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The ship, Comfort, and its crew has performed medical services and provided humanitarian aid in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Antigua and other nations.

By University Communications
June 2, 2009

Two University of Arizona-affiliated medical professionals are sharing their expertise with Project HOPE aboard the U.S. military sealift command hospital ship Comfort.

Project HOPE, an international health education and humanitarian assistance organization, works to achieve sustainable advanced health care around the world by implementing health education programs and by providing humanitarian assistance in time of need.

UA professor emeritus Dr. Kenneth Iserson and UA alumna Jane Bower are two of 28 Project HOPE volunteers supporting the 2009 Continuing Promise Mission.

The U.S. hospital ship Comfort provides full hospital services for use by other government agencies to implement the Continuing Promise mission. Comfort is well equipped for its 2009 mission and is set up for 250 patient beds, and has over 900 personnel embarked, five operating rooms, an X-ray machine, CAT scan, pharmacy, dental suites, physical therapy and a variety of other services available.

The mission partners members of the Continuing Promise team with military medical personnel and representatives from Project HOPE and other non-government organizations, the U.S. Armed Forces, U.S interagency organizations and the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command.

Those aboard the ship provide U.S. relief capabilities and humanitarian aid to nations in need, but the mission also provides an opportunity to learn from host nation partners and to train a diverse team of experts who are able to respond to a regional crisis.

Iserson, a retired UA professor and the HOPE chief medical officer for the 2009 mission, said he came to Comfort so he could work full-time in international medicine. "I retired in July and this was a perfect thing to do. I remembered the S.S. Hope, the first hospital ship, so I applied to Project HOPE and was accepted." Iserson was the professor of emergency medicine at the UA, and director of the Arizona Bioethics Program.

Fellow Tuscon resident Jane Bower is the Project HOPE lead educator for the 2009 mission, a clinical nurse and a University of Arizona graduate. "I am interested in global health care," she said. "I was looking online for overseas opportunities and saw that Project HOPE was looking for people to help for the CP09 mission."

The 2009 Continuing Promise mission is a four-month humanitarian and civic assistance mission to Latin America and the Caribbean region. Besides the Dominican Republic, Comfort has made stops in Haiti, Antigua and Panama and is scheduled to continue its mission in Colombia, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Both Iserson and Bower joined the Comfort in the Dominican Republic, the second of seven countries scheduled to be visited during this year's mission. It is their first time working with Project HOPE.

"So far we have done classes in basic life support, advanced life support, as well as topic lectures such as infection control," said Bower. "I enjoy the collaboration between the NGOs, the Navy and the other countries. There is a lot to coordinate but we all work really well together."

"It's very exciting," Iserson added. "I like making a difference with the patients and working with the other military, NGOs and local doctors. I have also gotten to work with colleagues from Latin America that I already knew."

Iserson has worked at several of the mission's 2009 medical clinic sites since joining the team. Some of his cases include diagnosing autism in two children, helping a boy with cerebral palsy become more mobile by helping him get a wheelchair, discovering a tumor in a child's arm and helping with medical emergency cases.

Iserson and Bower added that part of the reason they were interested in the 2009 mission is that Mexico is only 50 minutes away from the Tucson area.

Comfort has visited Haiti, Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda. It is in Panama until June 2 and is scheduled to provide services in Colombia and El Salvador.