Massive relief operation in Caribbean

Jenna Rix is onboard the USNS Comfort, a navy hospital ship on a seven nation tour in the Caribbean, Latin America and Central America. The mission "Continuing Promise" is a goodwill medical training mission orchestrated by the US Navy in partnership with private volunteers and non-governmental organizations. During its four-month mission, over 90,000 medical procedures, including 3,000 surgeries, will be performed.

Jenna reports that there are 14 LDS humanitarian volunteers on board. Humanitarian Services of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also sent 10 shipping containers of medical equipment and supplies. On a recent blog, Jenna published several stories from the nurses:

"Our first patient completely broke my heart. I can honestly say that I shed a few tears. He had a deformed jaw, deformed fingers and joints, and he walked with a substantial limp. He looked like he was only like 10 years old. I found out he also has typhoid. He has no one and nothing in this life. There was nothing we could do for him except give him some vitamins to take for a couple weeks. That's it. The doctor came out of her little cubicle and started crying, which made me cry. It broke my heart there was nothing we could do." ~ Angela

"Yesterday while some were on shore a young child was observed crying while a mother was pouring dirty water (all the water in Haiti is dirty) over a large burn on his back. It was reported and the Admiral went and looked for the family and gave them a ticket to be seen and immediately transported the child up to our area of triage. I was told the child is blind and was hit by a car and subsequently burned from the muffler on the vehicle and the mother was trying to sooth the burn with the water. It is a sad, happy story. Sad the child was injured, happy that we will be able to help." ~ Joyce

"Some of our next patients were 30 kids from an orphanage. Oh, they were beautiful! The older kids were carrying and taking care of some of the younger kids. They were waiting in line and one of the military commanders pulled out a harmonica and started playing for the kids. They were so excited! When a lot of us pulled out pictures and asked if we could take pictures of them, the older kids started turning the younger kids around and posing with them. They were so excited to see us." ~ Angela

"An older gentleman who has been paralyzed since 1982 came in this old broken down wheelchair. He didn't have leg rests on his wheelchair, so someone had tied a rope that he had to manually lift his legs up onto the rope when someone was pushing him. Well, someone donated a bunch of wheelchairs to this mission. So, this man got a brand new shiny red wheelchair with leg supports. The smile on his face was so huge when he realized that he was going to get the wheelchair. Something we take for granted every day changed this man's life." ~ Angela

See Jenna's complete blog at http://continuingpromise2009.blogspot.com/