Beyond The Storm - Part 2

Posted on 20 Sep 2012 @ 1:00pm by Captain Jonathan Holliday & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley" & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Commander Andreus Kohl & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman

2,783 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Sickbay
Timeline: MD09 - 2345hrs

Previously, in Beyond The Storm...

=^= Transporter Room to Sickbay - prepare to receive casualties. =^=


"Kohl....give me a run down straight away?" Passing her eyes over Evelyn and Jonathan, she deemed that they could wait. From what she'd seen of the ship's CO, the worst of the damage had been done to the woman herself.

"Commander Holliday has a disruptor burn to the shoulder and Lieutenant Coleman is in fighting form despite her injuries," Kohl said as briefly as he could, while he touched the controls on the biobed to encase Saalm within a surgical support frame. "Commander Saalm's breathing and circulation are relatively stable. I've staunched the bleeding, but even worse than the physical trauma, I'm told the Klingons injected her with a neural toxin. My tricorder wasn't able to immediately identify it."

Grabbing two hyposprays, she looked down at her hands. "Blast...I can't administer anything until we know what's in her system. Anything we give her might kill her."

"There must be an antibody in the database for this. Kohl can y...." Pola's words were suddenly cut off as the monitors surrounding the biobed started to set out an alarm. Her eyes immediately drawn to the Captain's life signs, she realised that the woman was going into cardiac arrest. Moving over the body, she started heart compressions. "Kohl get me the antibody, it's all we have to go on right now. It we don't reduce the stress on her system we won't be able to get her back."

"I suggest a subdivision of our work - Dr Ni Dhuinn, if you would prefer to deal with the abdominal bleed, I will rectify the pesky little pathogen running around her synapses...then perhaps we can join forces to repair the bone and tissue damage elsewhere hmm?"

Looking across at the EMH, Pola hadn't been intending to use him given the confined space but now that the scanners where feeding back proper results the damage looked far more extensive then she herself could handle. "Kohl, I'll need you to stay with me for this abdominal bleed." Looking up at the EMH, the Doctor nodded her head to indicate for him to go ahead. "Make sure you compensate for the pheromones suppressants we give her. They shouldn't interfere but in case they do."

Kohl returned to the biobed and he applied the numbing agent Pola prescribed. He laid the submicron suture applicator on the surgical tray within Pola's grasp. Kohl looked over to the EMH when the holographic doctor spoke.

"Very well....let's begin."

And now, the conclusion...




Moving into position on the other side of the biobed, the EMH tapped several commands into the control panel, after which the head of the unit opened up and a semi-circular transparent device appeared, positioning itself over the Captain's head and hovering a few inches above.

Grunting in approval, the hologram moved to the head of the bed and made some final adjustments to the positioning of the device before lowering it into final position only a few millimetres from his patient, and activating the device with a small control panel located on it's rear side.

"I'm setting the radiation dispersal field for thirty rads in four second bursts...."

Tapping the controls again, the photonic doctor watched on the display monitor as slowly but surely the quantity of neurolytic pathogen in the Orion's system began to break down, dissolving into nothingness in reaction to the relentless onslaught of radiation.

"It's working...pathogen levels are falling...down to 72%.....55%....47..."

Listening to the EMH, Pola mentally ticked off the pathogen on her head. The list of issues they had to deal with was thankfully getting shorter and Lirha was remaining stable. "Kohl, I need another 5cc's of inaprovaline." Glancing across to the drain, she breathed a sigh of relief as the level of blood flowing into it decreased. Applying one last microsucture to the ruptured blood vessels which had caused the bleeding in the first place. Picking up an autosuture, she started the healing process of the muscles of the abdomen. Once repaired she stood aside to allow Kohl to use the dermal regenerator to finish the repair of the outer skin.

Kohl operated the controls on the surgical support frame to push the prescribed inaprovaline intravenously. He watched the Captain's vital signs for any signs of sudden changes, once the cardiostimulant was injected, but the changes were subtle. Taking up the dermal regenerator from the instrument tray, Kohl clasped it in his palm and stepped closer to the biobed. He stroked the toggle to activate the regenerative beam and Kohl held the instrument over his patient's abdomen.

Wiping her arm across her forehead, Pola looked at the EMH. "How are things looking now? The damage to her cheek is bottom priority, we need to concentrate on these two injuries caused by some sort of coiled device and then treated with...god knows what."

