Guide to Medicine
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The body is composed of body parts, within which are bones and organs. If a body part is damaged, the organ or bone within may also be damaged. All organs can be repaired with Peridaxon and surgical organ repair. Broken bones must be repaired surgically.
Brain
The brain is the most important organ in the body, and every other organ supports it. As long as your brain isn't dead, you're not dead. The more an injury harms the other organs' ability to support the brain, the more urgent it is.
The brain starts out with an integrity of 100%. Brain injury lowers that number, causing symptoms that start with headaches and blurred vision and progress to dizziness, fainting, and paralysis. If brain integrity reaches 0%, your patient is brain dead. There's no coming back from brain death.
Causes of Brain Damage
Low oxygen
The brain gets its oxygen from the blood. Your patient's blood oxygenation is a number from 0-100% which can be checked with a medical scanner. Blood oxygenation below 85% will start to damage the brain; blood oxygenation below 40% damages the brain at a faster rate.
Causes of low blood oxygenation include:
- There is not enough blood in the bloodstream. Restore blood volume with IV drips.
- The blood is not carrying oxygen. Either the lungs are damaged, or there is not enough oxygen in the air around the patient. If the lungs are damaged, Dexalin (Plus) can bypass the lungs and provide oxygen to the blood directly.
- Blood is not being pumped effectively because the heart is damaged, or has stopped.
Direct Harm
If the head is damaged, the brain may be damaged. Beyond the obvious burns, bullets, and bludgeons, the brain can also be damaged if someone moves around with a broken skull or an object lodged in their head.
Toxins
Even if the brain gets plenty of oxygenated blood, organ-damaging toxins will still harm it. Some toxins damage the brain directly, bypassing the liver and kidneys.
Treating Brain Damage
- Stabilize the patient.
- Inaprovaline slows brain damage from low oxygen.
- A Blood or Saline Plus IV restores blood volume.
- Dexalin and Dexalin Plus partially oxygenate the blood if the lungs are failing.
- To restart a heart that has stopped, perform CPR, apply a stabilizer harness, or administer adrenaline.
- If toxins are damaging the brain, remove them.
- Use the Dialysis function in the sleeper to remove toxins from the blood, or the Stomach Pump function to remove toxins from the stomach. If the toxins have already been metabolized (i.e., are no longer in the blood or the stomach), they have done their damage and cannot be removed.
- Repair other organs. If the other organs cannot support the brain, the brain will continue to degrade.
- Repair the brain.
- Mild brain damage will resolve with restoration of blood flow and inaprovaline.
- Moderate brain damage can be treated with Alkysine or Peridaxon.
- Moderate to severe brain damage can be treated with surgery. Be aware that if you have not re-established blood flow to the brain, repairing the brain directly with surgery can cause scarring. This weakens the brain, making it more vulnerable to injury in the future.
Heart
The heart keeps your blood flowing. If blood doesn't flow, oxygen doesn't reach the brain; if the brain doesn't get oxygen, it gets damaged.
- Function: Keeps blood flowing, and regenerates lost blood.
- Symptoms of Damage: Hypoxia, blood loss, sharp chest pain, weak or high pulse rate upon examination with a stethoscope.
- Causes of Damage: Chest trauma, damage from a high pulse rate, lung injury, brain damage, toxins and some drugs.
- Repair: Adipemcina and organ repair surgery.
Pulse Rate
Monitor pulse rate with a hand scanner, or over sensors if they are enabled.
If the pulse rate is low, the patient is likely under the influence of a sedative, or has a low body temperature.
A high pulse rate can be caused by low blood oxygen, severe pain, or various chemicals. It is more dangerous than a low pulse rate.
- Above 150 BPM, the heart begins to accumulate damage. A damaged heart causes reduced blood oxygenation until healed.
- Above 250 BPM, the heart may stop.
Patients in severe pain may go into shock, which can cause the heart to stop. Lower their pulse rate with Inaprovaline and/or Perconol/Mortaphenyl/Oxycomorphine.
Blood flow is reduced if heart is damaged, and causes low oxygenation even with full oxygen and blood volume.
Cardiac Arrest
Cardiac arrest is indicated by a flatline on your medical HUD. It will quickly lead to brain death as the brain is deprived of oxygen.
If someone is in cardiac arrest, they are priority number one.
