Fleet Captain Addison MacKenzie - From Desperate to Worse
Addison MacKenzie
(( Meranuge IV near
the impact zone, Holodeck 2, Deck 2, USS Artemis-A ))
Addison helped the man with the injured daughter get his little girl onto one
of the rickety cots. The girl, who couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 years
old, didn’t appear to have any visible signs of trauma or exterior injuries,
which meant they were going to have to do some investigative work to get to the
bottom of her condition. When the girl appeared to be settled, MacKenzie passed
Syrex a tricorder.
MacKenzie: What’ve we got?
Syrex: Brainwaves, normal; blood pressure, declined; heart rate,
declined ::opens the child’s eyelids gently:: pupils are dilated. This is
synonymous with something I saw in the Paediatric hospital, NCS.
MacKenzie listened to Syrex read off the tricorder’s report and offer her
findings on what the tool provided. She found herself nodding along with the
assessment – so far so good.
MacKenzie: How do we proceed, Doctor?
Syrex: Well, we need to get her blood pressure up. Either by raising
her heart rate, or by contracting her veins. One CC of Vasopressin via
hypospray should do the trick.
MacKenzie nodded slowly. Perhaps not the choice she would have made, but her
objective was to assist. Looking around, Addison couldn’t find any tool that
might accomplish the task.
MacKenzie: We don’t have any, Doctor. Now what?
Syrex: Well.. There’s another way of doing
it..
Man: Please! You have to save my daughter!!
Alyndra turned to him.
Syrex: Your daughter will be fine, I
assure you, she is in no danger. I need you to hug her, tightly. This will kick
her sympathetic nervous system into overdrive, raising her heart-rate. She’ll
regain consciousness and when she does you need to feed her something salty.
Understand?
Addison felt her jaw clench as her eyes shifted between the two. Parents
were, understandably, protective of their children. When placed in a scenario
where a parent had no control over their child’s well-being, adrenaline often
runs high, and the feeling of helplessness often left them feeling frayed to
the core.
Man: But… But… She’s lifeless! She
collapsed out there? Are you sure her head is alright?!
As the lead physician in charge, MacKenzie
was happy to defer control of the situation to Doctor Syrex. It was, after all,
why they were here. She could tell that the doctor was trying to strike a
balance between reassurance and condescension.
Syrex: Panic is normal in this
situation, but I can assure you that our scans confirm your daughter is in good
health. This is a chronic condition; stress can cause episodes like this. It’s
very common where I come from. Follow my instructions, and she’ll be fine.
Man: Okay, Doctor, I’ll try. Thanks, I
guess.
Alyndra turned to MacKenzie.
Syrex: Please can you ensure that this
man gets something for his daughter when she wakes up, high in sodium
electrolytes. I’m going to see who triage recommends we treat next.
MacKenzie nodded slightly.
MacKenzie: On it.
While MacKenzie explained to the man what to do for his daughter, she could
hear more screaming behind her. Those with priority 3 or priority 2 injuries
were kept outside of the tent, likely able to be tended to by nurses or those
with lesser amounts of medical knowledge, while those deemed priority 1 got
space inside the tent. In short, they didn’t make it into the tent unless it
was bad.
Really bad.
When Addison finished explaining instructions to the man and his daughter, she
turned to see a man missing two of his limbs, bleeding profusely. She took a
deep breath in through her nose and moved to Syrex’s side.
MacKenzie: We’re going to have to tag team this – where do you want to start?
Syrex: Response
She nodded definitively.
MacKenzie: Okay. I’ll go see what blood we have while you work on stabilizing
the wounds.
Syrex: Response
MacKenzie went over to the small cooler of blood that had been brought from the
nearby hospital. It wasn’t much – they’d only brought a small amount of their
total supply for the purposes of stabilizing people long enough to get them to the
hospital for more direct treatment. Little did any of them know that both the
hospital and the triage workers would be overwhelmed so quickly.
Rifling through the cooler, she’d managed to find several units of the blood type
that Doctor Syrex had recommended. Unfortunately, there were only three units
in total – likely not enough to supply what even this one patient would need.
Nonetheless, she returned to Syrex and the patient, holding up the bags.
MacKenzie: This is all we’ve got.
Syrex: Response
MacKenzie bit her lower lip and shook her head, not wanting to continue to yell
over the patient screaming beneath them.
MacKenzie: It’s your call, Doctor.
Syrex: Response
Tag, and TBC!
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Fleet Captain Addison
MacKenzie, M.D., Ph.D., FASFS
Commanding Officer
USS Artemis-A
Captains Council Member at Large
V239601AM0