Triage

Posted on 16 Sep 2022 @ 2:40am by Lieutenant JG Lisald Vaat & Lieutenant Commander Elodin Devan MD & Lieutenant JG Kin'Fuji Hartley MD & Lieutenant Commander Raviran Dattek-Winters

2,510 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Outbreak

The red alert klaxons blared loudly in Elodin's ears as gurney after gurney passed in front of him. Most of the cases were the result of blunt trauma, people being thrown against bulkheads or crush injuries from falling objects. He redirected the patients to the various biobeds throughout Sickbay - port-side beds designated for critical but stable patients, under the care of Doctor Winters. Starboard-side, which was larger, was for non-urgent cases under the care of Doctor Kin'Fuji, and left the three central biobeds clear for critical and unstable patients.

Until the call came for medical assistance to the Bridge. When the emergency medical team returned with an antigrav gurney carrying Lieutenant Lisald, and Elodin saw all that blood that had soaked through the Bajoran's uniform.

Elodin turned to th'Shylis, the head nurse. He directed the Andorian to take over triage, and summoned Kin'Fuji to assist, and signaled another nurse to step up.

"Let's move him over to the biobed," ordered Elodin. "Gently now, on three..."

On his count, they lifted Lisald from the antigrav gurney and placed him on the biobed, flipping on the monitors.

Lisald, slipping into and out of consciousness, yelled out in pain before fading out again.

Kin'Fuji only got to work on attempting to help Lisald.

Elodin swore under his breath as the nurse cut away Lisald's uniform, revealing the extent of his injuries. There was blood everywhere.

The Chief Medical Officer brought up the Lieutenant's vital signs up on the board, and the computer voiced out the readings.

"Pulse, 45. Blood pressure, one hundred eighty-six over one hundred and thirty-two. Respirations shallow, thirty-two per minute."

"His blood pressure is too low," said Elodin, referring to Bajoran standards. "How much estimated blood loss?"

"Two point three liters," replied the medical computer.

"I need four units of Bajoran blood substitute," ordered Elodin, looking at Kin'Fuji.

"Yes sir." Kin'Fuji stated as she went to get the Bajoran blood substitute. It didn't take her long to returned with the requested blood.

======

::THE WHITENESS::

Lisald found himself...standing? No, that wasn't quite right. Floating, maybe? No, that wasn't accurate either. He found himself...being...in an area that was intensely white. It almost hurt his eyes, but it didn't hurt at all. He was scared, terrified, but completely content and comfortable, too. It was an odd sensation. Lisald studied it; that is what he does. He is a scientist first, a Starfleet Officer second, and just a very curious person by nature last. And so he studied his surroundings.

He studied how he felt. He studied the intensity of the white. He studied the lack of any detail, anywhere, all around him, front, back, both sides, up and down, and....in the past and future too? That wasn't possible, but then again, maybe it was. As a scientist, nothing was impossible, he knew there were opportunities for discovery and for learning. He studied it for hours, then days, then weeks. When did he sleep last? What did he have last time he ate? When did he relieve himself last? He studied for months. Years.

A full ten years, by his estimation (and Lisald was quite adept at keeping track of time, even if he didn't have a timepiece available) went by, him studying his surroundings. He got no closer to solving the first thing about this area than he did all those years ago when he arrived here, where ever here was. When was the last time he shaved and got a haircut? Surely he would be a hot mess now. Yet the topic stimulated him greatly. How could he be here, in THE WHITENESS, and also not be here in THE WHITENESS?

He opened his mouth to speak, but discovered he had quite forgotten how to, it had been so long. Had his vocal cords atrophied from disuse while he studied this area, whatever it was? He tried again. And again still. Now he had something else to concentrate on to stimulate him, rather than studying this area he was in, and that was to talk to...who? Nobody was there, yet there were, weren't they? He couldn't quite put his finger on it.

===========

::Sickbay - Starboard Side::

Kin'Fuji's empathic abilities felt that they where close to losing the man. She rested a hand upon him and closed her eyes. There was an ability that one of her Grandmothers tough her. She extended out with her Empathic abilities to try to help him heal.

