In the microbiology laboratory, located inside the laboratory division aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20), a lone laboratory technician that specializes in biomedical health sits in her scrubs and personal protective equipment, carefully swabbing bacteria taken from patient wounds into bright red, blood agar plates.

Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Jennifer Andrades Karl, from Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, and the only microbiology laboratory technician embarked on Comfort, isolates pathogenic organisms to diagnose bacteria and determine what medications would be appropriate to treat it.

"They're [surgeons and physicians] extracting extremely resistant organisms that don't like many antibiotics," said Karl. "Because it's a different environment, the doctors and laboratory technicians have to decide what antibiotic and what treatments are going to be best."

Many of the bacteria samples Karl grows are taken from body fluids or from wounds during surgery.

"The patient's we've received already have infections which are determined to be multiresistant to common antibiotics," said Lt. Cmdr. David Koch, a laboratory scientist from Naval Medical Center Portsmouth and a member of the Infection Control Committee aboard Comfort. "So the docs have done a great job in identifying that early and allowing us to use different therapies to combat that."

Biomedical health technicians fight a constant battle everywhere and every day, especially with patients living in nursing homes and those that have multiple chronic illnesses.

"Unfortunately bacteria and other pathogens are smart and they always find a way to survive and beat the great antibiotics already developed," said Koch.

Comfort has processed 213 cultures in the microbiology laboratory and 12,333 laboratory tests total since arriving in Puerto Rico.

"We would very much like to provide as much help, as much care to the people of Puerto Rico as we can," said Koch. "So long as we're here, we stand ready to assist."

Comfort is a seagoing medical treatment facility that currently has more than 800 personnel embarked for the Puerto Rico mission including Navy medical and support staff assembled from 22 commands, as well as over 70 civil service mariners.

The Department of Defense is supporting the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which coordinates all federal assistance requested by the government of Puerto Rico to help those affected by Hurricane Maria.

Comfort's primary mission is to provide an afloat, mobile, acute surgical medical facility to the U.S. military that is flexible, capable and uniquely adaptable to support expeditionary warfare. Comfort's secondary mission is to provide full hospital services to support U.S. disaster relief and humanitarian operations worldwide.