Repairs of Another Kind

Posted on 25 Jan 2017 @ 3:55am by Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast & Commander Jayla Kij

1,828 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Endgame
Location: Sick Bay

Things were beginning to quiet down again in Sick Bay, which was bad news for Jayla lately. Whenever she had less to do, she started thinking and thinking only made her panic. She really needed to go see the counselor as soon as possible.

"Doctor!" called someone- Jayla didn't see who. "They're bringing in someone in a stasis pod. He's in rough shape."

Jayla blinked and put down what was in her had. She realized it was her tricorder and picked it back up. "Bring him over here," she instructed, indicating the nearest stasis pod dock. "T'Lura!" she called the nearest nurse. "I'm gonna need your help."

The Vulcan nodded once, and rolled a cart closer to the stasis pod. She opened a drawer on the side of the cart, and fetched a tricorder. She flipped it open, and started her own scans of the patient.

"Trill male," she declared. "Approximately thirty years of age. Joined," she added, reading the output on the tricorder. Finally, she spared a glance inside the pod.

"It is Commander Bast," she announced.

Jayla blinked as her heart leaped into her throat. "What?" she demanded, peering into the pod. "Oh, no," she whispered as fear gripped her. No! No, she would not let herself be afraid. If she were afraid, Belar might take over again. No, deep breaths. She could do this.

After only a moment's hesitation, she went back to her scans. "He's lost a lot of blood," she said. "Do we have any Trill blood on hand?"

"No," replied T'Lura. "We need to replicate synthetic Trill blood." She continued her scans. "Evidence of trauma to the neck and jaw. The chart says he hit his head. Massive blood loss, and extensive damage to the proximal epiphysis of the left humerus."

She peered inside the stasis chamber, where the ship's Second Officer was unconscious. His face was covered in blood splatters, some dark, some bright red - not all of them were of the same origin. His uniform, once gold-colored, was now dark with blood. The area around his shoulder wound was not only caked with dried blood, it also looked carbonized - from the damage she had read on her tricorder, it was logical to assume he had been shot by an energy weapon of some sort.

Her eyes continued farther down his torso. The entire left side of his uniform was dark with blood. By his wrists, the uniform sleeves also showed another kind of stain, this one a light grey, which she couldn't readily identify. His hands were bruised at the knuckles, as if he'd hurt them by hitting or punching something - or someone. Blood under his fingernails testified to his taking part in a physical assault.

She pulled out her tricorder and scanned the different-colored blood stains on his face. Some of the blood was Trill in origin, but there were also splatters from another species. She scanned down to his wrists, and the grey stains that had caught her attention. The tricorder identified it as grey matter, and after thirty seconds, managed to identify the species as Selamat.

She reported her findings to Doctor Kij before walking over to the replicator, and ordering six units of synthetic Trill blood.

For a moment, Jayla looked as if she might cry. And in fact, she might have. Here was her very best friend in the whole galaxy on the brink of death. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered if she should remove Bast from the host, but shoved the thought away. No, she could patch him up.

"Okay," she said. "First thing's first. Let's categorize his injuries and put them in order of most life threatening to least, then come up with a plan. We have plenty of time until we have to turn this thing off and I want to use as much of it as a can to work out what I need to do to save his life." She thought for a moment. "We'll give him two units of blood right away," she decided. "Which means we may have to synthesis more, but we'll deal with that if we need to. That should keep him stabilized. Once that's working, we'll have to take care of these wounds. Now," she muttered, frowning at her tricorder. "Which one is the worst?"

T'Lura put aside her tricorder and moved to the medical console, which was more sensitive than the tricorder, and had a larger interface, that was easier to manipulate. She focused her attention on the shoulder wound.

"He was hit by an energy weapon," she stated. "The beam would appear to have the same anticoagulant properties that Dominion weapons have in our own universe. He bled out from the shoulder wound."

Jayla nodded. "Then that's where we'll start," she said. "Get the bleeding stopped and get him stabilized. I think that's shoulder's gonna need reconstructive surgery before long, but best to let him heal a bit first, I think. I'm reading a broken humerous, too. We'll get him all patched up and then I'll call in Dr. Abrams or Dr. Road to consult on possible surgery." She paused for a moment. "Okay, so get two units of blood going into him, get that shoulder wound to stop bleeding and then take care of the small stuff. And worry about putting the shoulder back together later. Sound good?"