Elodin watched the monitors carefully as Lisald's vital signs wavered back and forth from improvement to degradation, and prayed to the Prophets for a strong upward trend. But so far, the Prophets had not shown any sign that They had heard him. Or that They were inclined to answer. Perhaps They had other plans for Lisald. But if Elodin had any say in the matter, he would sure as hell try his best to save the man.

"Internal bleeding detected," called out the medical scanner.

"On screen," called out Elodin.

The wall monitor immediately displayed a diagram of Lisald's internal organs, and highlighted a tear in the right anterior pulmonary artery, approximately three centimeters distally from the hilum of the frontal pulmonary lobe, which itself was badly bruised from the crush injury the Chief Operations Officer had sustained.

"Four CC's of haemoplastin," ordered Elodin.

The nurse pressed a hypospray to Lisald's neck. Elodin knew it would take a few minutes for the drug to work. Nanoparticles in a saline suspension, injected directly in the patient's blood stream, would target molecular markers in the blood vessels' walls indicative of damage, and would coalesce to seal the tear - but the process could take up to five minutes, depending on the location and size of the rupture.

In the meantime, they had to clear the blood that had accumulated inside the patient's chest, and that was compressing his lung, preventing him from breathing properly.

========

SICKBAY :: Port-side - Beds for Critical Patients Who Are Stable::

On her side of the huge Main Sickbay, the ACMO tended to her own set of patients. She had help from Nurses and Junior Doctors and was rotating around all the beds under her supervision, answering queries and checking that the sharp eyes and instincts of her staff weren't missing a trick.

Her patients were stable but they were still critical and had been Triaged across by the CMO whilst he himself and Dr. Kin'Fuji concentrated on helping the emergency that was the new light of Ravi's light who was in grave and imminent danger of becoming part of white light on another plane and leaving no light on at all in his Bajoran body.

Ravi tried not to let this distract her. She was glad in the one side that Dr. Elodin had sent her to the Port-side beds because the emotional mess that she was trying not to succumb to would not have been of any use to man, beast or Bajoran and she knew this was true.

However, as she circulated around her staff and their patients, her mind kept trying to be distracted away to the prone body of Lisald, so close but yet so far across the large, light medical facility.

The cubicle separators and privacy booths all assisted in keeping away the sights and sounds of 'the far side' as she subconsciously named the area where she longed to be.

Answering a query from a nearby doctor, Ravi could fight it no longer and giving instructions for the doctor in question to 'keep an eye on things for a few minutes' she marched swiftly to where the biobed that supported Lisald was and she hurriedly said, to anyone and everyone there. "I can't stop, I must get straight back..... how.... how... is he doing?"

The last five words slowed as she looked over the biobed and the man in it. Her eyes taking in the monitors behind him and the urgent attention that he was being given.

Ravi knew, of course she did, what she was looking at and she didn't need, nor hear, the answers she got. She froze, the blood draining from her face and the sparkle dimming in her eyes as she registered what she could judge was going on.

"By the Prophets Vaat.... " she spluttered, her voice cracking. "This is a very cowardly way to let me know you don't want to see me any more. You could have just sent me a 'Dear Cardassian' Letter....." she had no idea why she said that, she just felt numb and it crept out from ...well, who knew where from?

Forgetting that she was only supposed to be here for a few minutes to get an update, Ravi moved closer and took Lisald's limp cool, faintly blue hand in her own and gripped it, pumping some warmth into it softly out of instinct but without thought.

"Don't you DARE die!" she said with more strength and conviction, clamping his hand tightly and raising it softly to her lips, adding more warmth to the cool flesh from the outside touch.

"If you die, I swear there will be NO MORE Andorian Sunrises for you.... how do you like them apples! I mean it!" her voice began to return to it's former shaky softness. "And so help me if you make me cry in front of all my colleagues, I'll personally airlock your corpse."

It was too late. Tears were streaming down her face now, onto the hand she held to her lips. She let go at last and moved back to one side, knowing from her own experiences how difficult her physical presence here might be making things, for the other doctors who were trying to get Vaat's lungs back to regular breathing.

