| After the Barbecue |
| Summary: | Following the events of Charbroiled, two doctors work to save a life. |
| Date: | Feb 10th |
| Related Logs: | Charbroiled |
| Players: |
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Being able to accommodate combat casualties requires room, and the Sickbay has it. Beds line each side of the room with privacy curtains strung up and readily available. Large vaulted lockers hold access to the supplies at the far end of the area. Nearer the front, a Petty Officer sits ready to dispense simple items like ibuprofen and aspirin. Further to the rear is an area prepped twenty-four hours a day for emergency surgery. To the side are a set of double doors that lead to the Recovery Ward where patients can recuperate.
Not long after the call to prep the surgery for burn victims has come up, the hatch opens, with Hawke walking alongside the stretcher, barking orders. On the stretcher is a very burned Mess Attendant on it, with numerous bits of metal and partially melted plastic dotting her body. "I need to scrub up. I want that environment as scrubbed as we can make it, and for frak sake do not take off those garments yet."
The CMO has already scrubbed in and is waiting, patiently, for the burn victim to arrive. Clearly she's gotten some of the best nurses to attend to the surgery. Yet Glory makes no move to step in and take over - this is clearly Hawke's game.
Seeing that the setup is in fairly good shape, Hawke pulls of his still smoky-labcoat. "I need to scrub up. Doctor, could you please start the team removing debris and plugging minor punctures? And get her on a drip fast… with a small dose of Morpha to keep her unconscious." With that, he is into the room, changing and scrubbing as fast as he can.
"You heard the man," Glory says quietly. Nurses jump to do his bidding. Well, the two that are there. One sets the drip while Glory gets in there to start cleaning the wounds. The other nurse wheels the instrument tray over. "This looks like a hellacious mess," the CMO comments quietly. "Tweezers and prep two units after crosstype."
A few minutes later Hawke emerges in full scrubs, nurses bustling beside him to pull on gloves and tighten his mask. "Give us as tight a seal as you can, and get her on oxygen," he instructs the nurses before turning to his CMO, face mostly obscured by the mask. "I'll worry about the burns, Captain. If you see anything really bad with the shrapnel, let me know." Taking a deep breath, he holds out his hand to one of the nurses he had in tow. "Scissors, please. And have those bandages ready."
A brow arches slightly at Hawke's comment, but she nods, once. "She's going to need a lot of interior work," the CMO says in a quiet, calm voice. Apparently there's something about life or death, it would seem.
Carefully, Hawke starts removing the clothes, doing his best to remove as little skin as possible with them. "Noted, sir." he says, his eyes staying on what he is doing. "Does it primarily look like gastric damage or are we dealing with the colon as well?"
"It looks like she got shredded," Glory says simply. "Gastric, colon, intestinal…We have a good bit of work ahead of us. What happened?" She glances over her mask at him, briefly.
"Damn, I'd hoped the burns were the worst of our troubles." Looking up at the nurse, he gestures to the burn he is working on and moves over so he can get a look at what Glory is seeing. "Frak, you're right. We'll have to get started on those systems or it won't matter if the burns fester." he looks up at the nurses and gestures to the burns. "Keep them clean and covered, we'll deal with them later." For a second, he pauses. "Let's see how much intact intestine she has, and work from there. See if you can get the rest of the shrapnel out. And nurse, please give her the first unit of blood."
"Afraid not," Glory says quietly, moving slightly to the side to allow him in. "And I'll ask you for a third time, Lieutenant - what happened?" Her tone is still mild, but it's quite clear that it won't be mild for much longer.
Now that his hands are working, eyes occasionally flashing over to see what the nurses and Glory are up to, as well as moving to the indicators to check vital signs, Hawke permits himself a small trip into the past. "Not sure, entirely. There was a fire in the kitchens… on purpose, actually. Meat prepared on an open grill. Something went wrong… then the lights got overloaded and blew, and something caused the entire buffet to explode. That is what got this girl." He shakes his head. "Never saw a grill on a ship before. The meal was for the sake of our guests."
Glory raises a brow and just shakes her head. "Damned civilians," she murmurs. "They don't have a place on a military ship, but the military insists on parading them through like we're animals on display. Suction." Fingers work quickly, nimbly, but not as nimbly as his. "I think she got the whole thing."