"I concur," replied T'Lura. She picked up two units of blood, and hooked them up to the transfuser. She then hooked up the scanners to the main monitor, and displayed a three-dimensional image of Bast's shoulder, highlighting the damaged areas. The sensors identified the anticoagulant agent, and displayed the results of that as well.

Jayla took a deep breath and readied her medical instruments on a table next to the dock. "Ready?" she asked.

T'Lura was standing by, with one needle in either hand. There was seldom any need to use actual needles in this day and age, but administering a blood transfusion was, unfortunately, still one of them. They couldn't very well beam the blood into a patient. She had hooked up the blood bags to a pole above the patient, and was ready to insert the needles into his ulnar veins. They had determined that using both arms would allow them to increase his blood volume that much faster.

In parallel, she had prepared the medication that would counteract the anticoagulant. One medication needed to be administered via hypospray, while another needed to be applied topically over the wound. She handed both medications to Doctor Kij, and nodded.

"Ready," declared the Vulcan.

"All right, here we go," Jayla said, reaching over to the controls on the stasis pod and inputting the commands to shut if off and open it up. Almost immediately, the stats on the pod changed to reflect the declining condition of the patient and Jayla nearly ripped the top off rather than wait for it to slide away on its own. "Get that blood in him," she said, immediately going to work on the shoulder.

T'Lura plunged the needle in the right arm and turned on the flow from the blood bag, and moved to the left arm, where she swiftly and promptly inserted the other needle. The blood would then flow into the patient at its own pace. They couldn't rush this part, lset they risk causing the veins to burst under pressure.

Jayla, meanwhile, went to work on the shoulder. She first administered the coagulants, one via hypospray and very quickly, the topical one. It was messy and she was soon covered in blood, but she never cared about that; one couldn't be a doctor and be afraid of blood.

The regenerators were working, albeit slowly. It seemed to be taking a bit longer to get the bleeding to stop, but the flow was slowing. The anti-anticoagulants- Jayla mentally punched herself for coming up with such a ridiculous term- were doing their jobs, but it was still more difficult to close a wound that was designed to stay open. "It seems to be working," she said as she concentrated.

"I confirm," replied T'Lura. "Blood volume now up to eighty percent of normal. Blood loss at injury site reduced by sixty percent."

She leaned in, and examined the wound that Doctor Kij had worked on. Debridement was complete, and the wound was now clean, and ready to be repaired. The osteoregenerator was working hard to heal the left humerus, and would next need to be put to work on the coracoid process, before they could attempt to repair the coracoacromial ligament and regenerate the articular capsule. She estimated that they still had four to six hours of repair work on the Commander's shoulder.

Jayla breathed easier with that report, but did not slow her pace; it was important to get him most of the way patched up as quickly as possible. She kept bent over her work until the wound was closed. "He's definitely going to need surgery on this shoulder," she commented as she checked the osteoregenerator so see that it was just about done. "But, at least the worst of it is over. Let's give him one more unit of blood and see how he responds, then give him the rest."

"Understood," replied T'Lura. "Do you wish to apply a neural block for the pain?"

Jayla considered for half a moment. Usually she liked to stick to local anesthetics because the nueral block tended to eliminate all pain, which sounded like a good idea, but if something new popped up, they wouldn't know about it. Still, she decided that his pain was probably bad enough to warrant it this time. "Yes," she replied after only a couple of seconds. "I think that's a good idea this time."

"Very well, Doctor," replied T'Lura. She applied the neural pads to Temerant's forehead, adjusted the settings with her tricorder, and turned them on. The neural pads would block all nerve endings to the left upper quadrant, essentially preventing him from feeling anything in his left shoulder. Of course it also meant he would temporarily lose all sensation and mobility in his left arm, at least until he was stable enough for surgery.

Jayla worked quietly, only breaking her silence to tell Nurse Lane to ask one of the surgeons to prep for surgery. With T'Lura's help, they were able to get him stabilized. Only when his heartbeat and breathing was normal and he stopped losing blood did Jayla breathe a sigh of relief. "Okay," she said. "Let's get him on a hover gurney and transfer him to surgery."

T'Lura nodded. Together they moved Bast to an antigrav gurney, and pushed him to the surgical bay, where another medical team took control. She knew he would be in surgery for at least four hours, and made a note to check in on him once he was out of surgery.

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