MC3 Ryan Steinhour USNS Comfort arrives at Naval Station Norfolk Saturday following a seven-week deployment to provide medical care in Haiti as part of Operation Unified Response. Comfort’s surgical team performed more than 800 surgeries. Comfort will return to homeport tomorrow in Baltimore after a short port visit in Norfolk.

‘‘The U.S. and the Navy have done a wonderful thing for Haiti,” said Lt. Cmdr. Mill Etienne, a native of Haiti and staff neurologist at NNMC. ‘‘We’ve saved countless lives of children and adults. All those people who we’ve saved ... we’ve made a big difference to that country. The people of Haiti really appreciate it.”

Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. Adam Robinson Jr., NNMC Commander Rear Adm. Matthew Nathan and many others were on-hand to greet Sailors once they arrived at NNMC following a nearly two month deployment to Haiti.

Etienne, who left Haiti when he was 5 years old, was relieved to see a family member escape with her life.

‘‘[My cousin] was stuck under [the rubble] for about two days before they found her,” he said. ‘‘On one of my missions, I went out to a hospital to provide assistance, she came out there to meet me and it felt great. I was really happy to see that she was safe.”

Etienne said his family was pleased to hear the news that his cousin was safe, unhurt and he was pleased that the work they did was appreciated.

‘‘One patient on the ship was drawing lots of pictures throughout his stay [on Comfort] and all the pictures were of the destruction in Haiti,” Etienne said. ‘‘In the background was USNS Comfort, which shows me that the Haitian people see us as coming there to make a big difference.

‘‘Haiti has been suffering for two centuries and now this will be the hardest they’ve ever been hit by anything,” Etienne said. ‘‘I was able to go back and provide much needed assistance, so it felt really, really good.”

Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Eric Wicersham, who worked in the surgical ward while deployed with the Comfort, said they faced challenges, but worked in the face of adversity.

‘‘We were trying to figure out the system and we were working with new people, and that was different. But, we pulled together as a team and, before you knew it, we had 40 patients who three or four people were taking care of,” he said.

‘‘We saw the worst-of-the-worst cases,” Wicersham said. ‘‘We may have not seen but 800 patients, but just taking those — the most extreme cases from the other hospitals — was a big help and needed. And I’d do it all over again in a heart beat.”

Laura Salazar, wife of Lt. Cmdr. Jaime Salazar, was ecstatic to see her husband after being away for so long and had a few unexpected surprises for him.

‘‘We’re very excited that he’s going to come see our new house and all the work that I’ve put into it,” Salazar said. ‘‘Hopefully, it meets his standards and we’re going to have a party. My daughter thinks it’s going to be a birthday party, but we’re going to have cake and candles tonight and then we’re going to settle in because he has a lot of stuff to unpack.”

With a short time frame to prepare for deployment to Haiti, it caught the Salazar family by surprise.

‘‘We were unprepared because it was so fast. With us having little kids and him leaving without being able to prepare them, that was hard,” Salazar said.

Laura Salazar found Comfort and support from her family after her husband left on deployment.

‘‘My parents helped me a lot while he was gone,” she said. ‘‘I dealt with the closing on the house and had to find us a new place to rent and I had to deal with the move on both ends and they helped me with the kids. I could not have done it without them.”

Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class (SW) Raymond Jones was aboard Comfort and everything is not as bad as it seems.

‘‘If you think you have it bad, it can always be worse. Just know you’re blessed,” Jones said.