Adjudicator, Bridge
The
Adjudicator had finally settled down. After the major defeat during the Counterpunch operation that forced a retreat, Petty Officer Tosth Aaaiser was finally able to have some time to patrol the ship for any cases of post-traumatic stress or signs of late symptoms, without having to treat the wounded. The medbays were full all across the ships and all of the medical droids on the ship were monitoring longer-term patients in kolto tanks. It was a very nice change of pace than when he first arrived on the Star Destroyer. The size of this ship was enormous indeed. The bridge was impressive just in size…
Space had always amazed the Mon Calamari; the vastness and just how empty it really was. All of a sudden, an explosion ripped him back into reality and pandemonium broke loose on the bridge. One of the communications consoles had exploded. All of the bridge officers lost control, after just coming out of the operation, thinking it was safe. It was obvious just how many were affected by the devastation of the Second Fleet. Even the Chief of Naval Warfare, at least during the action, when he had first arrived, seemed as if he would need treatment for stress and possible Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Looking around, he saw two wounded officers. Rushing to their sides, for obvious reasons, he determined that one of them had taken the brunt of the blow; she had shrapnel lodged throughout her body: through her chest and abdomen. He quickly checked her pulse and other vitals. She was already too far gone to try to save; the loss of blood and stress from pulling the shrapnel out without a ready supply of kolto to try and negate the effects would be too much on such a fragile body. He had to move on to the other victim. In a moment of sorrow, however, he gave the dying patient a large dose of anesthetic to help her passing.
Moving on to the next victim, he activated his comm. “We’ve had a situation on the bridge. Station exploded. There was one fatality. The other victim looks like he can be stabilized. I need a hovergurney and a couple medics down here as quickly as possible.” He closed the connection. As big as this ship was, he knew the other victim would likely be dead before the medical team arrived.
Upon closer examination, this man’s condition did not look much better. A piece of shrapnel had entered his arm; the bleeding was very, very bad. He ran preliminary testing. It looked as if the bleeding wasn’t the only major problem. The force and shock of the explosion had caused him to go into cardiac arrest and extensive cranial damage, with slowly rising intracranial pressure; this could become very bad very quickly. The Mon Calamari pulled out his field medkit, and with a look of utter determination in his bulbous eyes, began to work on breaking the cardiac arrest. This was the worst of the conditions: If the heart began to fail, there would be irreparable damage to tissues and the brain. The best way to keep this from happening in the field such as this was through CPR.
His work with the Kaminoan and studies at the university had provided him with the basic field techniques he would need to help this man survive. Protocol as he remembered was as follows:
CPR needs to be started on an asystole patient, along with stimulants. Otherwise, the AEDs will have no impact and the patient will have little chance of survival. With a four lead placement, many field medics remember it like as follows: 'White to right, smoke over fire.' This is just a sort of pneumonic for the placement: red, which is just above the pelvis and outside of the nipple line is under black, which is to the left of white. Green is directly across from red. Most of the time, the uppermost part of the arm is the best choice for the white and black leads.He called over one of the bridge officers who had calmed down and had begun to take an interest in his work and had him preform CPR on the victim. The next task was to hook up the leads:
V1 goes in the 4th intercostal space, just to the right of the sternum. V2 goes opposite V1. V3 is placed on the mid clavicular line & 5th intercostal space. V6 is on the mid axillary line, horizontal with V4. V5 is positioned between V6 & V4. V3 goes between V4 & V2. Simple enough.He placed the electrodes on the male’s chest and urged the officer away as he prepped the AED for electric shock.
“Clear!”
The human jumped slightly from the ground, as the AED ran a quick analysis verifying another shock was needed.
“Clear!”
The AED worked. The next noises from the previously silent bridge became moans of pain from his patient. The Mon Calamari then noticed his rank. He had only been a Crewman… Especially hard start for a career for him, he thought.
A failed assault and now this? “Crewman, can you hear me? Crewman?”
The response was muffled groans.
At least he’s not completely gone… “Someone get me something I can elevate him with! He’s not safe yet…”
After what seemed like minutes later, one of the officers returned. “Thank you, sir,” the Mon Cal replied hastily. “Where is that blasted med team?” he muttered under his breath.
Now to focus on this blasted bleeding. Upon closer inspection, it seemed as if the bleeding had stopped.
“Crewman?”
“Unh… Unh… Who’s there? Where am I?”
Not good… Possible concussion as well? “It’s all going to be okay crewman. I’m treating you. You’re going to be fine.”
“What’s going on? Please! Please help me!”
“I am Crewman, I truly am… Just relax. This is almost over. This next part may hurt extensively. You have shrapnel lodged in your arm. And I’m going to remove it… This will sting a bit. I’m going to have to disinfect and slightly heal the wound. I can give you a shot of anesthetic, if you want."
