Finding Comfort in combat

Hospital ship ready to care for U.S. troops as war looms

Hospital ships such as the USNS Comfort are equipped as well as any large U.S. health facility. Story Tools VIDEO CNN's Kyra Phillips visits the USNS Comfort, a U.S. Navy hospital ship providing every kind of medical and surgical care in a combat theatre (March 13) PLAY VIDEO SPECIAL REPORT •  War Tracker •  On the Scene Map •  Commanders: U.S. | Iraq •  Weapons: 3D Models •  Coalition casualties | POW/MIA •  Special Report RELATED • Breakthroughs on the battlefield  • Troops prep for life-saving efforts  • USNS Comfort home page  HOSPITALS AT SEA Hospital ships can be activated within five days. The USNS Comfort is one of two Navy hospital ships. The Comfort's sister ship is the USNS Mercy. The Navy's Military Sealift Command operates the Comfort.

(CNN) -- It has 12 operating rooms, beds for 1,000 patients and some of the latest medical equipment available. And it's floating at sea.

The USNS Comfort is a U.S. Navy hospital ship deployed in January for the Persian Gulf region. Its mission is to save lives and provide any kind of medical care in a combat theater.

"We have neurosurgeons onboard; we have thoracic surgeons," Capt. Charles Blakenship said. "We have general surgeons like myself. A lot of orthopedic and ear, nose and throat [doctors]. ... You name it, we've got it onboard."

Cmdr. Claude Anderson is among those specialized doctors. With a 48-hour notice, the orthopedic surgeon found himself halfway around the globe.

"Approximately 50 percent of casualties that occur will be orthopedic in nature, and I'm specially trained in foot and ankle surgery and foot and ankle trauma," Anderson said. "Land-mine injuries that potentially can occur would be something that I could probably help quite a bit in."

Crewed by civil service mariners and active duty Navy personnel, the Comfort -- made of nearly 70,000 tons of steel -- is as big as a large city hospital and capable of the same procedures. And it's no stranger to deployment in waters near the Middle East.

In 1990, the Comfort was stationed in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, and it operated near Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm.

During that time, more than 8,000 outpatients were seen, and 700 were admitted to the ship's facilities, according to the vessel's Web site. Thousands of prescriptions were filled, 17,000 lab tests completed and more than 100 CAT scans performed, the site said. The ship even has the capability of making eyeglasses, with around 1,600 producing during the earlier Mideast conflict.

The ship also has provided comfort closer to home. It was activated in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks and sailed to New York. The ship's clinic administered to hundreds of Ground Zero rescue and relief workers, helping them with ailments from cuts and fractures to mental health issues.

With the potential for war in Iraq, the Comfort also faces the reality of dealing with weapons of mass destruction. Those aboard said that future patients will be decontaminated and every contagious patient will be isolated as a precaution.

Doctors said they hope they will be prepared.

"There's only a few times in history it [a weapon of mass destruction] has been used," Anderson said. "There've been no studies; no one knows what the effects are, or if we really have stuff that's going to prevent it and keep us from being injured from it. God help us that it doesn't happen."

CNN Correspondent Kyra Phillips contributed to this report.

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