Local ER Nurse Brings Health and Hope to Tsunami Survivors

Philadelphia, PA, April 29, 2005—Joel Trinidad, RN, an ER nurse at Albert Einstein Medical Center, spent the last two months aboard the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy, providing medical care to tsunami survivors in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

“It’s been the most amazing experience of my life,” says Trinidad. “I have such awe for the talented, dedicated medical professionals I worked with and the spirit of the survivors we cared for.”

One of 90 healthcare professionals aboard the USNS Mercy’s March tour – the second rotation through the region – Trinidad helped provide medical treatment to thousands of survivors. He was among the first medical professionals to care for injuries, tsunami-related illnesses and chronic medical problems of people who had been unable to find medical care since the disaster.

Working in the ship’s 50-bed emergency room/trauma bay, Trinidad helped take care of a young boy with “tsunami lung.” His uncle (and only surviving family member) had found the boy floating facedown in muddy water. Like many other survivors who breathed in dirty water, the boy had developed a bad form of pneumonia. 

A recently graduated nurse, former social worker and dedicated volunteer who has donated his time both at home, as a firefighter and rescue worker, and abroad, Trinidad joined the relief mission in response to a request from the Emergency Nurses Association.  Trinidad donated two months of his time, serving aboard the USNS Mercy for two tsunami-relief rotations. “Nursing leaders at Einstein Medical Center were very supportive of my request for leave and my desire to do something to ease suffering in this devastated part of the world,” notes Trinidad.

The USNS Mercy and her sister ship the USNS Comfort are the largest trauma hospitals in the world. Stretching the length of three football fields and rising ten stories high, the USNS Mercy has 1,000 beds, 12 operating rooms and 80 intensive care beds.

The non-profit agency Project Hope – Health Opportunities for People Everywhere – is coordinating the USNS Mercy’s mission to Indonesia and other tsunami relief efforts. So far, a total of more than 9,200 tsunami survivors have received more than 17,000 medical procedures aboard the USNS Mercy.

Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, a member of the Jefferson Health System, provides healthcare services through Albert Einstein Medical Center, Germantown Community Health Services, Willow Terrace (a nursing home), Einstein at Elkins Park, MossRehab, Willowcrest (a center for subacute care), Belmont Behavioral Health and a number of outpatient and satellite locations. Einstein also operates a primary care network, Einstein Neighborhood Healthcare. 

CONTACT: Priscilla Koutsouradis
Communications Manager
Albert Einstein Healthcare Network
215-456-3922 or koutsoup@einstein.edu

Publish date: April 29, 2005