Triage

Posted on 22 Mar 2017 @ 6:27pm by Commander Jayla Kij & Lieutenant Avery Stuart Ph.D. & Lieutenant Jarith Roshe & Lieutenant Lucas Abrams M.D. & Lieutenant JG Daniella Blake

1,749 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Endgame
Location: Sick Bay
Timeline: MD 17

The ship rocked again as Jayla examined the young ensign in front of her. She had to make a decision quick. When there were so many people waiting to be patched up, sometimes, those who were too badly injured were made comfortable and left alone. It seemed cruel, but some were just too far gone and would take too much time, leaving many others to die. If it were a choice between one and ten, Jayla- and any other doctor in the fleet- would choose the ten.

Luckily for this particular ensign, Jayla wasn't ready to give up just yet. "Blake!" she called to the nearest nurse as she studied the readout on her tricorder. "I need an osteo-regenerator." She pulled out a hypospray, checked the dosage of the painkiller it contained, and pressed it to the ensign's neck.

Sickbay was getting swamped, but that was to be expected when something as major as a war with the Consortium was going on. Dani was used to being pulled in a million different directions, and with multiple doctors to aid, this time was no different. She grabbed the osteo-regenerator Doctor Kij just requested and made her way over, weaving through the injured and sickbay personnel. "Here you go, Doctor," she said, holding the device out to her.

"Thank you," replied Jayla. She set it to work on Ensign's broken arm and then went to work on the multiple lacerations. It was going to be rough going- especially without a dedicated assistant but that couldn't be helped- but she was sure he would be just fine in a matter of minutes.

Lucas just finished treating one patient with minor injuries before he moved on to another. The young enlisted woman wore a tourniquet on her arm to stop the bleeding coming from a deep laceration on the inside of her bicep. "Try not to move your arm," he ordered, reaching for a dermal regenerator, then set to work of patching her up. It didn't take long for him to realize it was a bit worse than he originally thought, and without a word, the large man scooped her up in his arms to move her to a place he'd be able to treat her better. Luc wasn't losing anyone today.

T'Lura stuck close to the tall Human doctor, her tricorder always held at the ready, constantly calling out the patient's vital signs. "Blood pressure ninety over forty-five," she reported. "Pulse weakening. I am reading a laceration in the left axillary artery, approximately thirty-seven point three millimeters in length, two centimeters distally from the subclavian."

She reached for a hypospray and set it to deliver an anesthetic, anticipating Doctor Abrams' next order.

T'Lura was quite efficient, and that's exactly what Lucas needed in a situation like this. "We need to work quickly," he said, setting the young woman down. Once the medication inside the hypospary was administered, he set to work. Leaving the tourniquet in place, the giant of a man reached for a dermal regenerator to being the process of fixing the damage from the inside out.

Dani made her way toward the sickbay entrance as a few more people came in. One individual was being carried while others were coming in on their own. She directed the people carrying a more critical patient over to a biobed that just opened up and sent the others to a different area. She needed to assess the severity of their injuries to determine who was the most critical, and just because the ones who walked in on their own were still mobile didn't mean their wounds were superficial.

Grabbing a second nurse, the two women set to work with triage. There was no time to waste in a situation like this when sickbay developed a proverbial rotating door. Things were going to get far worse before they got any better, and Dani found herself hoping that they wouldn't lose anyone. Sadly, the reality of what was taking place was there were bound to be more casualties than she, or anyone else, would like.

Patients flowed into sickbay steadily, and with a practiced eye and a medical tricorder, Avery scanned each one, assessing their injuries quickly and efficiently. Avery hadn't boarded the ship with any more medical training than the average Starfleet officer, but after all the combat the crew had seen, she was seriously starting to consider advancing her education to include nursing. She'd picked up quite a bit over time to be of use, because unfortunately, in the heat of battle, physical shock was always still more danger to her patient survival than emotional shock. Stuart tried to offer a kind and reassuring word whenever she could, but she knew most of the emotional TLC would come after the battle. Right now, her psychological expertise was most useful in separating the truly physically wounded from those whose emotional wounds mimicked something much more serious.