Hawke smiles a bit behind his mask. He was only a few months removed from being offended by such a remark. "Far as I can tell from briefings, the entire first month after we embark will be a Dog and Pony show. Frak." He shakes his head. "The small intestine is better off than it looks, but we'll need to perform a Gastrectomy to save the stomach. Nurse, clamps." He looks up at her face. "Lucky she skipped lunch, or the mess might have been much worse." Hard as that is to imagine.
"I saw some bile, so make sure to check there's no perforation," Glory advises, working on her side of the body and keeping out of the surgeon's way. "Well, we'll bark and neigh appropriately, then."
"Outside of the two or three big wounds, I don't see… damn, there it is. Nurse, another clamp." For awhile, they work in silence. "They aren't going to be parading through here, are they? I mean, let them look at flak cannons all they want, but this is a hospital, sir."
"I know," Glory says softly. "I'm going to try to keep them out of here as much as I can. But they're going to have to come through at some point. I'll keep them out of your surgery. We can dazzle them with our combined weight of published materials."
"Actually, that might not be a bad idea… most of my books are actually in storage on Leonis." He glances over at her for a second. "Is there a place I could store them, here? You really can never have to much medical literature to work from, after all."
Glory chuckles quietly as she works. "I'll see what I can find, but they'll have to follow us. I think we're shipping out fairly soon now. Nurse, I need suction here. Hold this while I…" Her hands are busy, careful.
"This girl won't be having anything to eat for a good long while," Hawke mutters to himself as he starts to reattach the small intestine to the recently shortened stomach. "Luckily, it won't take as much to fill her up, anymore."
She winces slightly at that, shaking her head. "We may want to consider transferring her off to a local hospital for her recovery. She's going to need some long-term care."
"Hadn't even thought about that. Injuries this bad might just earn her an honorable discharge." He sighs. "Let's just see if we can… frak, what is that smell…" he looks around. "Did we miss a colon perforation?"
"Nurse," Glory says quietly. "Get more suction down here. Look for a bleed." Yes, there's some urgency in her voice, but she's still calm. "Prep ten ccs of Erythromycin and irrigate the bowel."
Hawke watches carefully as the bowel is irrigated, though his own hands are still full. "Getting close up by the stomach. Ready to reattach small intestine to large when you are." He takes a deep breath.
"Bowel seems intact," the CMO comments. "Alright, we need to make sure there's a good seal on this. Seepage means she's going to die." Well, isn't -that- cheery.
"Synthflesh." A small roll of the stuff is brought out. Hawke nods, and soon he is carefully holding small intestine to large, in just the right space. "Doctor, go ahead and apply…"
Glory dips her head and starts the process of application. "We may need to stitch or staple," she comments, her attention fully on the job at hand. "Alright, are you almost ready to release?"
"I agree, it'll hold in place until the tissue can hold its own. Staples should be fine. I'll keep holding. If you'll do the honors?"
"Let's do this," Glory murmurs, focused on the job at hand. She goes silent, hands working slowly and carefully, not quite as nimble as his.
Hawke watches carefully as the staples go in, and then tentatively pulls his hands away to watch… they hold. "Looks good…" he says. "Let's do our temporary close… in a week or two clamps can be removed. IV nutrition only until then."
Glory slides her blood-covered hands out to make way for him to take care of the closing. "Make sure it's noted on the chart in bold," she says quietly. "We have quite a few new people coming in."
"There is at least one head trauma coming… others are non-serious burns, at least from what I saw before coming up here with this one." He looks up at her. "We should keep her here until the burns are properly bandaged. Would you be more comfortable working with the burns or with the head trauma, sir?"
"I'll take the head trauma," she tells him with a smile in her eyes. "This, the burns, these are YOUR specialty. Now, if one of them came in needing a limb…" It's a hint of humor there, but not much. "Good job, Lieutenant. Excellent job. I'll leave you be to finish up while I go to check on the others."
"Thank you, Captain," Hawke says with a mask concealed smile before turning to the burns. "I'll let you know if I start lopping limbs off."
Glory just shakes her head, eyes twinkling. She turns to step out, scrubbing out at the appropriate time. Her voice can be heard issuing quiet orders as she goes - to the nurses, of course.