ROSEAU, Dominica (NNS) — The joint-military crew and non-governmental organization (NGO) volunteers serving aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) commenced humanitarian-civil assistance operations July 28 in Dominica as part of Continuing Promise 2015 (CP-15).
An opening ceremony held at the Princess Margaret Hospital marked the start of the eighth mission stop during Comfort’s six-month deployment and the first time that the Continuing Promise mission has visited Dominica.
“Building partnerships with each country is critical to the overall success of the mission. Since this is the first time that the Continuing Promise mission has visited Dominica, we look forward to the opportunity to foster goodwill and build partner capacity and capability through the dozens of collaborations with our Dominican counterparts,” said Capt. Sam Hancock, Continuing Promise 2015 mission commander.
The CP-15 team, NGO volunteers, Dominican medical professionals and Ministry of Health volunteers provided no-cost medical and dental services to more than 1,000 patients during the first day of operations at two locations, the Dominica Grammar School in Roseau and the Roosevelt Douglas Primary School in Portsmouth. In addition to the medical services provided at the sites, 17 surgeries were conducted aboard Comfort.
“Medical site operations went smoothly today,” said Capt. Mary White, officer in charge of the medical site established at the Dominica Grammar School. “We finished up surgical screenings and had the site up and running right on schedule. Working as a team, blending our NGO volunteers and Navy personnel, allowed us to see over 600 patients on the first day.”
A subject matter expert exchange (SMEE) was conducted at Princess Margaret Hospital covering topics such as intensive care unit protocols and bed management.
Comfort nephrologists also collaborated with Dominican medical professionals to treat 11 dialysis patients. Additional SMEEs are planned to take place at the Regional Fitzroy Armor, Portsmouth Hospital and aboard Comfort.
“These exchanges allow us to connect with the Roseau and Portsmouth medical professionals and share information pertaining to various medical topics,” said Ensign Jhermayne Bullock, assigned to the Navy Environmental Preventive Medicine Unit-2 in Norfolk, Virginia. “This collaboration not only strengthens ties with Dominica as a whole, but also impacts the local communities that we visit.”
The CP-15 environmental health team visited the hospital and provided formal lectures on mosquito surveillance, biology, control, pathology, and insecticide resistance. They also distributed mosquito surveillance traps to the Dominican vector control team.
The veterinary team consisting of Army veterinarians, veterinary technicians and volunteer veterinarians from the NGO, World Vets, met with local veterinarians to discuss what services are currently needed in the region.
The engineering portion of the CP-15 mission in Dominica commenced at the Office of Disaster Management where the Navy Seabees, assigned to Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit (CBMU) 202 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Jacksonville, Florida, continue their work on the construction of a guard house and the installation of a perimeter fence.
Since deploying in April, Comfort has completed mission stops in Belize, Guatemala, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador and Colombia. Additional stops are planned for the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Honduras.
Continuing Promise is a U.S. Southern Command-sponsored and U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet-conducted deployment to conduct civil-military operations including humanitarian-civil assistance, subject matter expert exchanges, medical, dental, veterinary and engineering support and disaster response to partner nations and to show the United States’ continued support and commitment to Central and South America and the Caribbean.
