By MELISSA DASSRATH Sunday, November 2 2008

A US Navy medical ship that is touring the Caribbean under the operation name of “Continuous Promise” is bringing much needed medical relief to those who may have been turned away by medical health facilities here at home.

The ship, the USS Kearsarge is touring the Caribbean offering humanitarian relief to countries of the region in whatever form necessary. Members of the media and other visitors were taken on a tour of the ship’s facilities off the Chaguaramas coast yesterday.

One visitor to the ship, Shirley Cayton-Taylor, said that the free and immediate surgery her husband receives today (Sunday) is nothing short of a miracle. Her husband Dexter Taylor, who is a welder by profession, has been living with the daily pain caused by a swollen bulge on his abdomen that was left untreated by local medical clinics.

She stated that he was diagnosed with a hernia five years ago, but was repeatedly put off by health professionals. On more than one occasion, he was already shaven and prepared for surgery when it was suddenly cancelled: “It has been pending a while. The clinic would set a date for one year from now and then tomorrow they call you and tell you it’s off. It was terrible. The hospital through the Ministry of Health chose my husband to have it done on the Navy ship. So, when this opportunity came, he took it. ” Cayton-Taylor explained that she felt like a second-class citizen because she couldn’t afford the medical fees of a private clinic and did not have the funds to fly her husband abroad for the operation.

She added that the medical officers on the ship have put her worries to rest, have made them feel comfortable on the vessel and quelled their fears about the surgery by informing them about the details of the procedure. She joked that if she ever has a health problem in the future she will wait on the US Navy to return rather than rely on the medical services in Trinidad and Tobago.

Commander Eric Sherrick is the Chief Medical Officer on board the USS Kearsarge which is offering medical aid to Trinidad and Tobago between October 25 to November 7. Sherrick said that the Amphibious Class vessel was built to be an “assault ship” and was later modified to be an “assist ship”:

“This ship has the largest medical capability. The only ships with larger capabilities are the Merchant Marine Ships “Mercy” and “Comfort” that are staffed by Navy medical personnel. I have five operating rooms, 14 bed intensive care unit, 45 bed ward, excess of 250 overflow beds in two different spaces. So in a true war, I could have upwards of 600 beds available for patient care.” The ship also is equipped with an x-ray machine, a full laboratory and a blood bank that contains over 400 units of frozen blood.

Sherrick said that the secondary purpose of the USS Kearsarge is humanitarian disaster relief. “Our medical assets are coming into play with what we’re currently doing with “Continuing Promise”. We have got 190 medical personnel on the ship right now. That includes 40 different providers including doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants. We are currently doing a number of “shore missions” in your country at two sites and then we are bringing surgery patients up here. We can do almost any kind of general surgery or life-saving surgery needed.” He said that they have had a steady influx of patients recommended for surgery by the health professionals from the Arima District Health Facility and the Couva Distraict Health Facility and gave an idea of how many lives “Continuing Promise” has touched: “As of tomorrow we would have done 20 surgeries on the local population so far. Either cataract of hernia surgeries is what we’re primarily doing.”