{"id":280356,"date":"2024-09-16T14:30:49","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T14:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=280356"},"modified":"2024-09-16T15:30:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T15:30:06","slug":"carl-vinson-medical-department-performs-surgery-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=280356","title":{"rendered":"Carl Vinson Medical Department Performs Surgery at Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PACIFIC OCEAN \u2013 While out to sea on Aug. 9, the Medical Department staff aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) learned one of their Sailors was experiencing severe abdominal pain.<\/p>\n

One of the unique challenges of surgical evaluation on a U.S. Navy warship at sea is the requirement for reliance on physical examination skills and experience where high-tech advanced imaging is not immediately available. After medical personnel completed a comprehensive physical exam, it became clear the Sailor needed urgent medical attention. The medical team aboard “America’s Favorite Carrier” remained composed and managed the challenge.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was clear to me, based on multiple factors, that what we were looking at was likely appendicitis,\u201d said Cmdr. Debra Lowry, the ship\u2019s surgeon.<\/p>\n

The absence of a CT scanner [medical imaging device] aboard Vinson, which is common in all carriers, coupled with the ship’s position in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations and its distance from a hospital, determined that surgery at sea was the best choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were not going to be anywhere close to shore anytime soon,\u201d explained Lowry. \u201cIt\u2019s a very routine surgery that I would do in the hospital, so I felt very safe in performing it. If we were deployed, we would possibly have to send the patient somewhere that might not be a military installation and that Sailor would be off the ship for possibly two weeks, maybe up to a month, or potentially have them sent back to homeport. When they get the surgery here, they can recover here and get back to their job within one to two weeks, so we aren\u2019t taking them away from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The medical team, comprised of five people, led by Lowry. Lt. Cmdr. Julia Camp, Lt. j.g. Kimberly Graff, Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Christopher Melo, and Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Steve Choi, worked together to conduct the laparoscopic appendectomy. A laparoscopy is a modern minimally invasive surgical technique employing a slender, illuminated tube equipped with a video camera to inspect the abdominal organs, while an appendectomy refers to the surgical extraction of the appendix, an organ which is situated in the lower right region of the abdomen.<\/p>\n

The medical team completed the procedure in just over an hour, performing the appendectomy and then transferring the patient to a post-operative care unit aboard the ship. The medical team monitored for any potential complications and administered medications and support to facilitate a prompt recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe surgery was very smooth,\u201d said Melo. \u201cIt is our job as a surgical team at sea to always stay ready, so it\u2019s important for us to be prepared at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vinson is currently underway in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations. As an integral part of U.S. Pacific Fleet, U.S. 3rd Fleet operates naval forces in the Indo-Pacific in addition to providing realistic and relevant training necessary to flawlessly execute our Navy\u2019s timeless roles of sea control and power projection. U.S. 3rd Fleet works in close coordination with other numbered fleets to provide commanders with capable, ready forces to deploy forward and win in day-to-day competition, in crisis, and in conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PACIFIC OCEAN \u2013 While out to sea on Aug. 9, the Medical Department staff aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) learned one of their Sailors was experiencing severe abdominal pain. One of the unique challenges of surgical evaluation on a U.S. Navy warship at sea is the requirement for reliance on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":280358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280356"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280359,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280356\/revisions\/280359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/280358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}