Watching as the pathogen disappeared into nothingness, the hologram reset the device to begin strengthening the damaged synapses in the brain tissue of his patient, it would take a while to complete, but the captain was certainly on the road to recovery. Listening to the words of their CMO, the hologram replied without looking up from his work.

"The level of flesh penetration is isolated - it seems the device wasn't of a particularly wide design...this is more like a puncture wound from say, a large carnivore...I suggest we treat the same way - repair the bone with an osteoregenerator and then microsutures and a dermal regenerator for the flesh damage - a strong dose of antibiotics should be sufficient to ward off any subsequent infection, wouldn't you agree?"

"I'm not sure how efficient that will be with the shoulder injury." Turning the monitor so as the EMH could view it, Pola pulled up a magnified picture of the shoulder injury. "It's torn apart ligaments and tendons which will affect the strength that she has in that arm. I think we'll need to look at harvesting the muscle we need from elsewhere if we are to have any hope at being able to save the shoulder."

Taking a moment to allow his optical subroutines to absorb the data on display in front of him, the hologram started working through the possible treatments. It was true that there was substantial damage to her musculature, the hologram could not come to the same conclusion as his organic counterpart.

"I disagree doctor....muscle harvesting from elsewhere would simply weaken her body overall - we should attempt to strengthen what remains and stimulate cell division to regrow the damaged sections - that way it will heal naturally...it's not as fast acting but it avoids doing damage elsewhere."

Frowning as she watched the EMH, Pola found herself shaking her head. "You do it your way then you're also facing that she may never regain full strength. We can connect up what is there as efficiently as possible, but the Captain may not regain full strength in that arm. Even is she regains 100% strength and movement, it will take time for for the natural healing to complete."

"An arm in a sling for a few days is a better option than the loss of healthy muscle elsewhere....her body has already experienced sufficient trauma without us making things worse..."

The EMH picked up a tricorder and began to pass it over the shoulder injury that had caused such a debate between the organic and the photonic doctors. It was true that the damage was extensive, but nothing that wouldn't heal with physiotherapy and a routine sequence of bioregenerative injections. His program had come to the conclusion that this was the better choice of action, but he was equally bound to follow his superior's orders. He would wait and see what she decided.

Rubbing her fingers across her forehead, Pola tried to weight this all up. She realised this was all part of now being the CMO, all of these decisions fell on her shoulders now. She knew the pros and the cons of it all, they were all there laid out in plain sight, she just didn't know which one was right. "Ok..." Cut short, an alarm scream out from the monitor.

The captain had, up until this point, been laying motionless in the surgical bed, however a strange and sudden reaction caused her body to suddenly tense up. Her fists balled up, jaw clenched, then she arched her back, with obvious signs of pain evident from the expression on her face.

Slamming her hand against the monitor, Pola silenced it while trying to interpret what exactly was happening. They'd covered everything off, there shouldn't be anything causing a seizure. "Her body is having a reaction...I think it's the glucocoticoid...something has gone wrong. I need the inaprovaline...another 10cc's." Swearing, Pola grabbed the sensor cluster as she tried to figure out what was going wrong.

Taking a step back, Kohl dodged out of Pola's path. As she moved past him again, Kohl returned to his post beside the surgical support frame. He checked the inventory readout, for the medicine packs already loaded into the biobed, and he tapped a sequence into the LCARS panel. A moment later, the biobed injected another dosage of inaprovaline into Lirha.

Reacting to the noise of the alarm, the holographic doctor dropped the tricorder back onto the equipment tray and quickly moved over towards the sensor readouts from the biobed. It was definitely a reaction to a medication, but which one? The captain had been administered so many in the past few days for various reasons that there was any number of complications that could have taken place.

"Computer, cross reference medical records for patient Saalm, Lirha, and analyse inter-drug reactivity series. Display records on this monitor."

The system had to think for a moment as it worked through all the possibilities before quickly displaying the requested data in a brilliant flash of sequences, each as complex as the one before.

"You're right...it's...the captain is on pheremone suppressants correct? The chance of a crossreaction with glucocorticoids is extremely high....we need to neutralise the compound fast or she's going to go into anaphalactic shock."

Rubbing her fingers across her forehead, the movement was becoming habitual to her at this point when she needed to just think, knowing she didn't have time to just think, she looked across at the EMH, knowing he could find the information quicker. "The glucocoticoids is the important factor where, it's not finished it's job in combating the substance causing the sensitivity to pain, we have to preserve it. We need someway to break down the suppressant, that should right it all."