"Take some slow deep breaths for me. We'll get you some water as soon as we can, but for now, I want you to sit over in that corner, okay?" As if to reinforce her point, Avery guided the traumatized Ensign by the shoulder to the designated corner. It was relatively quiet, but unfortunately wouldn't shield her entirely from the sensory cues of the battle. It was better than nothing. She couldn't afford to move the ensign out of sickbay because even though she showed no signs of serious physical injury and was merely (a word not truly descriptive of the intensity of what she was really experiencing, but nevertheless reflected its priority) traumatized, Avery couldn't risk the Ensign injuring herself or others, given her state of mind. Experience had taught her that not every report of difficulty breathing, tingling and temperature changes were an indication of medical distress. In this Ensign's case, it was merely the manifestation of completely normal but severe anxiety.

Anxiety that Dr. Kij was also feeling at the moment. The ensign on whom she was working needed blood. His blood pressure kept dropping, slowly but surely. "Lane!" she called to the passing nurse. "Bring me two units of blood. Quickly!" While she waited, she grabbed her tricorder and scanned him again. There must be internal bleeding she hadn't noticed; the lacerations wouldn't cause him to lose enough blood to have this effect. She would have to figure out what was going on and quickly.

Lieutenant Jarith Roshe was assisting the doctors by performing triage at the doors to Sickbay. One after another seemed to enter until Jarith could have sworn that more of the crew reaquired attention than were on duty. Wiping sweat from his brow, his curly hair matted to his forehead, Jarith turned his attention to a youn Trill Ensign who was brought into Sickbay. His wounds were critical. It brought Jarith's mind back to Jarveth and how he had found him dying only a day or so before.

Shaking his head to rid his mind of the memories of himself and Kij trying to save the symbiant, Jarith now closed his mind to the pain he was sensing. Now was not a time to be a Betazoid working Sickbay when you could feel all the death around you and the pain.

To the young Trill, he said, "You'll be all right. A doctor is on his or her way."

The Ensign glanced up and whispered in Jarith's ear, "Darill. The name is Darill."

Jarith did not know if this was a first or last name, so he just said, "Fine, darill." Turning to the doctors, he called, "I need a doctor-now! This man is critical."

T'Lura rushed to the counselor's side and flipped out her tricorder. "Massive damage to the lumbar spine," she called out. "Inferior vena cava is torn to shreds."

She pressed a hypospray to the man's neck, sending him to a blissful sleep. She then turned back to the Counselor. "There is nothing we can do for him now. We need to devote our resources and energies to he ones we can save."

Luc and Dani worked side by side with one another for a few patients before she broke off to offer help with some of the other doctors. She moved over to Doctor Kij while Luc did his own thing and cleared her throat. "What do you need, Doctor?"

Jayla frowned and shook her head. "What I really need to know is where this blood is going," she replied. "He must be bleeding internally, but I can't find it!" She now had two choices: she could spend a lot of time and energy on this crewman and he still might not make it, or she could help someone else who was less critical, but still in danger. She glanced up at the people waiting and saw quite a lot of blood and broken bones.

Looking back at the ensign, she had a sinking feeling. She could save him if she had a few hours, but if she took that long, they could lose ten others while they waited. She looked back up at Dani, a look of sickening pain in her eyes. "Let's get him moved to the side," she said gravely. "I can't do anything for him." And unbidden tears sprang to her eyes.

"I know that's not an easy call for you to make," Dani said, reaching out to place a comforting hand on Jayla's arm. She wasn't sure if it was going to do any good or not, but she still felt as though she had to try. "Take a second to compose yourself, but try to be quick. We need you to be here... right here." The petite woman gestured to the chaos around them.

Jayla nodded and took a deep breath. "I can do it," she said evenly. "I can because I have to."

Just then, the com system came to life. =/\=Teixeira to all hands. Abandon ship.=/\=

Abandon ship? She supposed with all these people pouring into Sick Bay, she should have known things were pretty dire. But, abandon ship? "All right, you heard him!" she finally called to Sick Bay at large. She was too stunned to say anything else. Besides, everyone knew what to do in this situation.

Jarith was completely stunned. Abandon ship? They would have to leave behind the dead and dying, but that was the only way to tp clear Sickbay. He started collecting the Commbadges of their fallen brethren.

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