Jan 19, 2010 4:21 pm US/Central
Local Navy Medics Set To Deploy To Haiti
23 Medics From Great Lakes Station Leaving Tuesday
GREAT LAKES, Ill. (CBS) ―
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The U.S.N.S. Comfort, shown here in a 2005 file photo, is headed to Haiti to provide medical relief for earthquake victims. Twenty-three Naval medics from the Great Lakes Naval Base are leaving to board the ship.
AP
Navy medical professionals from the Chicago area were on their way to Haiti Tuesday afternoon. The 23 hospital corpsmen will help tend to victims of last week's devastating earthquake.
CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports that, though trained to assist in battle, this time they are on a humanitarian mission.
Their bags got a final once over as navy medical professionals set off Tuesday for an international crisis. With hospitals and clinics destroyed, the need for medical care in Haiti continues to grow.
"I feel privileged to be doing something like this," said U.S. Navy HN Vincent Marotta.
From sessions with simulated patients to real life war zone deployments, it's the kind of urgent care hospital corpsmen at Naval Health Clinic Great Lakes train for daily.
The images of those suffering were calling them to action long before their deployment.
"It tears at you, it hits you right in the heart and there's nothing you can do beside sit here and wait until they call your name and thank god my name was called cause it's my chance to step up and do what needs to be done," said HN Timothy Baker.
The nurses and surgical assistants were bound for the U.S.N.S. Comfort, which will be anchored just outside Haiti. The massive floating hospital has more than a dozen operating rooms and can accommodate 1,000 patients.
Though hospital corpsmen have prepared for the tough realities of war, this humanitarian mission presents its own stressful challenges.
"Different than combat stress it's still adrenaline driven but because of so much devastation it's rough to deal with," said Capt. Susan Lichtenstein.
There will be children in pain and parents grieving. It's different from the battleground suffering that was witnessed by Corpsman Charles Ward in Afghanistan.
"There's really no comparison, that's one of the reasons I volunteered for this one because it's strictly humanitarian," Ward said.
Dealing with the trauma of innocents can sometimes be more stressful, which is why this group's been counseled to offer emotional support for one another.
"All these people will help me out, I'll talk to them they'll talk to me, we're like family," Marotta said.
"I am looking forward to it. There is a crisis they need us. We are all people on this world and when one needs help we all need help," Baker said.
The group also received counseling from others who served on similar humanitarian missions following the Indonesian tsunami. They were scheduled to arrive at a Naval base in Florida Tuesday and will be in Haiti by the end of the week.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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