The EMH took a moment to think, crossing his arms and placing his thumb and forefinger on his chin, as if preparing to rub a non-existent beard.

"Perhaps we should treat this like a battle....the glucorticoids are engaging the pheremone suppressants directly...what we need is a decoy....like an aldosterone complex....it would have a similar affinity to the same compounds, but wouldn't interfere with either one...in essence we'd give the suppressant something else to play with?"

Already on her way to the replicator before the EMH finished his thought process, Pola set it up for the replication of the protein of a aldosterone receptor, the brand of protein which should work in this instance. "Can you get her stabilised? I need a minute to get the mixture we need and if she continues this way she may end up with permanent damage."

"I'm applying a cortical stimulator - that should at least temporarily restore order to her nervous system."

Picking up the small flat disk from the equipment tray, the hologram deftly attached it just below the Orion's right ear and activated it, programming it for short bursts at regular intervals, to act as a metronome for her own systems.

"That should do it...are you ready with the protein compound?"

The Orion's body began to relax and she sank back into the bed, still trembling slightly. Her breathing was labored but she appeared far improved from the previous state she was in several moments ago.

Watching the replicator whirling as she tapped her foot, the only sign of her impatience, a sudden mass of whirling blue appeared as the tube containing the protein substance appeared. Grabbing a hypospray as she quick walked back to the table, she loaded it up and handed it to the EMH. While allowing the EMH to administer, she pulled up the ongoing active scans in order to monitor the reaction to the new substance, holding her breath as she waited to see if it worked.

Nodding in thanks to his colleague for the hypospray, the doctor grabbed the captain's neck and turned her head to one side; with the cortical stimulator taking over one side of her neck, the other was the only viable access for the injection. Setting the dosage to fifty milligrams, he applied and discharged the medication.

"Watch her vitals..."

Watching carefully, Pola kept her breath held. Maybe it was silly on her behave but she couldn't help it. There seemed to be a still around sickbay, interrupted by only beeps and murmurings around patients scattered around. Suddenly there was a change on the scans. It started small but as the protein started to combine with the glucocoticoid and fight back. The volume of pheromone suppressant in Lirha's body started to drop until it was non existent. "I think...it worked...remove the cortical stimulator and we'll know for sure..."

Breathing a photonic sigh of relief, the program followed his orders and plucked the device from Lirha's neck, shutting it off as he did so to conserve the power cell. Sure enough, her vitals seemed to remain stable, her body was working under its own steam.

"I'm not reading any change in her activity levels...her systems are self-sustaining once again."

Leaning her arm against the top of the monitor, Pola rested her forehead against her arm for a moment. This was cutting it too close to the bone for her liking. The Klingons had done a serious number on their Commanding Officer and had left a hell of a job behind to clean up. Going back over the list in her head she double checked and then treble checked that they had gotten everything. Still not satisfied, she pulled back from the monitor and pulled up every single recent scan, checking through to ensure nothing further had been missed.

"Ok guys....I think we got everything except for these two holes. We are going with your idea EMH. Due to the mangled mess in the shoulder and the care and precision that's going to be needed to repair back the muscle, can you take that? I'll take the side."

"Leave it to me." The hologram replied, whistling a tune as he headed off and away from the medical bay to collect several instruments in preparation for the procedure. Now that the patient was out of any immediate danger to life, the hologram had a chance to let down his photonic inhibitions.

Turning to address the nurse who had stayed prepared in case they needed him at any stage, Pola smiled softly at him. "Kohl...can you start to clean up? Just leave us the instruments we will be using and also have aprovaline and bicaridine on hand in case we should need to administer any in the next while. Also...we'll be keeping her in an artificial coma for the next few hours, until her body gets over the shock of all that's happened. You'll need to prep a biobed to move her too for consistent monitoring."

Nodding at Pola's orders, Kohl maintained eye contact with her, as he slowly began to collect instruments. "Will do, Pola," he said certainly.

Turning back around, Pola let out a breath. They were on the home straight now, the Captain was stable and her chances for coming out of this extremely high. She wasn't certain when they would be able to release her from sickbay but one step at a time....she repeated the words to herself as for the first time in hours she allowed herself to smile. Her team had done her damn proud.


[OFF]

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

EMX Mk-X
Emergency Medical Hologram
USS Galileo

Lt. JG Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Andreus Kohl
Nurse
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

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