- If you are ever in doubt what to do, put the patient into a stasis bag. You can scan them with your health analyzer and inject them with a syringe even if the bag is closed.
- Apply CPR or put a stabilizer harness on the patient. Sometimes this can restart the heart on its own; but if the cause of the cardiac arrest is still there, it will stop again.
- Adrenaline can restart the heart if the blood is oxygenated. Before administering, check the patient's respiration.
- Administer inaprovaline to slow brain damage and stabilize the pulse.
- If the patient is in severe pain, administer painkillers.
- If the patient has low blood volume, get some blood into them with IV drips.
- If the lungs are damaged, administer Dexalin or Dexalin Plus after restarting the heart.
- If the lungs are undamaged but blood oxygen is low, they may have a damaged heart; treat for cardiac damage.
- If you are non-medical, the patient is already in surgery, or you just can't get a doctor, administer CPR. Even if CPR does not restart the patient's heart, it will slow brain damage.
Lungs
Lets you breathe! Damage increases the air pressure needed to sustain optimal oxygenation.
- Function: Provides oxygen to the bloodstream.
- Symptoms of Damage: Hypoxia, gasping, sharp chest pain, weak respiration upon examination with a stethoscope.
- Causes of Damage: Lack of oxygen, over/under pressurized atmosphere, phoron exposure, general organ damage, trauma to the chest.
- Treatment: Peridaxon, organ Surgery, emergency reinflation via pen (in case of collapsed lung).
Treating Hypoxia
- Make sure the patient has access to oxygen. If the patient is wearing internals, make sure that the air tank is full and switched on; empty internals will suffocate your patient.
- Connect the patient to high-pressure oxygen via an IV stand with attached oxygen tank and mask.
- Administer Dexalin or Dexalin Plus. These put oxygen into the blood directly, and do not work if the heart is not pumping blood.
- Administer Pneumalin to treat lung damage, or perform surgery.
Eyes
Lets you see and examine stuff.
- Function: Provides sight to the user.
- Symptoms of Damage: Blurry vision, no vision, sharp head pain, damaged/unresponsive pupils upon examination with a pen light.
- Causes of Damage: Welding without protection, phoron exposure, getting your eyes screwdriver'd or squished.
- Treatment: Oculine or surgery.
Kidneys
Filters your blood! Actually it does nothing, it's incredibly niche.
- Function: See above.
- Symptoms of Damage: Toxin damage if you
drinkinject coffee into your bloodstream. That's it. That's how niche this is. - Causes of Damage: General organ attacks.
- Treatment: Peridaxon.
Liver
The biggest line of defense against poisons.
- Function: Reduces intoxication and prevents other organs from taking damage as long as it's still working.
- Symptoms of Damage: Vomiting, other organs taking damage from general toxins.
- Causes of Damage: High level of toxin damage, heavy alcohol consumption, direct trauma to the lower body.
- Treatment: Dylovene (at 10 liver damage and below); surgery; Peridaxon.
Toxins damage the liver first, then the kidneys; the more damaged these organs are, the more the toxins will get through to damage other organs, including the brain.
Appendix
This serves no function other than to get sick and make you miserable.
- Function: See above.
- Symptoms of Damage: Pain, inflammation
- Causes of Damage: Appendicitis, direct trauma to the lower body.
- Treatment: Surgical removal.
Triage
Triage is medical's word for "priority" regarding patients. The goal of triage is to stabilize patients, not cure to 100%. Generally this comes into play when there is more than one patient. Wearing a medical HUD will allow you to assess a patient's basic status at a glance. The HUD will show a "pulse line" of your patient. This is not a true indicator of health, but of their heart rate.
- a patient with a green line and a steady pulse line has a healthy beats per minute (BPM).
- a patient with yellow, more "hurried" line has a heightened BPM; this means their heart is beating rapidly, probably due to pain or hypoxia.
- a patient with a red, flickering line has a rapid, weak heart rate. They are starting to go into shock.
- a patient with a flat, flashing red line is in what is called asystole, or "flat line". They need immediate attention.
- a patient with a blue line and slowed heartbeat has a lowered BPM. This is most commonly caused by chemicals such as Pneumalin.
- a patient with a black line has no heart activity at all. They are either dead, have an artificial heart, or are from a species that does not have a heart.
