The Landing Platform Dock HNLMS Rotterdam organised a medical clinic at sea for the inhabitants of 2 Somali villages on the north-eastern coast. Village elders expressed this wish last week during a meeting on the collective fight against piracy.
Shortly after sunrise, one of the landing craft, with a medical team and improvised facilities on board, dropped anchor close to the coast near the village of Bandar Murcayo. The villagers then flocked to the floating medical post on their boats. The medical team saw over 75 villagers in a few hours.
Chris Bleeker , a medical officer in the naval rank of captain and working as an anaesthetist aboard the Tromp, was in charge: “We received a great many people with a wide variety of medical complaints. We were able to give full treatment to a number of them. Other patients were given supportive treatment. They were all glad with the help they received and left the landing craft with smiles on their faces.”
[mappress] Naval Today Staff, September 13, 2012; Image: Defensie