BACKPOST - The Sharp End - part 5

Posted on 12 Dec 2023 @ 2:32pm by Lieutenant Commander Raviran Dattek-Winters & Lieutenant JG Lisald Vaat & Lieutenant JG Benjamen Kensington MD

1,627 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Shoreleave
Location: Main Sickbay - Just Outside the Operating Theatre Doors
Timeline: directly after part 4

Matt Kensington was the USS Cygnus' Specialist Surgeon and he had been off duty but was woken up by an emergency call to sickbay to assist with his colleague and ACMO, Raviren Winters who had been brought back from the Antiocian Planet gravely injured.

When Matt arrived, he found the staff desperately trying to revive the ACMO who had just flatlined. Harriss had been successful in bringing her heart back into rhythm so Matt, who had been getting updated by comm badge as he ran and scrambled to get to the Main Bay, just barked out.

"Let's get her into the Theatre now, while she has a live pulse still"

and the rest of the staff complied as one, working as a great team, rolling Ravi onto a board and lifting her onto a hover gurney as Harriss raised the bio-arch from over her and let it stash itself away making it clear to lift Winter's body clear.

She was then scooted into the Theatre where Matt and his 'Scrub Team' were preparing so that once Ravi was lain onto the Operating table, the Surgical Team could start work right away, scanning and assessing initially before Matt began to ask for different people to perform different tasks so that he could then relieve the pressure on Ravi's skull and start regenerating the damaged bone. He had Morgan apply the gentlest airflow to remove any remaining blood and securely sealed the tiny blood vessels that had been leaking gently - apparently now and then only thank goodness - but nonetheless dangerously so. They worked and worked without any delay or complications and applied all their skill and knowledge together before sealing up Ravi's wounds and regenerating again to repair and then repair more.

Matt finally left the few very last basics to the team and came out of the Theatre, newly cleaned up and just drying off his freshly cleaned hands, newly devoided of the spray on disinfectant gloves they all wore in the Sterile Theatre scenario.

He almost mowed down a Bajoran who was pacing outside the Theatre doors.

"OH!" he exclaimed.

Vaat, when he had heard that Ravi had been hurt even further and had been beamed to Sickbay unconscious, immediately left his post and headed down to be beside her, with the grace of Lieutenant Spangler.

For more than two hours, he alternated between sitting and pacing, straining to hear any scrap of news on her prognosis. Finally, when the surgeon came out of the surgery bay, Lisald was on him like a wild pack of Pakled scurry rats on tin foil (because apparently everything from Pakled was slow). HOWISSHEISSHEGONNALIVE?!" he blurted out in one long word.

Matt's eyes opened very wide and he held up both hands as if he were surrendering. "Woah!" he said as he put his hands down, resting one on Lisald's shoulder and the other on his opposite shaking wrist.

"Buddy, Slowly." He gently began to manoeuvre Vaat around and aim him towards a nearby chair, all the time, speaking calmly and patting the shoulder his hand rested on. "Ravi, is most definitely going to live!" he cut straight to the point. "I won't lie, it was touch and go there for a while, but we've worked hard as a team of amazing Medics....." he paused to grin at that self-praise but his own relief at having got to this successful stage at last was driving his sense of humour and joy back into him at last.

"She'll be up and about and no doubt complaining about whatever we didn't do the way she would have done it.....in no time". He sat in the chair beside Vaat.

"Sorry, I can see how distressed you are and I'm going to get someone to bring you some Bajoran tea in a sec......" He looked around them and caught the eye of a strained looking nurse working behind a desk close by. The Nurse nodded in silent understanding and went off to find the suggested tea, relieved to hear the news herself as well.

"Have you been out here all the time we've been operating?" Matt asked Lisald gently. "I'm sorry.... I wish it had occurred to us to pop out and update you once she was out of the woods, but to be honest, that was a long way into the procedure and we'd gotten so involved in what we were struggling to fix, we didn't think outside the box..... well, I didn't and I doubt if anyone with me would have just popped out and left their post as it were." Matt stopped talking and squeezed Vaat's hand gently.

