Medical Doctor
Reason: Outdated as of eris med 3.
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The Medical Doctor as a role is a vital one. If you know what you're doing - and you will eventually - you will save lives. Nearly every death can be prevented, provided you reach the victim in time. Since Medical Doctors are the only ones with the tools and the in character experience to save them, Medical Doctors tend to make a lot of friends. You should know what most chemical medicines are (although you are not required to know how to make them), so look that up on your PDA under the MIRC app which contains every chemistry recipe. It never hurts to know what the other medical stuff does, but if you have a Chemist that can make them, they can also tell you how to administer them.
There is no disadvantage to pursuing knowledge regarding medical. Learn, and keep learning.
Overview
Normally you start with a sterile jumpsuit and labcoat holding an advanced medical kit. Medbay is apart of the science department and both function as a single department in regards to day to day operations, so don't feel uncomfortable when asking research for upgraded tools and equipment.
As a Medical Doctor, your job is to heal people, save them from the brink of death and perform reconstructive surgery on those that are dead. You can diagnose injuries with the help of a health analyzer, which you helpfully spawn with. Your PDA can work as an alternative, thought the standalone is far superior. From a roleplay standpoint, you and the rest of medical are meant to be the only ones who can understand the readout.
In terms of your equipment, the general rule is that chemical treatment works at all health levels, whereas physical treatments have limits where they become ineffective. Rolls of gauze and ointment are for minor injuries and don't yield much in the way of treatment other than first aid. Advanced trauma and burn kits are more effective and should be used anyway, as there is an abundance. Beyond that, more advanced treatment is needed.
Department Facilities
Medbay has a few different yet important facilities such as the Emergency Treatment Center (ETC), Sub-Acute/Recovery Ward, Exam Room, Patient Rooms, Operating Theatres, Chemistry, Psych Room, Storage, the Morgue, Break Room, and EMT Bay.
Damage and Diagnosis
Brute Damage
Perhaps the most common and prevalent form of damage, brute is the red number on the health analyzer. Anything that results in physical trauma such as punching, cutting, stabbing, low pressure, or anything else that causes bruising or cuts is summed up by brute damage. Bruising, under most circumstances, won't cause bleeding, and small amounts of bruising can be easily treated with an advanced trauma kit. Cuts, on the other hand, may cause bleeding and must be treated immediately with either gauze or kits.
Using trauma kits will instantly heal three brute damage and will trigger the patient's mob to slowly heal on it's own. Higher levels of brute (such as 50 and above) may require Bicaridine for more effective and swift treatment.
Blood Loss
See also: A More Detailed Guide on Blood Loss
All crew have blood, and said blood carries oxygen throughout their body to keep it alive. Loss of blood means less oxygenation, and puts the patient's life at risk if not remedied quickly. Blood loss can be caused by cuts, intense burns, loss of limbs, damaged lungs, destroyed liver, or internal bleeding. Common symptoms of low blood levels are dizziness, fainting, pale skin, blood dripping from the patient and onto the floor, oxygen damage, and - perhaps the worst of all - brain damage. Critical levels of blood loss will eventually build up enormous amounts of toxins and will swiftly kill the patient.
Treating bleeding should be your first priority, which can usually be accomplished by applying gauze or trauma kits to the area in question. Internal bleeding, however, is different, and will require the body scanner to locate where it is occurring and surgery to remedy it. Alternatively, certain chemicals can be used to cure internal bleeding.
Burn Damage
Burn damage is the yellow number on the health analyzer. Usually caused by intense heat/cold (such as being in super heated atmosphere/fire or space) or electrocution. Burns may cause intense pain and can put someone into paincrit rather quickly, being electrocuted at high wattage may dismember limbs, and intense burn sources can boil out their blood. Burns also present a high risk for infection, which if left untreated may become lethal.
Treatment for small burns can be accomplished by using ointment/burn kits (to clean potential infections) alongside gauze/trauma kits (to encourage healing). Higher levels of burn will require Kelotane or - if a Chemist is present - KeloDerm/Dermaline, which both work much more efficiently than the basic medicine.
Toxin Damage
Toxin damage is the green number on the analyzer. Poisons, overdosing, plasma exposure, radiation, critical blood levels, a damaged liver, infections, and handling contaminated items all result in toxin damage. Toxin damage may be hard to identify outside of using a health analyzer, though common symptoms are aching, stinging, vomiting, and damage to the liver, though other organs may be damaged depending on the poison in the patient's blood.
Treatment should always start with removing the patient from the source of the toxins.
- Poisons/Overdosing: Activate dialysis in a sleeper.
- Plasma Exposure: Request the patient to remove all clothing articles and place any contaminated clothing in a washing machine.
- Radiation: Administer Hyronalin/Arithrazine and place them in a cryo tube if they have clone damage.
- Infection: Administer Spaceacillin and monitor the stage of infection.
- Gangrene/Necrosis: Amputate/extract the limb/organ in question. If the organ is vital to the patient's health, keep patient stable until robotics can fabricate a replacement organ.
- Damaged Liver: Administer Dylovene/Carthatoline if the damage is below 15. If the damage is above 15, administer Peridaxon or conduct surgery to heal the organ.
- Critical Blood Levels: Hook patient up to IV drip with O- attached immediately.
