Emergency Arrivals

Posted on Thu Aug 18th, 2022 @ 1:30am by Lieutenant JG Karen Lamont & Lieutenant Commander Troy Marshall & Callie Marshall & Lieutenant Commander Yana Petrova & Petty Officer 3rd Class Eritrea Ohmsford

Mission: S1 Episode 3: Phage
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Mission Day 7 at 1730
1233 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

{ON}

The door to an already crammed full Sickbay slid open the latest arrivals in need of emergency care. An unconscious Callie, carried through the door by Troy, and their premature Son safely in the hands of Yana Petrova.

Working an extremely busy shift doing what she could Dana quickly cleared a biobed, then motioned towards the latest arrivals. She didn’t need to ask what had happened it was obvious to see. “Put your wife down over here Commander”

Troy placed Callie on the biobed and stepped back. He knew Callie and his son were in good hands, but he shifted from foot to foot nervously.

Eritrea looked at Troy. "Perhaps we should leave and let the doctors do their work."

Troy gave Eritrea a sharp look. "I am not leaving my wife and son."

Eritrea pursed her lips. "Sir, there are still more of those things aboard ship. What do you think would happen if they reached Sickbay?"

Troy momentarily looked as if he was going to argue, but sighed and nodded. He turned to others. "Save my wife and son. We will stand guard in the corridor."

Dana looked towards one of the medical slaves. “Get an incubator! Now!” Her gaze turned to the medical staff. “Doctor, I need you!”

Karen ran over, already working the biobed console as she looked at Callie. "Keep her stable! Cytoplasmic stimulator!"

“Yes Doctor” Dana quickly got to work.

Callie slowly started to stir coming round just enough to look for her Son, making sure he was okay.

Karen sighed as she began to move the cytoplasmic stimulator over the wound. She spoke spoke gently to Callie. "How do you feel? I take it you were bitten?"

Callie looked wearily at Karen, managing to nod. “Tired...everything...hurts.” Then she lost consciousness again.

Moments later the incubator arrived ready for its tiny occupant.

Yana walked to the incubator and blacked the baby inside with assistance from her daughter. The babies scream echoed through the room, beyond the normal cries of a newborn. In fact, he had been crying like that since he was born.

“Doctor.” Mika said with a concerned expression. “I think we should scan for the Phage.”

"It is the Phage," Karen confirmed grimly. "The biobed readings confirmed not just its presence in the wound but that she was already symptomatic. The infection in the wound itself is more virulent and more advanced, which is why we desperately need to contain it. That's why I couldn't just run a dermal regenerator over the wound. The cytoplasmis stimulator works at a cellular level so I thought.." She sighed and increased the power. She shook her head and moved back to the biobed console, working the controls for another moment. Then she put on a fresh pair of gloves."It's not going to get the job done. I need 20 ccs of anetrizine and a laser scalpel. It's not surgical," in case the laser scalpel gave the wrong idea, "but I do need to excise the infected tissue."

Just at that moment Callie’s biobed alarms started to ring out.

“Blood pressure readings are way down!” Dana quickly noticed the problem. “Doctor...She’s haemorrhaging!”

Karen was back at the biobed console almost immediately, desperately working the controls for only a second before she was grabbing a medical tricorder and a vascular regenerator. "Get her on a plasma infusion unit!" she said urgently to Dana, even as she worked desperately to use the device to staunch the bleeding from ruptured vessels. She had to pause several times to recalibrate it to compensate for some added complication of the disease.

Dana nodded running to get the plasma infusion unit, quickly setting it up as Karen had instructed. “BP isn’t stabilising it’s still dropping.” She looked at Karen. “She just gave birth, there must be internal injuries caused by the phage!”

"Beyond what the vascular regenerator can repair," Karen said, taking out her mounting concern for this patient on the inanimate tool. "Prep her for immediate surgery!" Karen said, realizing there was no way to fight this without getting inside the patient. "Someone tell Commander Marshall I need to speak with him."

Dana nodded. “Yes Doctor” she quickly rushed off to the doors stepping cautiously out to look for Troy. “Commander...Doctor Lamont needs to see you right away.”

Troy glanced at Eritrea. "Hold the line if the Vidiians show up. I will be back in a few minutes."

Karen was already suiting up for the surgery when Troy came in. "Commander, your wife is suffering complications from the Phage due to the bite and to the aftereffects of childbirth. We're going to have to operate to repair internal damage to the spleen and blood vessels and to remove as much of the infection as we can. I have to be candid with you. We do not fully understand this disease and the risk of operating under these conditions are high. However, her condition is critical and every minute is critical. Surgery is her only hope."

Troy looked at his wife. "Do what you have to to save her. I need to get back in the corridor." He turned and ran back out the door to the sounds of footsteps and growling coming from the aft section of the deck.

Karen hurried into the surgical bay. It was a lengthy procedure, stretching out over several hours and involving multiple smaller operations. In effect, it had two parts, done separately in several places where the damage was severe. The first was essentially cleaning. Cleaning and excising as much infected material as possible. The second was repair of both the damage done by such excisions and the damage already done by the Phage itself. Tissues and vessels were repaired with a combination of microsutures and regenerative field technology more delicate and more effective than the more routine kinds, but similar in principle. Callie was fully anesthetized the entire time and on full life support for both her circulatory and respiratory functions. Even after the surgery was completed, it'd be awhile before she came off those machines. Her body has a long road to recovery.

~ Several hours later ~

Dana stepped out of the surgical bay, she was glad to get the surgical scrubs off they were required even though the operation took place under a sterile field. “Should I get Commander Marshall for you Doctor?”

"Yes, please," Karen answered, wiping her brow with the back of her hand.

Nodding Dana headed to find Troy, she didn’t know whether he’d be able to get away from the defence of Sickbay but she would try and get him in nonetheless. She popped her head cautiously out of the door.

“Commander Marshall...Doctor Lamont has an update on Callie’s condition.”

Troy stepped back into Sickbay covered in viscera from the several infected that had made it to the corridor outside Sickbay. Eritrea and he had very little problem in dispatching the creatures, but had maintained a vigilance over the last several hours. The all clear was being announced on the ship wide as he entered Sickbay again. He gave a weary look to Karen, too tired to even speak at this point.

"The surgery was successful," Karen said. "Your wife will need to remain in Sickbay for a few days but she's expected to make a full recovery."