By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Brandon Shelander
USNS Comfort Public Affairs

ABOARD USNS COMFORT -- Surgeons aboard hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) removed an extra toe from a five-year-old Nicaraguan boy, July 21.

Darwin Padilla, was born with the extra toe, which prevented him from wearing shoes or attending school. His mother, Paula Padilla, said she heard about Comfort’s humanitarian mission three days before service members and civilians from Comfort started seeing patients at Jose Schendal Health Center in Corinto, Nicaragua, and had a friend put her son’s name on the list to be seen.

Padilla said they traveled for two hours by bus from the town of Somotillo along the Nicaraguan border to reach the hospital where Darwin was evaluated by medical staff and flown by helicopter to Comfort for surgery.

Padilla was very impressed when she came aboard Comfort.

“I like the ship, but what I like most about it is the people,” Padilla said. “They are loving and caring. It’s good to know that there are people that care about other countries and are willing to help.”

Lt. Cmdr. Eric Shirley, the pediatric orthopedic surgeon aboard Comfort, operated on Darwin and said the surgery went well and Darwin should be able to function normally from now on.

“He’ll have no problems running or wearing normal shoes. He’s going to do very well when he gets back, though I’ll have to put him in a cast for the first couple of weeks to keep him out of trouble,” Shirley said.

Comfort is on a four-month humanitarian deployment to Latin America and the Caribbean, providing medical treatment to patients in a dozen countries. While deployed, Comfort is under operational control of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and tactical control of Destroyer Squadron 24.