USNS Mercy transports six from Bougainville for critical care
The US Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy sent an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter on a critical care patient transport mission on 30 June to retrieve six injured people.
Image: Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Matthew Hawkins of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 21 assists an infant onboard the USNS Mercy (Sgt Valerie Eppler / US Marine Corps)
The US Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy sent an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter on a critical care patient transport mission on 30 June to retrieve six injured people, including an 18-month-old infant, from Han Island, a small land mass off the coast of Carteret Island in Papua New Guinea. The ship received all six patients, who were immediately provided medical care.
“All [of the] patients are currently in good condition,” said Capt. Melanie Merrick, the commanding officer of the military treatment facility USNS Mercy.
The Deputy Chief Secretary of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, contacted the US embassy in Port Moresby to request assistance transporting the civilians, who had swum ashore after becoming lost at sea while onboard a small vessel. The Mission Commander of Pacific Partnership 2015 Capt. Chris Engdahl directed his maritime operations centre onboard Mercy to launch one of its helicopters from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 21 to pick up the injured and transport them to the ship for immediate care.
Mercy was in Papua New Guinea for its second mission port of Pacific Partnership 2015. Pacific Partnership is an annual multilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. While training for crisis conditions, Pacific Partnership missions to date have provided real world medical care to approximately 270,000 patients and veterinary services to more than 38,000 animals, said the US Navy