Floating Hospital Awaits Patients to Fill Empty Beds

ABOARD THE USS CARL VINSON (Jan. 16) -- Seven earthquake victims, including a newborn, were helicoptered to this aircraft carrier Saturday, testing the flexibility of the ship's 52-person medical staff.

The operating room is prepped with oxygen tanks, ventilators and a roster of blood donors. But while the USS Carl Vinson's medical facilities perhaps exceed those of any other triage center nearby, it had remained essentially unused since it arrived off the coast of Port-au-Prince early Friday.

"At this point, I have no criteria for anything. I don't care who it is or what it is, we'll take it," Cmdr. Alfred Shwayhat, the ship's senior medical officer, said earlier Saturday. Shwayhat, an endocrinologist, internist and aerospace anesthesiologist, said he is equipped to handle virtually any malady.

He has a plan for filling the ship's enormous hangar bay with as many as 1,000 Haitians. But his mission, as part of the recently dubbed Operation Unified Response, is to treat anyone sent to him by military commanders in Port-au-Prince, and so far that hasn't amounted to many people.

One reason beds are empty is that the ship doesn't have the authority to pick up victims; it has to wait for the Air Force to call and request a medevac.

"Our policy is to treat first, ask questions later, but it's up to those on the ground," said the ship's public affairs officer, Cmdr. James Krohne. The U.S. 4th Fleet, which is responsible for ground operations in Port-au-Prince, could not be reached for comment.

"Treatment of patients with basic injuries is best done on shore," Krohne added. "If we didn't have (the space) available, those seven patients would be who knows where."

The vessel boasts 52 doctors, nurses, technicians and staff. In addition to Shwayhat, there is a critical care nurse; a general surgeon; a family practitioner; a radiologist; lab technicians; a pharmacy stocked with anti-malaria medication; and an independent corpsman deployed with the fleet marine force to diagnose injuries on the ground.

The hospital's present mission, as Shwayhat understands it, is limited to treating the approximately 3,500 military personnel on board and any American civilian injured in Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

The clinic stabilized two patients Friday before sending them on a flight to the naval hospital at Guantanamo Bay. The first patient, a presumed American citizen in his 50s, arrived to the Vinson's hospital around noon after both of his legs were amputated to free him from the rubble of the Hotel Montana, where he was trapped for 70 hours without food or water.

"To this day, I do not know his name," Shwayhat said.

The other victim, a Christian missionary from Iowa, was flown in from the airport in Port-au-Prince after a brick wall crumbled down on her. On Saturday afternoon, at least four medical personnel from the Vinson were sent to treat injured people on shore.

Two U.S. vessels expected to reach Haiti next week will be equipped to receive injured Haitians.

The USNS Comfort, a hospital ship with the capacity for 1,000 patients and one of the largest trauma facilities in the U.S., was deployed Saturday and expected to arrive into Haiti by Jan. 21.

The Comfort, which responded to Hurricane Katrina and performs humanitarian missions around the world, has 19 operation rooms and a medical team of 550 Navy doctors, nurses, technicians and support staff, composed of Navy medical personnel stationed at National Navy Medical Center Bethesda and Haval Hospital Portsmouth.

The USS Bataan, an amphibious assault ship en route from Baltimore, will offer three additional operating rooms.

There is currently no facility with surgical capabilities on the ground, Jennifer Furin, a doctor with Harvard Medical School, told CNN on Saturday.

While the Vinson has been able to launch sorties to deliver medical supplies, it has nothing on board and has to trek to Guantanamo to reload.

The Haitian government today ceded control of the Port-au-Prince airport to the U.S. military, a step that will allow the Vinson's helicopters to pick up and deliver the thousands of tons of supplies that have arrived there.