US Navy’s hospital ship USNS Mercy conducts casualty drill

The US Navy’s Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) has participated in the mass casualty drill, as part of the sea phase of RIMPAC Exercise 2014.

Mainly aimed at enabling Mercy’s crew to be ready in the event of a real-life military incident or humanitarian disaster, the drill involved an emulated an oil platform explosion, in addition to 30 patients with mock injuries and a chain of helicopter medical evacuations.

USNS Mercy casualty receiving division officer lieutenant Gary Galicinao said: "The purpose of today’s drill was to prepare Mercy’s medical providers, nurses and hospital corpsmen to be ready for a real-life mass casualty.

"In case we are called upon anywhere in the world, we will be ready to provide the necessary medical help."

During the multinational exercise, patients were flown in from the Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS Success (OR 304) through a Japanese helicopter from the Japan Self-Defense Force Destroyer Ise (DDH-182).

USNS Mercy casualty receiving medical director commander Gilbert Seda said: "The drills ensure the medical staff, ship security, administrative department, and flight crew are familiar with various procedures so that we can provide the best care possible."

"This drill has given Mercy a great opportunity to see what it’s like to manage multiple casualties while at the same time managing all other aspects of the medical treatment facility, like the ward and intensive care unit.

"It is also a chance to how to work on how to properly distribute our staff in such a mass casualty situation."

As part of the drill, the involved team leaders were mainly tasked with evaluating Mercy’s crew response in handling patients arriving en masse.

Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Charles Hogue said: "We actually allowed all the patients to go through the entire ship so we could see how effective we are as far from both a logistical and an operational standpoint."

The US Navy claimed that this year’s drill featured the most patients of an RIMPAC mass casualty exercise so far.

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