“Yes! Yes, please! I hurt so badly…”
There was a look of true pain and understanding in the Mon Calamari’s bulbous fish-like eyes. “I know Crewman. What’s your name?”
“Ryn, sir.”
“Alright. Just stay calm, Ryn. My name’s Tosth, by the way. I’m going to give you that shot of numbing to quell the pain, Ryn.” He gave him the shot and Ryn suddenly relaxed.
“The pain… It’s gone! It’s gone!”
“Stay calm, Ryn. You still have metal lodged in your arm.”
“Oh. Yeah. Let’s get this over with, then. I’m ready when you are.”
“I’ll be as gentle as I can, Ryn.”
He then prepared the laser scalpel, a hyposponge, and a few syringes of bacta.
“Alright Ryn. This is how this is going to work. I’m going to cut away at the flesh around the shrapnel with this laser scalpel. And I will be cleaning up the blood with this hyposponge. And, as should be expected, I will be injecting bacta into the tissue to begin the healing process. Any questions?”
“Not at this moment. You really are good at this, sir. Thank you.”
The Mon Calamari’s eyes shone with a brief moment of pride and then shook off the compliment. “I’m no one special. Just doing my duty, crewman.” He then proceeded to do exactly as he had told the male. As he was finishing up, he said, “now bacta’s the only way the going to heal without scarring. We’ll have you in a bacta tank for a while to help heal you up.”
Clapping grew in the space around him, but still no blasted med team. He reactivated his comm and asked about the med team, but got no response. “Now we’re not quite done yet Ryn. There’s one more major thing we have to take care of, which I cannot manage without more equipment. When I took your vitals, I noticed that you had an elevating intracranial pressure. All that means is that, after the explosion, when you were launched backward, is that something happened to your cranial cavity. It’s not quite a concussion, but I’m afraid you may have one. Simply solved in the bacta tank. Now, as for this cranial pressure… That’s not as simple. We’ve helped it by elevating you up to relieve some of the pressure. The other ways would have included a shunt so we could drain off the excess fluid in your cranial cavity. That’s probably how the medical team will handle it. There is also another technique that is much more risky. I will only allow them to use it as a last resort on you. It involves drilling a hole in your skull… I promise to get you back on the bridge in no time at all.”
At that moment, two things happened: he noticed that the Commanding Officer, Wyl Trykon of the ship was present and was giving him a slightly impressed look. A look that said, “well done, but I don’t know you.” The other thing he noticed was that the medteam had finally arrived.
“What took your team so long to get to the bridge?” The Mon Cal squeaked angrily at them.
“I’m not sure what you mean, Corpsman,” replied one of the senior medical staff on the team. “This is standard operation time to reach the bridge-“
“People would have
DIED on your ‘standard operating time’!” he angrily roared. “If this is your standard procedure, it’s a wonder anyone who falls ill even survives!”
There was a dead silence on the bridge after that statement. The Mon Cal realized he had spoken out of line. “I’m sorry sirs. I just had a bridge officer die on my hands and another one who needs immediate help. I’m very tense at this moment.”
“Understood, Corpsman. Death is never easy to handle.” There was a slight pause as the team struggled to choose what to say next. “Who is the patient and what needs to be done? We will also need a full report filed after you accompany us back to the medbay…”
“Of course, of course… If I were personally the Chief Medical Officer, I would have every bridge officer, including the captain…” He made a point to look straight at the Captain. “…Come in for sessions to help cope with the psychological ordeal we have all faced with the near destruction of our fleet. It was pure chaos when the console exploded on the bridge. But… On the matter at hand, this man, Crewman Ryn, needs shunting of cranial fluid as soon as possible. And any treatment for concussions outside of a bacta tank. Of course, he still needs a treatment in a bacta tank, but I promised to keep him incapacitated for as little time as possible, and that’s what I intend to do.”
“Alright. Let’s load him up onto the hovergurney then and the deceased officer as well. We have a lot to take care of, I can see.”
Tosth breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He had saved someone today. He had proven to himself that he could defeat his psychological problems and still come through as a true field surgeon. This was one of the proudest moments of his life….
***
Adjudicator, Medical Offices
“Very well done performance, corpsman,” said the simulation technician.
“I just did what I had to. I would have helped the officers on the bridge with their obvious psychological stress of the last few weeks…”
“Yes… Not many would think to do that in such a situation.”
“I do have one question, though.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“The response time. Is it really that slow aboard this ship?”
“Of course not. We just wanted to see what you could accomplish under less than ideal conditions. And just from watching you, I’d say you did very well, given the circumstances.”
“Well, thank you.”
“You will have a full report from the Chief Medical Officer submitted to you within the coming days detailing your strengths and weaknesses…”
- OOC:
- Word Count: 2,030 Tried to be as accurate as possible with the medical protocols. If anyone sees any mistakes, I'll change them up right away.