"She really will be okay now. We cauterised off the tiny leaking capillaries - of which there were only two, damaged by the original blow. She had walked around with that bashed in skull..... " he drew in a sharp breath....."Sorry, turn of phrase.... inappropriate. My apologies.... Minor Cranial Fracture.... he corrected himself. I can make light of it now its fixed but it's a reflex to take the pressure off my own nerves now I'm not fighting to regenerate, repair and stabilise. It wasn't a fun procedure due to the delay in getting to treat her, but we got it all back under control - relatively quickly, actually...... although it may not have felt like that to you waiting...." he stopped as the nurse reappeared with the tea and handed it to Vaat.

Matt let go of Vaat at this point and was pleased to notice that his violent shaking had eased off a bit. ~The tea and good news should help to fix that now~ he noted, his medical brain worrying about this patient now that they'd stabilised the ACMO. He nodded thanks to the Nurse and then said to her directly, "I think this patient here is in post shock syndrome. Could you please make sure he doesn't leave before he gets a chance to see the ACMO, even if he just peeps in....?"

She said "of course, doctor" and sat down beside Vaat on his other side, firmly placing herself in a way that implied she wasn't shifting for a good while.

Vaat listened carefully, and was thoroughly relieved that she was ok. Gratefully, he accepted the tea and the steady arm, and sat down, the relief wave crashing over him complete. "Thank the Prophets. Thank you, thank you, thank you," he said to everybody and nobody."

The nurse smiled at him and gestured to him to keep sipping the tea.

Matt stood and with one last pat on Vaat's shoulder he added. "When you're recovered and steady on your feet again, Nurse Hallum will take you in to see our Ravi. She won't be awake of course, I've put her into a medical coma to heal, but you can see her machines with their blips all going at normal speed now, stable readings and a peaceful look on her sleeping face. When she's ready, probably in the morning, I'll contact you and you can be there when we wake her up. Okay? Once you've seen her, go back and get some sleep. We've got this, I promise." he smiled reassuringly and went to leave, just adding as he turned.

"Oh if you need me for any reason.... I mean you, personally.... I can be bleeped and you can get hold of me either through the Comms system or via Sickbay who will send me a digital call out. If you're looking for me, I'm the Specialist Surgeon here and I'm Matt Kensington, Lieutenant - JG!" he said, smiling again as he left for a break and some of the tea for himself.

Vaat watched the Surgeon leave, puzzled. That man was an odd duck, to be sure. For a moment more, he looked at the door in which the Surgeon had left before it dawned on him that the Surgeon said Vaat could go see Ravi. He looked over to the door that led to the Surgery Recovery Bay, then to the Nurse. "I think I'm ready."

Nurse Hallum raised an eyebrow and tilted her head towards the half-empty teacup without a word.

"Uuughhh," Lisald exasperated, and downed the tea in one gulp. Swallowing hard, he looked at her. "Better? Can I go see her now?"

The Nurse nodded and smiled just a little. She stood up and took him back across Sickbay, swiping the doors with her chip and holding one open for him to go inside.

As soon as he passed her she closed it and caught up with him as he crossed the room to the bedside where Ravi lay, her head all bandaged as if in a swimming hat of hundreds of years ago. Kensington had been right, she did look peaceful. She had a ventilator tube attached to one nostril but the machine was only puffing softly and the heart monitor was bleeping regularly and rhythmically.

Nurse Hallam brought over a chair from the side of the room and placed it by the bedside. "You can stay for 15 mins maximum but she won't wake and she can't hear you. Later - probably in a couple of hours, they'll transfer her to the Intensive Care ward and she may wake slowly after that but I'm sure if she doesn't and they have to wake her for tests then I know Dr Kensington will call you for that." she explained and then she left him alone with an "I'll be back in 15 minutes!" shot over her shoulder but with a smile he didn't see.


A JP by

Lt jg Matt Kensington - Surgical Specialist
USS Cygnus
(npc jools)

Nurse Ellen Hallum
USS Cygnus
(also jools)

and

Lieutenant jg Lisald Vaat
Anthropologist
USS Cygnus

 

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