can go see things that you’ve never seen before.” There’s even a nutritionist aboard, she said. Actually, there may even be more than one. Deploying and joining her over the four months will be a wide range of health, medical, dental and even veterinarian experts with the Military Treatment Facility, along with engineers and scores of civilian volunteers, many who will go ashore for civic, humanitarian and disaster relief missions and training. Others will treat patients aboard the ship, which has up to 1,000 beds, vast medical and patient spaces including surgery, radiology and optometry lab. The ship produces its own water, even oxygen, and can hold up to 5,000 units of blood.
The $20 million humanitarian mission will start with Indonesia at the end of May, then onto the other countries for missions lasting two weeks each before the ship returns, probably sometime in September. The mission is about building relationships as much as mending broken bones, fixing teeth and teaching local providers and residents about good health, said Rear Adm. C. Forrest Faison III, who commands Navy Medicine West in San Diego. “We learned that from our experience in Indonesia,” after the 2004 earthquake and tsunami.
Nearly two dozen nongovernmental organizations, from Project Handclasp and World Vets to the University of California-San Diego Pre-Dental Society, will participate. “It’s an opportunity to serve our country in ways others can’t,” said retired Army Lt. Col. Mike Hughes, a physician’s assistant and LDS Charities volunteer who joined his wife Shari, a nurse and veteran of “PP 2010.” This larger presence of volunteers, many who will go ashore to work with military teams and train with local first-responders and NGOs, is noticeable on the ship, crewed by 70 civilian-mariners. “Our people brought a spirit to the ship,” said Dr. Irv Silverstein, the Dental Society’s director and advisor and veteran of previous Pacific Partnerships. “At first, there was a lot of skepticism. By having the civilian engagement concept, there’s less of a feeling that it was a military mission.” Cultural exchanges and training help as well. “It’s not us telling them how to do things,” he said. You can track PP ’12’s own blog here.
Hospital ship Mercy deployed Thursday from San Diego, bound for Southeast Asia and "Pacific Partnership" humanitarian and civic missions. (MC2 Eve-Maria Ramsaran/Navy)
Training video got Navy vet Bob Barker’s goat
April 24th, 2012 | Coast Guard Ethics Medical Navy Training | Posted by Jacqueline Klimas
For Navy veteran Bob Barker, the price is never right when it comes to using goats to train Navy and Coast Guard medical personnel.
He’s written a letter to both Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano urging them to replace training on live animals with lifelike human simulators.
Barker’s letter comes just a week after the release of a video showing a live goat that appeared to be conscious while its legs were sawed off with tree trimmers during a Coast Guard training session. According to a PETA press release, veterinarians watching the video said the goats didn’t seem to be properly anesthetized.
“I have long been a supporter of efforts to preserve the health and well-being of our troops, most recently donating to a number of projects that directly aid the recovery of injured servicemembers and assist their families during this difficult time,” Barker wrote in the letter to the two secretaries. Barker has donated millions of dollars to Semper Fi, which provides financial assistance to wounded Marines and their families, and Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which serves military personnel injured in service and their families, according to a PETA press release.
In his letters, Barker asked Panetta and Napolitano to invest in modern human simulators, which better prepare servicemembers for combat medicine and spare animals.
“It is clear from this video that dismembering and then trying to mend live goats in these crude procedures is worlds apart from treating an injured human on the battlefield. Thankfully, realistic human simulators that breathe, bleed and even have bones that break have been shown to do a much better job at preparing medical providers to be able to treat traumatic injuries than does the use of animals. Unlike animals, these simulators accurately mimic human anatomy and physiology and allow trainees to repeat procedures until they are skilled and confident,” Barker wrote.
Scholarships for children of Navy enlisted medics
March 6th, 2012 | Afghanistan children College scholarship Hospital corpsman Marine Corps Medical Navy Photos | Posted by Bill McMichael
The Fleet Reserve Association today announced that it has established scholarships for the children of enlisted Navy medics. The Colonel Hazel Elizabeth Benn Scholarship Fund provides a $2,000 scholarship “to an unmarried, dependent child of those who have served or are now serving” in the Navy “as enlisted medical personnel with the U.S. Marine Corps. ”
The Benn Scholarship is available to “qualified applicants” entering their freshman or sophomore year of college. The Benn Scholarship is open to all such children regardless of their parents’ affiliation with FRA, according to a press release.
Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Richard Erfurth treats a casualty at Forward Operating Base Jackson, Sangin, Afghanistan, on Sept. 8, 2011. Erfurth was assigned to Jump Platoon, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 8. The Marines and Afghan uniformed policemen had been struck by a suicide bomber using a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device while on a patrol. // U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Logan W. Pierce
Other FRA Education Foundation scholarships are available to anyone affiliated with the Navy, Marine Corps or Coast Guard, either through their own service or that of a spouse, parent or grandparent, FRA says. They’re funded through private donations, established trusts and corporate sponsorships; recipients are selected based on financial need, academic standing, character and leadership qualities.
The deadline to apply for the Benn Scholarship or any other Foundation scholarships is April 15.
Go here for more information. Or, call 703-683-1400.
Hand is an amazing, yet creepy, Navy development
February 2nd, 2012 | Facebook Health Medical Navy | Posted by Joshua Stewart
The Navy has developed one of the most realistic prosthetic limbs ever. Creepily realistic.
The Navy has developed an incredibly realistic prosthetic limb. When finished it better not be so scary or nobody will want to use it. // Navy Photo
The picture appeared on the Navy’s Facebook page but it didn’t include many details. What is clear is that it’s part of the Navy’s ongoing work to make wounded service members as whole as possible. Needless to say, this is an amazing piece of equipment that will hopefully improve somebody’s life in immeasurable ways.
But until then, it seems unnaturally lifelike and kind of reminds the Scoop Deck of this:
For these patients, it’s never too late
May 6th, 2011 | Medical Navy Research | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
A handful of Navy medical personnel got to witness a bit of history when several 550-year-old patients came through the door last month for some lab work.
A 550-year old Peruvian mummy waits to enter an advanced CT scanner at Naval Medical Center San Diego last month. Five mummies arrived from a San Diego museum for the lab work to help archeologists learn about their medical history.//Navy/MC3 Samantha A. Lewis
That’s right – 550 years old, plus or minus a few years.
The patients were Peruvian mummies, one adult and four young children, according to the Navy. Their April 27 arrival at Naval Medical Center San Diego for some tissue and bone scans came courtesy of a joint project with the San Diego Museum of Man, which hopes to learn more about what sorts of ailments and health issues these Peruvians faced when they lived all those centuries ago.
Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Manuel Cortez prepares a 550-year old Peruvian mummy for a CT scan at Naval Medical Center San Diego last month.//Navy/MC3 Samantha A. Lewis
“Differentiation of mummified tissues is of vital importance in the study of paleopathology and the evolution of human diseases,” Cmdr. Ronald J. Boucher, who chairs the center’s radiology department, said in a news release. “This scanner allowed for nondestructive discrimination of the dry and brittle soft tissue and bones.”
The mummies, who were recovered by anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka in 1915, were placed, one by one, in the Computerized Axial Tomography, or CT, machine for the scanning process. The project provided some real hands-on training for the medical center’s advanced lab equipment called a Flash Dual Source 128 CT scanner, which takes much more detailed images of bones and tissues than older, single-source scanners. In fact, the medical center has the only dual-source scanner in San Diego County, according to the Navy. No doubt it’s become a well-utilized machine for patients far, far younger in age than these Peruvians. Of course, it is probably best not to wait too long for that doctor’s visit.