Triage Tags
As a medic, you have the ability to apply triage tags to your patients, which show up on medical HUDs. From highest to lowest priority:
- Red tag: Needs resuscitation. Most urgent. Patient has no heartbeat, or an extremely rapid and weak heartbeat; patient is not breathing; arterial bleeding; very low blood volume. Patient is unstable and getting worse.
- Yellow tag: Urgent. Unconscious, rapid heart rate, bleeding, severe pain.
- Green tag: Non-urgent. Broken bones, bullet removals, minor organ damage. Stable patients go here.
- Blue tag: Walking wounded. Facial reconstruction, eye damage, bruises and cuts.
- Black tag: Dead, or dying and cannot be saved with the resources available.
A person dies when their brain dies, which usually happens when their brain is starved of oxygen. People who are low on blood or who have weak heartbeat or respiration are at a greater risk of dying than someone with a broken leg. So work your way down, treating critical first, and saving those who can wait for last.
Triage and You: The Handbook
A large, comprehensive guide on how triage works with our current medical facility. Authored by Juani#1784 and Synnono#2558.
In compliance with NanoTrasen employee healthcare provisions, and due to the increasing stress on the Medical Department's facilities, a renovation of the Medical Bay was approved last year. The objective of this renovation is to improve the Medical Bay's capacity to treat patients, as well as to make that treatment more efficient. New policy has been implemented with the new design, and medical staff are expected to work according to the guidelines outlined in this document. In addition to the renovations, the medbay is introducing a triage system to quickly identify patients with urgent medical needs. New patients will be classified as having a GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE or RED triage level, depending on their condition when processed. The major changes to the department are as follows:
- Centralized Triage Area (CTA): This room, equipped with two cutting-edge body scanners, will become the pillar of the Medical Bay. Located right next to the entrance, patients will be diagnosed here and assigned a color-coded triage level. Beds are available for patients awaiting treatment, organized by this triage level. Once assigned, patients will be redirected to one of the following areas:
- Intensive Care Unit (ICU): This room, intended for patients of triage level RED or ORANGE, is equipped with all basic life support measures currently available. All supplies in this area must always be kept fully stocked. This room has one fixed and two mobile treatment beds, three refrigerated closets for stabilization equipment, a supply of blood packs and medication, one cryo-treatment tube and three IV drips. The area is signified by the color red and the ICU signs.
- Emergency Surgery Pre-Operatory Room: Intended for patients of triage level ORANGE or higher. Located in a straight line from the ICU, this area is designed to stabilize critical patients, and is equipped with the equipment necessary to do so. The area has two mobile treatment beds, two IV drips and one cold storage container for blood packs. The area is signified by the color red.
- Regular Surgery Pre-Operatory Room: Intended for patients of level YELLOW or lower. Its entrance is located at the west end of the CTA, and connected through a hallway to a waiting room. Patients will be instructed to wait for an assigned surgeon to call them into the Operating Theatre here. The area is equipped with personal storage lockers and a changing room for the safekeeping of patient belongings. The area is signified by the color blue.
- General Treatment Room (GTR): Intended for patients of triage level YELLOW or lower. The purpose of this room is for the general treatment of diseases or injuries that are not urgent or do not require of life-stabilization measures. The area is equipped with two fixed treatment beds, two cryo-treatment tubes, one sleeper unit with dialysis capability, and one IV drip. The area is signified by the color yellow and the GTR signs.
Other sections of the Medical Bay have not changed, or do not follow a strict procedure for triage. Please be aware of the following information, as it pertains to the new medical layout:
- The Chemistry laboratory no longer connects directly to a publicly accessible area. For the purpose of easy access by the staff of the station, remote-control buttons have been installed at the reception desk and at the Chemistry desk. To access the desk, crew requiring access will need to get permission from the reception staff to access the consultation wing hallway.
- The temporary morgue no longer uses morgue trays. Medical staff are asked to keep the temporary morgue as clear as possible, and store cadavers in the permanent morgue on the medical sub-level as soon as possible.
- A pneumatic Medi-Express system has been installed, to allow for quick delivery of medicine to various areas of the medbay. The hub for this system is located east of the Chemistry Laboratory. To use the system, simply place the items to be delivered inside the bin labeled with the desired destination, and engage the pump. It will be delivered shortly, if the pneumatic tank is full. The Medi-Express system can deliver items to the Lobby, Main Storage and Surgery Wing.
