MHCE MARCH 2024

22 | MHCE - News www.mhce.us MARCH 2024 EDITION WWW.MHCE.US
Monthly Newsletter | 23
they’ve gotten the chance to do
many different procedures.”
The GHE was a predecessor to
potential upcoming missions,
in which military medical
personnel would maintain
skillsets related to trauma care
and prolonged care in resource
limited environments.
Expeditionary Medical
Unit’s Honduras Mission
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras
– Expeditionary Medical Unit
(EMU) 10 G-Rotation 16
strengthened health capability
and expanded U.S. Navy
readiness with Honduran
medical professionals during
a Global Health Engagement
(GHE) in San Pedro Sula, Feb.
17 – March 2, 2024.
According to U.S. Navy Capt.
Jamie Fitch, the officer-incharge
for EMU 10 G-R16, her
team cared for multiple trauma
patients daily during the twoweek
medical mission.
“Working in a global health
engagement environment has
allowed my team to come
together,” said Fitch. “They’ve
gotten to know each other,
learn each other’s strengths and
weaknesses to some extent, and
how to work through challenging
circumstances together.”
While working in Hospital
Nacional Mario Catarino Rivas,
Sailors from Expeditionary
Medical Facility Kilo and
Navy Medicine Readiness
and Training Command
Camp Lejeune assisted in
the emergency room and the
operating room, allowing many
of them to work together for the
first time.
“The Sailors have seen around
30 to 40 patients,” said Dr.
Guillermo Saenz, a medical
officer and foreign service
national with Joint Task Force
Bravo. “During their time here,
According to Fitch, her team
observed pathology they may not
normally see in America due to
monetary limitations for injury
care. Patients were brought in
immediately after a traumatic
injury or, sometimes, days or
weeks later. These differences
showed Sailors how trauma
care results can vary depending
upon the environment.
“For this mission we brought our
emergency room resuscitative
team and our surgical team
together to see and resuscitate
critically injured patients,”
explained Fitch. “We worked
through the full scope of trauma
care, from the patient’s arrival
to the hospital, through the
operating room, and then on to
an intensive care unit or a ward.
Our expectation was that we
would see patients, and we’d run
them through the full gambit,
partnering with the Hondurans,
doing the full scope of care.”