Once all of the sources of toxins are gone, administer Dylovene in appropriate quantities. Dylovene does not overdose (it does, actually, but the resulting toxins are cured by the Dylovene itself).
Suffocation Damage (Hypoxia)
Suffocation damage (aka Hypoxia) is the cyan number on the analyzer. Lack of breathable air, damaged lungs/heart, blood loss, and suffering from critical health may all contribute to the lack of oxygenation. Symptoms are gasping and loss of consciousness.
Treatment can be done by performing CPR on the patient, supplying internals with doubled pressure output, or by administering Inaprovaline, Dexalin, or Dexalin Plus.
Other Conditions
Four primary damage types aside, there is also:
- Organ Damage: Just plain damage that could easily threaten the life of the patient. Peridaxon is the go-to medicine to treat such damage, though some medicines like Imidazoline and Alkysine treat some specific organs faster. Otherwise, use surgery to cure the damage directly.
- Brain Damage: This works the same as the above, but is much more important as too much damage to the brain will kill you instantly with no chance of resuscitation.
- Clone Damage: Damage on the genetic level that can affect someone's overall health. Coming out of a stock growing tube will leave you with clone damage, as well as suffering from the effects of high doses of radiation. Treatment is as simple as placing the patient in a cryo tube of cryoxadone/clonexadone, or by administering Rezadone. Not to be confused with mutations.
Medical States
There are three type of medical states. The first is 'shock', which is the least dangerous of the three. If someone takes enough damage from any damage type, they may go into shock. This causes stammering and slow movement, and eventually collapsing and loss of consciousness. This can be dealt with by simply treating the most prevalent damage, or temporarily by administering a painkiller.
The second is known as 'soft critical'. When someone is below 0% health (having taken more than 100 points of damage), they will suffer shock until they are above 0% health.
The third is known as 'critical' and occurs at -50% health (more than 150 points of damage). At this point, the patient will go unconscious, stop breathing, and take suffocation damage as a result. This can be stopped with Inaprovaline or CPR. Immediate treatment is advised, though a cryo tube may assist in keeping them stable.
Surgery
See also: Guide to Surgery
Surgery mostly encompasses mending broken bones and dealing with internal bleeding or incredibly high amounts of organ damage. Generally you should leave this to Surgeons unless there are none.
Overdoses
Medicine treats injuries, but too much medicine can cause the injury. Most medicines will overdose at 30 units, though a few (such as Dermaline and Dexalin Plus) will overdose with only a full syringe (15u). Overdosing will begin building large amounts of toxin damage in the patient and, should it happen, will have to undergo immediate dialysis treatment.
A good rule of thumb is that if you're injecting more than one whole syringe of one particular medicine, then the patient is probably already dead with that amount of damage.
Strict Policies
Medical staff are expected to be professional about their treatments and confidentiality. Assistant Bubber Jones really wants to know about Cindy Kate's obstetric history? Deny them, they don't have the right to access that information outside of the patient's consent. Engineer doesn't want to get treated for their dangerously high amounts of Radiation? You'll have to let it go, he's denying treatment.
Medical Oath
The oath that all medbay staff take, including you. To sum it up: Do your job and give it your best, you're to be professional, you're to be honest, you shall do no harm in the field of treatment, you will not be biased, you will not refuse a patient treatment, you will refuse treatments and policies that go against the intent of the oath, you will assist the patient in making informed choices regarding their treatment, and you will learn and keep learning.
Non-Disclosure Policy
Everyone has problems, and many problems and treatments don't need to be made public to others, not even the premier or the high council if they order you to. Everything about a patient is to remain confidential, only to be shared with the patient and the medbay staff involved. The only way this can be overturned is if all patients involved consent to divulging their medical information, or if the Chief Biolab Overseer orders it.
The Right to Refuse Treatment
Patients are granted the ability to refuse medical treatment as long as they are fully capable of understanding and consenting to the refusal. People under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol are unable to deny treatment. Essentially a patient can tell you to stop treating them at any time as long as they are fully aware of what they're ordering. This may in fact spur drama and blame from friends of the most-likely deceased crew member, but it is not your fault. Ignoring this right would be to ignore SOP and could very well result in the termination of your employment.
Cryogenics
Cryogenic tubes will heal pretty much every surface damage as long as they're cold enough and if they have a cryo mix in them (Cryoxadone/Clonexadone). To setup, walk down to Secondary Storage and locate the freezer on the west wall. Set the temperature anywhere between 20K and 80K. Setting it too low will just keep the freezer running the whole round and draining a ton of power. Setting it too high may result in the patient's body not cooling in time for the cryo mix to work. Once that's set, head back up and place the beakers of Cryoxadone in the tubes unless there's a chemist, in which case you may want to leave it to them to decide a mix for the tubes.
Roleplay Tips
- You're a doctor, you've spent many years getting to where you are now. You're more than likely a professional.
- Professional does not mean arrogant or pretentious.
- Doing the bare minimum to treat a patient just to shove them out the door so they can get back to work is a waste of roleplay opportunity. Speak with the patient, keep them informed.
- You'll probably notice pretty much no one bothered to write their own medical records. Offer to update it for them in the exam room! A template can be found here[1].
- Medical staff are held to very strict policies and procedures, do not neglect reading about them.
- Remember that you are not allowed to abandon medbay to scene during an emergency.
