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After treating hundreds of Haitian earthquake victims for more than a month, the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort is coming home to Maryland.

The USNS Comfort is scheduled to depart from the waters around Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince today, according to a statement released by U.S. Southern Command, which has operational control over the ship. The Comfort is scheduled to arrive in its home port of Baltimore on Sunday.

The increase in effective medical facilities in Haiti during recent weeks has diminished the Comfort's role and its necessity in Haiti, according to Jose Ruiz, a spokesman for Southern Command.

"I think it was never easy to put our finger on when we thought the Comfort was going to be able to be deployed back home," Ruiz said.

The hospital ship, whose medical staff consisted largely of personnel from Bethesda's National Naval Medical Center, left Baltimore Jan. 16 and arrived in Haiti Jan. 20 to deal with casualties of the massive earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince Jan. 12. The earthquake left hundreds of thousands dead and wounded. The ship received its first patients by helicopter on the evening of Jan. 19.

The Comfort discharged its last earthquake patient on Feb. 27, and on Feb. 28 was only treating U.S. and international military personnel for non-surgical issues.

The Comfort treated 871 patients during its mission, and doctors performed 843 surgeries, according to Southern Command. Five hundred and forty patients were treated during the first 10 days of the ship's operations in Haiti.

Read The Gazette's coverage of the USNS Comfort's efforts in Haiti and efforts in Maryland at www.gazette.net/haiti.