Largest hospital ship in the world underway to L.A.
Mar. 25, 2020 PLYMOUTH VOICE.
Plymouth Michigan News
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The hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) departed Naval Station San Diego Mar. 23, and is now underway to Los Angeles in support of the nation’s COVID-19 response efforts.
Mercy departed Naval Base San Diego with over 800 Navy medical personnel and support staff with the afloat medical treatment facility (MTF), and over 70 civil service mariners. The ship will serve as a referral hospital for non-COVID-19 patients currently admitted to shore-based hospitals, and will provide a full spectrum of medical care to include general surgeries, critical care and ward care for adults. This will allow local health professionals to focus on treating COVID-19 patients and for shore-based hospitals to use their Intensive Care Units and ventilators for those patients.
Civil service mariners operate and navigate the ship, load and off-load mission cargo, assist with repairs to mission equipment and provide essential services to keep the MTF up and running.
Mercy’s MTF is an embarked crew of medical personnel from the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery responsible for operating and maintaining one of the largest trauma facilities in the United States.
Plymouth Voice.
Video: U.S. Navy News Service
Gallery Photo: Rear Adm. Timothy Weber, commander of Naval Medical Forces Pacific, speaks to members of the press before the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) departs Naval Base San Diego.