- Windows have been installed in the Operating Theatres. These windows are equipped with an electrically-activated opacity system, toggled by a switch in each Operating Theatre. Usage of this system is mandatory during all surgical prcedures to preserve patient privacy.
- Noticeboards have been installed in the Surgery Wing for each Operating Theatre, for posting scans of any patients about to enter treatment.
- Access to the medical bay will generally be restricted to medical staff and patients awaiting or receiving treatment. Patients in long-term recovery are allowed to receive no more than one visitor at a time. This restriction does not apply to security detainees, who may be accompanied at all times by up to three security officers. Visitors may be instructed to wait at the waiting room located at the entrance of the Medical Bay. The ultimate authority in regards to these restrictions will be the Chief Medical Officer (and their superiors), who may modify them as they see fit. Charges of trespassing may be applied to visitors who violate this policy. Visitors who obstruct care to patients in violation of this policy may be held liable for resulting harm or loss of life. Please clarify any concerns with your facility's Head of Security.
Yours,
Yehtlas Mualt-Quaat, Chief Medical Director.
NanoTrasen Corporation.
Procedures
There are a variety of medical procedures that you can perform on your patients in order to help heal them.
CPR
If a patient's heart has stopped, there's no blood flow going to the brain. This can quickly result in brain death, and obviously should be corrected as quickly as possible, as mentioned above. However, if, for some reason, immediate resuscitation is not possible, CPR is a good way to extend a patient's life. Every time you perform CPR on a patient, it counts as one breath if their lungs are properly working, it circulates blood a little no matter what state heart is in, and with some luck, you might be able to restart their heart. Don't be afraid to crack some ribs while you're at it; remember, if they died with ribs intact, you didn't try hard enough!
CPR consists of two parts - the chest compressions to kickstart the heart and the mouth to mouth resuscitation to give them air. To perform CPR on a patient, they must be in cardiac arrest, and for the mouth-to-mouth part, neither of you can be wearing a mask or other mouth covering. Click on the patient with an empty hand in to perform CPR. This requires both of you to remain still for a short period. This can be repeated as many times as necessary until treatment can be administered.
Blood Transfusion
If a patient has lost a large amount of blood, they will require a blood transfusion to allow for full circulation and prevent further brain damage.
- Prepare an Файл:IVdrip.png IV drip with a
blood bag containing an appropriate blood type (see below). If the chemist has made some, you should use Saline Plus, which is more efficient and works for all blood types.
- Ensure that the IV drip is in Inject mode.
- Attach the IV drip to the patient.
- Set the drip rate with right-click on the IV.
- Monitor the patient's blood oxygen levels and pulse via health analyzer.
- If an IV drip is not available, injecting the patient with blood from a syringe is a workable, if a slow and cumbersome, option.
- Iron, nutriment, and protein speed up the patient's natural recovery of lost blood. If your patient is Skrell, they need copper rather than iron; if your patient is Vaurca, they need sulfur rather than iron.
Blood Compatibility
It's important to use right type, so bad things won't happen.
Blood between two different species is never compatible, even if it shares the same color. The pre-loaded blood bags in the Treatment Center storage closet contain a special kind of O-negative which can be given to any patient regardless of species without fear of rejection, but donated blood should be reserved for members of the same species.
If there is no O-negative blood available, and no precise blood type match as an alternative, look for a replacement by these rules:
- Negative can take only negative.
- All types can take O.
- A can take A.
- B can take B.
- AB can take A and B.
- O can take only O.
Receiver | Donor | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
O- | O+ | B- | B+ | A- | A+ | AB- | AB+ | |
AB+ | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + |
AB- | + | + | + | + | ||||
A+ | + | + | + | + | ||||
A- | + | + | ||||||
B+ | + | + | + | + | ||||
B- | + | + | ||||||
O+ | + | + | ||||||
O- | + |
Cryogenics
Cryo is all about suspending someone in animation and healing them to boot! If someone is in a pretty bad way, tossing them into a (correctly set up) cryo tube will heal some types of damage and slow down other types of damage, sort of like a big stasis bag.
- Cryo tanks function only below 170K.
- The lower the temperature of the bath, the more effective the stasis function is.
- The higher the temperature of the bath, the more effective the healing function is.