WAILUA — Tropic Care Kaua‘i 2022 is pau, until the next time.
Tropic Care Public Affairs Officer Capt. Clay Thompson said Monday was the final day for the 2022 Tropic Care Kaua‘i, with patients receiving service until noon.
The remainder of the day involved breaking down the various clinics and packing equipment for shipment.
“We should be completely out of here by Thursday,” Thompson said.
The state Department of Health Kaua‘i District Health Office spearheaded a large community effort to host the 250-plus military personnel to an appreciation and mahalo lu‘au for all the work the group that arrived under the U.S. Department of Defense Innovative Readiness Training program accomplished during its seven-day deployment that started on June 13.
“We couldn’t do the lu‘au without the community’s support,” said Toni Torres of the DOH. “We’ve done this from the very first Tropic Care, a label created by the Kaua‘i leaders for the IRT program. It has become one of the traditions of Tropic Care, and people who have done IRT before are familiar with the lu‘au.”
This year’s major contributors include the Smith ‘ohana, including Freckles, Mokihana and Kamika Smith, Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative, Hawai‘i Medical Service Association, Meridian Pacific Ltd., Hawai‘i Community Foundation, Jared “Toyo” Murayama, Vicky Cayetano, Ian and Alma Kagimoto, the Hawai‘iUSA Federal Credit Union, Kaua‘i Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, Inc., Kickass Concrete LLC, Oceanfront Sotheby’s International Realty, Wilcox Medical Center, Gregg Gardiner, AES Distributed Energy, Inc., Kaua‘i Nursery &Landscaping, Inc, Earthworks Pacific, Inc., and others.
Dr. Janet Berreman of the DOH Kaua‘i District Health Office said the outpouring of aloha enabled the district office to include their personnel in the lu‘au experience as an appreciation gesture for all their efforts during the past two-plus years of tackling the COVID-19 virus and its variants.
During the seven-day Tropic Care Kaua‘i, the medical professionals serving in the military saw several thousand patient encounters, performed a lot of procedures, and conducted hundreds of examinations worth a lot money. Thompson said they are in the process of collating the data for a final breakdown for the no-cost health care that did not require any health insurance or identification.
Additionally, The Kaua‘i Bus provided free rides to facilitate access to the three main clinics set up at Kapa‘a Middle School, Kaua‘i Community College and ‘Ele‘ele School. Additional mobile clinics were established at Kilauea School and the Waimea Easter Seals facility that enjoyed a large turnout on its first day of operation, June 17.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
