Project HOPE Volunteer Dr. Timboe First Days in Haiti

And Their Faces Were Changed...

From aboard the USNS Comfort in Haiti, it was a very gratifying sight this morning as we made rounds on the wards after yesterday's first day of patient care. Today we were greeted with faces of relief, rest and a beginning sense of safety, security and comfort as our patients began to realize the new world to which they had awoke.

Just the day before, the Comfort had arrived in Haiti’s harbor and the helicopters made their patient pick-ups and transfers to the ship. It was a remarkable, life-changing event for every one of these patients who probably never in their wildest dreams expected to be whisked aboard a helicopter. As they arrived in the casualty receiving area of the Comfort, you could see the drain of life on their faces and in their spirit---a sense of dazed fatigue after several days of nearly unspeakable ordeals resulting in a bewilderment---but Comfort had arrived and now they could rest to renew their life and their spirit.

Since arriving to join the Comfort on Friday, January 15th and setting sail the next morning, I have witnessed the ship and its crew make an amazing transformation as they hurried to help relieve the suffering to our neighbor to the south. The leadership and the entire health care team understood the gravity of their task and the different aspects of the systems that needed to be put in place to ensure a sustained high volume of complex patient care---care to be provided with safety and compassion by a team of healthcare personnel from around the country. The world has come to Haiti, the Comfort has come to Haiti and soon Project HOPE will expand its impact on the people of Haiti with its famous caring and compassion professionalism.

Dr. Harold Timboe, Project HOPE volunteer