PNPC Lieutenant Sylvie Doucet - Miracles of Modern Medicine
Renée Chalfant
(( OOC: References to Kazleti physiology have been talked over with Seleya’s writer. Tagging Neshala at the very end in case she’s followed them in and is still around after Sylvie finishes treating Seleya. ))
(( Sickbay Complex, Deck 10, USS Chin’toka ))
oO They better come back with a working cure for this damned virus. Oo
Sickbay hadn’t quite been flooded with patients since it was verified that the Miralon III virus had made it aboard, but even the five patients that warranted monitoring right now were more than what Sylvie was comfortable with in these circumstances. More had reported possible exposure. All of them had been in the spaces shared by Minister Aoki during his brief time on the ship, which was concerning enough. What was more frustrating was that whoever invited him to the ship didn’t do a thorough enough job of screening him or considering whether he might be infected by a virus they already knew was present on the planet.
oO “No crying over spilled milk”, though, as they say. Oo
They return the PADD a nurse gave to them a few moments ago. On it was a report on one patient’s status as part of the rounds they were making. This was the only patient out of the five that needed more than simple monitoring, and it was a Kelpian with a compromised immune system. The rest were milder cases, but Sylvie kept them there out of a mixture of their anxiety and wanting to keep the ones already reporting actual, traceable symptoms in one place.
Doucet: Looks like oxygen saturation has normalized. Let’s keep his medications as is since he’s reporting improvements in his symptoms with what we’re giving him so far.
The other woman nodded and disappeared back into the rush. Managing the symptoms was about all they could do at the moment, which was frustrating. The whole situation was frustrating. Sylvie had already tried some common medications to treat the disease but had either gotten no response or limited improvement. That was to be expected with a novel virus.
What wasn’t to be expected was seeing a Bajoran carrying a Kazleti woman through the main doors of Sickbay. The doctor recognized both of them quickly enough even without the uniform - Ensigns Lyara and Seleya. The latter was obviously injured and bleeding out, so she was put on a biobed quickly. Sylvie approached the two of them to assess the situation as they pulled on a pair of new gloves. A part of her noted a medical team escorting a trip of Waleths into Sickbay to be checked out.
Lyara: Hey Doc! I’ve got a friend who needs to be looked at.
oO Looks like a disruptor to the leg and a puncture wound to her chest. Oo
They pulled up Seleya’s medical records on the relevant screen. Kazleti were a rare sight in Starfleet service, so after skimming through the record, she started pulling up information on Kazleti physiology. What caught her eye quickly was the amount of purple-pink blood that had a slight, subtle shine to it.
Doucet: You know, we have transporter systems available. You didn't have to carry her here.
Lyara/Seleya: Responses
They glanced at the other biobed where Lyara was now supine and being attended to.
Doucet: Right. Just rest there, Ensign, and let the nurse give you a once over. As for Seleya, we’re going to need to remove this clothing. Scalpel.
Someone pressed the small device into their hand and she got to cutting. By now, the biobed’s systems were in full gear, creating the sterilization field over the Kazleti’s body that Sylvie was cutting into. The chest wound had their focus first since it seemed to be bleeding a lot, making them worry that her heart had been cut. A closer look coupled with a quick glance at the Kazleti physiology reference assuaged her primary worries. The heart was in a different place. It still nicked a major artery feeding into Seleya’s lungs, though, so that was the first thing that needed fixing after Sylvie cleaned up enough of the area to get a better look.
With the bleeding there stopped and the wound closed with the help of an anabolic protoplaser, the doctor looked at the biobed’s systems to trigger the transfusions Seleya undoubtedly needed. A small warning symbol on the display there caught her attention.
oO Toxicity warning? What? Oo
They pulled out a holographic interface to avoid needing to actually touch any buttons and summoned up detailed information on Seleya’s blood. Toxic blood types were pretty rare. What she found both intrigued her and explained the slight shimmer to the blood under the bright lights in Sickbay. Unlike human blood, Kazleti blood did not rely on hemoglobin. Rather, it was hemethyrin that did the heavy lifting of transporting oxygen throughout their bodies, much like it did for some marine life on Earth. That explained the shade of Seleya’s oxygenated blood, but it wasn’t the cause of the toxicity warning Sylvie was seeing. That was the palladium that was also apparently part of Kazleti blood. Why palladium was present was a question for a less life-threatening moment, though their biochemistry knowledge was enough to quickly realize a likely place for it as a catalyst, but the amount of it present in Seleya’s blood specifically was far, far too high for Kazleti normal ranges. They’d need to change some settings for the biobed to ensure she could recover.
Sylvie looked up at Seleya’s face. The blue and violet skinned woman was out of it, so there wasn’t going to be any answers for that mystery from the patient herself.
Doucet: It looks like we’ll need to filter out excess palladium from her body on top of the blood transfusions. A small dose of metorapan for pain and inflammation should be good here since that looks like a disruptor wound. Let’s see how that looks…
Sylvie gently removed what remained of the clothing around the burn on Seleya’s leg and bent down to take a look both with her eyes and a medical tricorder.
Doucet: She got lucky in this case. Third-degree burns from what I’d guess is a Romulan disruptor pistol. We should be able to save the leg with some work here. Prepare a tissue graft.
Burns were a tricky thing to treat, especially the ones like this where the burn penetrated deeper into the tissue, affecting nerves and muscle on top of the skin. In this case, they were cutting out the affected bits, plus a little extra to make sure there was room for healthy tissue to regrow and attach to the graft that would be placed there. The tissue graft itself couldn’t fully replace the lost tissue right away, but it did serve as the scaffold and an attachment point for Seleya’s body to more quickly and thoroughly heal that part of her leg. The biobed could maintain a regenerative field around her leg to hasten the process in a way that minimized scarring.
Sylvie studied the leg and then the biobed’s display after they were done with that.
Doucet: Looks like that took. Good. Stats are starting to normalize, including palladium levels. ::beat:: Computer, flag Seleya of Khanda’s medical records for review later. That amount of palladium didn’t happen overnight. We need to figure out why her body isn’t effectively removing excess palladium.
Now, it was Lyara’s turn. The doctor pulled off and disposed of the gloves they wore before walking around Seleya’s bed to Lyara’s. A quick glance at that biobed’s display showed that the Bajoran wasn’t in any danger of anything except perhaps needing some fluids and rest at the moment. Someone had already used a dermal regenerator on her arm and left a note in her medical records describing the burn.
Lyara: Response
Doucet: Seleya will be fine. Looks like you are too, mostly. You two are roommates, right? She’ll need to stay overnight to make sure everything heals. You mind telling me just what happened for both of you to get hit by what looks like a Romulan disruptor? You must have gotten merely grazed, luckily. That burn was shallow.
Lyara/Neshala: Responses