"Sorry Sir" she muttered mainly towards Elodin and rapidly disappeared as quickly as she had come, back to her own charges and work, unable to bear to watch as Lisald's blank, disconnected look which haunted her and boded ill.

If she stayed she feared she might try to throw herself at Vaat and attempt to grab him up into her arms and that wouldn't help him, the other doctors, or herself.

Returning to her own patients and colleagues Ravi tried to pass off the stream of tears on her face and attempted to wrestle that disobedient face back into the carefully trained, impassive "Doctors' stony faced look" but few were fooled and most gave her either surprised, or at least sad or sympathetic looks. No-one actually made comment on it though and Ravi was grateful to them all for that.

==========

::THE WHITENESS::

For so long, Lisald had to practice how to speak again. It took him so long to figure it out, that when he finally could, he couldn't really remember the words to use to speak out and greet whomever it was that was watching him. He knew someone...no...several someones were watching him, but he couldn't see nor hear them. What did they want, and why were they bothering him? One of them felt familiar somehow, and, oh, what was the word? It was a word for someone that was different than him. Well, not so different. Fundamentally, they were the same, but there was something also quite different from what he was and what she was. Oh, that's it, he thought excitedly. It was a she. She was feminine. And he felt someone that was very much like him, almost exactly like him. He tried to speak to that person, but barely a mumble escaped from him in this whiteness, wherever he was. The person like him, he felt a kinship to him, almost like they were brothers somehow, but not really? He couldn't quite grasp that. Then, there was another. It sort of reminded him of a Terran cat? That wasn't right. Maybe a Terran fox, but somehow much, much larger. He felt fear, and wanted to recoil from the feeling, and from the creature, but he couldn't move. Couldn't see where it was so he knew which way to recoil from.

==========

"He's waking up, Doctor."

Elodin looked up from his notes at the sound of th'Shylis's voice. He set aside his data PaDD and pushed his stool closer to the biobed, sitting near Lisald's head. The Bajoran's eyes were beginning to flutter as he regained consciousness, something that was reflected in the brain wave scans displayed on the main monitor.

Over three hours had passed since the surgery, during which time things had calmed down considerably in Sickbay. A few patients were still in critical but stable condition, and the last remaining scrapes and bruises were being tended to. Lisald had been the most critical patient they'd worked on. He was now out of the woods, but he had a long and difficult recovery ahead of him.

"Welcome back, Lieutenant," said Elodin in a soft voice. "You gave us quite a scare."

As Lisald's eyes opened, the bright white light of the overhead lights nearly blinded him. It actually hurt his eyes to have them open at all. He tried to move, but his body did not respond to his wishes, or even down-right commands. Not that he could do anything; his mind was so befuddled that he would not be able to do anything, least of which to stand and walk out of here on his own power. He heard whomever it was talking to him, but the words didn't make sense to him, and honestly it hurt his head to even try to understand the words. He didn't know who it was, nor where he was. He groaned, his throat dry and feeling like it was on fire. Even if he wanted to say more, and he certainly didn't, he wouldn't be able to.

"You're feeling the effects of the anesthesia," explained Elodin, noting to the panicked look on Lisald's face. "It'll wear off in a few hours. You've suffered a severe concussion. You also had four broken ribs. We also had to remove your right lungs. But don't worry, we started a clone tissue growth. They should be ready in about a month, and we'll do a graft to replace it."

Vaat opened his eyes again, boy did that hurt, and looked at the person that was talking to him. Lisald knew him, recognized him, and though struggling to do so, remembered the man. It was Dr. Elodin, the Chief Medical Officer. Lisald gave a herculean effort and squeezed the hand that was holding his, Elodin's, he presumed. Lisald then turned his head slightly and saw Dr. Kin'Fuji, and off in the distance, though his vision was blurry, thought he saw Dr. Dattek-Winters. He smiled, remembering their lovely dinner and conversation a few days ago. The realization that he was hurt as badly as he was currently was completely lost on him. It would be a long and difficult recovery.


A riveting JP by:

Lisald Vaat
Patient

Dr. Kin'Fuji
Medical Officer

Dr. Dattek-Winters
Assistant Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Elodin
Chief Medical Officer

 

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