Officials recently noted that a US Navy hospital ship stationed in southwest Haiti has temporarily halted medical operations after 19 mission members went overboard during a strong swell slamming the Caribbean.
According to Lewis Preddy, a US Navy spokesperson, the incident happened Monday night while 12 military personnel and seven civilians from the USNS Comfort were returning to the ship after attending to patients on shore.
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The 19 people were all brought back aboard the little boat, which was then hoisted onto the ship by a crane. He explained that normally, employees would board the ship via a ladder and a water taxi, but the high surf made that difficult.
Two persons were hurt, but, according to him, they should recover.
According to Preddy, authorities are determining how to carry out the task while guaranteeing everyone’s safety. Until at least the weekend, the strong swell is anticipated to persist, say meteorologists.
The mission in Haiti was restarted on Monday, according to Rear Adm. James Aiken, head of the US Naval Forces Southern Command-US 4th Fleet, who spoke with The Associated Press.
Aiken shared in a phone interview, “the need is extremely great, and we’re so excited to be able to provide some care.”
Officials admitted that they did not immediately know how many patients had received treatment.
In the coastal town of Jeremie on Tuesday, several hundred Haitians demonstrated against the ship’s presence by shouting, “Down with the American people! We don’t want them here!”
Some urged that the US government instead travel to specific locations in Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital, to liberate communities from the rule of strong gangs.
Early in October, Haiti’s government asked for the sending of foreign forces to help combat gangs and put an end to a gasoline blockade, but that request was later withdrawn after one of the most powerful gangs in the nation permitted trucks access to a petrol port. Although there are no foreign forces there, the US and Canada have declared a flurry of sanctions.
Aiken dismissed the modest demonstration in Jeremie on Tuesday and said he was concentrating on the good.
“There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who want us there,” he remarked.
The USNS Comfort has made multiple trips to Haiti over the last ten years as the nation battles a damaged healthcare system that is impacted by frequent power outages and fuel shortages. Individuals with illnesses ranging from diabetes to cholera have been treated at the floating hospital; there is now a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 280 people and infected more than 14,100 others.
Over 1.17 million oral cholera vaccinations were sent to Haiti on Monday with assistance from the Pan American Health Organization.
