Amid the crushed buildings and smashed lives that Hurricane Maria left in Puerto Rico, a Hamilton County doctor-in-training is working with U.S. military members to make a difference.
Lt. Sean Murnan, of Harrison, is aboard a Navy hospital ship off the island, treating sick and injured Puerto Ricans whose own hospitals are wrecked and powerless.
Even now, more than a month after Maria, about 80 percent of the island's residents have no power, and about a third of homes don't have reliable drinking water. Congress on Tuesday passed a $36.5 billion disaster aid package for Puerto Rico and other states damaged by hurricanes this year.
Murnan, in the third year of his residency as an emergency physician, said via telephone from the U.S. Navy ship Comfort on Wednesday he's shocked by the devastation left in Maria's wake, but thrilled by being in a position to help people who desperately need it.
"I kind of prepped myself coming down here that this would be a very eye-opening experience, and it certainly has been. I've never seen the level of destruction [as] from the hurricane," said Murnan, who arrived with the Comfort on Oct. 3.
And, he added, the Puerto Ricans are "extremely grateful for us to be down here providing any help that we can."
He is based at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Va., and coincidentally was training in humanitarian disaster response when a real catastrophe struck the island.
Murnan was chosen for what he says is a "unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" - residents typically don't deploy during disaster responses - when the Comfort was activated and sent to help.
"It was a very creative time for us," starting with building an emergency room from the ground up aboard ship, he said. He's also part of the "en route care team" that flies a doctor and anesthesiologist to shore to stabilize and transport critically sick or injured people to the ship for care.
Murnan said he's doing the same work he would in a hospital emergency room - from wounds and broken bones to illnesses and infections - but only on the serious end of the spectrum.
"These are some of the most critically ill patients I've come across in my entire career," he said.
Being a Navy doctor combined two passions for the McCallie and Clemson grad. He signed up with the Navy in his senior year at Clemson for a Navy scholarship to the University of Tennessee College of Medicine.
Military service is a tradition in the family, said his mother, Barbara Murnan, who works in sales at EPB. Her husband, Jack, who is in the apparel business, was an Army reservist in the Vietnam era, and his uncle served in World War II, she said. Meanwhile, her father served in Korea.
Her son's Puerto Rico deployment has been a "wonderful experience" for him, she said.
" This has given him the opportunity to practice what he's going to school for and has been in training for all these years," Barbara Murnan said.
"From a mom's point of view, he's not in a war zone, and he's able to help people who really, really need help," she said.
"My husband and I think it's the most wonderful opportunity for experience, and also a way to deepen his compassion as a doctor."
Sean Murnan said he's not sure how long the Comfort will remain on station. Lt. Samuel Boyle, deputy public affairs officer, said the ship is just one part of the multiforce recovery effort that includes the military, as well as the Puerto Rico Department of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Asked what he'll take away from the experience, Murnan said, "it's really a very broad thing, the amount of lessons," from having to build an emergency department to providing en route care.
"I don't know when in my career I'm going be be able to have that sort of experience again. It's been fantastic to be able to be out here and provide care for these patients."
Contact staff writer Judy Walton at jwalton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6416.