US navy hospital ship Comfort leaves for Haiti

The much needed medical help was on its way to Haiti after the US Navy hospital ship Comfort left the port of Baltimore.The ship, with one of the largest trauma facilities in the United States, will not arrive until around January 22. It has 12 operating rooms and 250 hospital beds, four X-ray units, one CAT scan unit, an invasive angiography suite and two oxygen-producing plants. Comfort also has up to 5,000 units of blood on board. Comfort will join the US Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, which arrived 15th January with 19 helicopters on board. It has three operating rooms, several dozen hospital beds and can produce about 35,000 gallons of drinking water per day. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also flew to Haiti on Saturday carrying relief supplies as the U.S. poured in massive aid four days after the earthquake that local officials say killed up to 200,000.