VOA标准英语2010年-USNS Comfort's Medics Ready for Incomi

The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort is expected to arrive in Haiti on Wednesday and could begin receiving critically injured earthquake victims by helicopter during the next several hours.  Meanwhile, as VOA's Suzanne Presto¹ reports from onboard the Comfort, medical teams are performing drills to prepare for influx² of patients.

It was a 40-second elevator ride from the Comfort's flight deck to casualty receiving.  This patient is 37-years-old and unconscious.  His pelvis was crushed during last week's earthquake.     

The medical team cuts open his shirt, checks his airway³, calls for X-rays and supplies.  They work with a sense of urgency in this hot space, shifting to make way for specialists and equipment.   
 
Navy Corpsman Yves Henry strides beside the gurney as the medical team hurries the patient down the corridor, arriving at the intensive care unit.  Henry speaks Creole and today he serves as a translator.  But his patient is unconscious, so when someone calls for a hand to hold a monitor, he springs into surgical⁴ technician mode, grabbing hold of the monitor's handle so the medics can see the screen.  The patient's kidneys are failing.
 
There are chest compressions, calls for medication.  There is the call no one wants to hear.

The doctors and nurses raise their hands in the air and step back from the bed.  Henry lowers his head and shakes it. 
 
The exercise was role-play, preparing the medics for the flood of patients who will be helicoptered in from the U.S. aircraft carrier Carl Vincent and from triage centers in Port-au-Prince. 

Soon the elevators and corridors will be full of earthquake victims.  They will be rushed from casualty receiving to surgery or to X-ray or to intensive care, and, ideally, to the recovery ward⁵.  The drills help the personnel function as a team in this adrenaline-fueled atmosphere.  They also prepare the medics for the worst.

Haitian surgical technician Henry says it is difficult to come to terms with the fact that the patients will be his countrymen.  But he says that as a health care provider, the feeling of sadness from losing a patient is the same, no matter the patient's nationality.

"You do your best to help that person," said Henry. "But then, you know, they don't make it, so I'm sure you feel bad because your hope was for the patient to live, to survive."  

There is little time left for drills.  The Comfort is expected to arrive in the vicinity of Haiti on Wednesday, and officials expect to fill its 1,000 beds.  
 

1 presto   

adv.急速地；n.急板乐段；adj.急板的

参考例句：

• With something so important,you can't just wave a wand and presto!在这么重大的问题上，你想挥动一下指挥棒，转眼就变过来,办不到！
• I just turned the piece of wire in the lock and hey presto,the door opened.我把金属丝伸到锁孔里一拧，嘿，那门就开了。

2 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

3 airway   

n.空中航线，通风口

参考例句：

• Lay them on their side and ensure the airway is unobstructed.让他们侧躺着，并确保呼吸道畅通。
• There is a purple airway in London Airport.伦敦机场里有一条皇家专用飞机跑道。

4 surgical   

adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的

参考例句：

• He performs the surgical operations at the Red Cross Hospital.他在红十字会医院做外科手术。
• All surgical instruments must be sterilised before use.所有的外科手术器械在使用之前，必须消毒。

5 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。