
BALTIMORE (AP) Doctors aboard the USNS Comfort have begun treating their first patients injured in last week's earthquake in Haiti.
The nearly 900-foot floating hospital dropped anchor off the coast of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday morning, but the ship was close enough Tuesday night to take aboard its first patients.
Two severely injured quake victims were flown to the ship from an aircraft carrier. The patients are a 20-year-old man suffering from a spinal fracture and bleeding in the brain and a 6-year-old boy with a fractured pelvis.
The Comfort left Baltimore on Saturday, carrying about 550 medical staff and about 60 civilian mariners. Lt. Cmdr. Heidi Lenzini of the U.S. Southern Command says another 225 medical staff and 125 support staff will join them in Haiti.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Help keep the conversation civil. Please refer to our Terms of Use and Code of Conduct before posting your comments.