Trauma triage

Posted on Thu Feb 14th, 2019 @ 7:41am by Colonel Jason "Jack" Frost

1,800 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Emerald Road
Location: Cargo Bay

The orginization of the caegobay was going to only last a few minutes more, as the message was relayed that the first skirmish had begun. The calm was broken by the first quiet sound of the transporters, and the heartrate of the collected medics seemed to skyrocket as their first patients appeared.

The radiation meters went off the charts and Acacia yelled out, "Someone set up a decontamination station, we have to reduce the radiation before we can treat them. "

"On it." A male voice called back, and Acacia didnt give it another thought after that. Her next action was to innoculate herself against radiation so that she could help bring patients through.

Her eyes unfocused slightly as she walked through the screaming and the groaning to flip a scanner over each patient, to look without seeing what was before her eyes. Each wound stood out in stark living color before her eyes. Arm wound, simple but bloody, decontaminate and triage to green. Concussion, black eye, pupils sluggish but reactive decontaminate to yellow.

Blue eyes picked out a marine looking almost grey beneath his olive and she crossed over to him. Internal bleeding, lacerated liver, spleen and stomach. "This one needs transport to sickbay. Decontaminate priority red."

Marine after marine were added to the list of those already present, the odd gold shirted officer in between them from the engineers that boarded with the marines. Then one particular marine graced Acacia's work area, one that meant much to her.

Jack.

The first thing she noticed was the gloves, and that was enough to stop her dead in her tracks. She'd been mid-motion so she kind of stumbled towards the bed. Ice threaded down her spine and the sunrise curls trembled.

Someone bumped into her, and that was enough of a shock to reboot her brain. "Cripes." Raising her eyes to the medic that had come with him "What...What happened?"

"Radiation grenade." The combat medic replied that came in with Jack. "He was pretty much right on it when it went off."

Acacia swore brilliantly in a liquid beautiful language that none of them have ever heard her speak before. Her fingers pressed briefly at his throat checking the strength of pulse there "Jack? Open your eyes for me."

Jack didn't feel well, a little dizzy, a nose bleed but didn't recall hitting his face. His stomach churned like the night of marine graduation night and everyone went out on the town. Still, slowly and somewhat with difficulty he opened his eyes but focusing was a little difficult.

The scanner hummed over his body while she simply looked at him trying to compose herself enough to speak. When he opened bloodshot eyes at least he was following commands." You got caught in the radiation grenade, you're back onboard the Indefatigable"

"Yeah." Jack swallowed. "I remember shooting it, probably not my best career move." He spoke as he looked left and right to see a score of others laying down, the familiar colour of green only just visible. "My marines....."

" we've lost 4 so far. Some serious injury list you however are the first one that requires my level of skill in surgery." Tears gleamed in her eyes for a bare moment before she raised her chin in determination..

"I find myself once again..." Jack coughed managing to cover his mouth with a gloved hand, the palm splattered with blood. "Is that normal?"

Her eyes narrowed and she signaled one of the orderly to bring her another set of anti radiation treatment, clearly the initial dose through decontamination and not been enough. " is anywhere numb or tingling? Or is there anything you can't move right now"

"Arms are a little tingly, and I can't feel the side of my face." Jack spoke, then coughed again only this time he wasn't quiet fast enough to cover fully.

The blood-splattered on acacia's uniform, she didn't even care. They were going to have to get him into surgery immediately. " Taylor, do I have a surgical Bay open?"
A response came back within 30 seconds" yes doctor Bay 3 has just been cleared of a patient and is open for you what setup do you need?"

" Anti-radiation first, blood replenishment, Cardiovascular. Arterial repair, Concussion." she pressed her fingers down his arm to find the major artery and its accompanying vein. It took all of a moment to numb the skin with a spray and slip a cannula in to give him fluids and meds.


Jack lay there, nought much else he can do now but let Acacia work. He was sure that he would get it later for putting her through this, but sometimes his job required him to be put in harms way, he wouldn't shy from that. He felt the bed being wheeled around, voices, cries of pain, medical words he didn't understand but then a tightness. His chest, like a belt had been tightened around it, a constrictor squashing him prior to being eaten, he reached out only to grab Acacia's jacket.

The sudden touch startled her and she looked down at him her eyes meeting his. She was glad he couldn't tell how fast your heart was beating and just how frantic she was about how badly he had been injured." Yes Jack?"

His scrunched up face, something wasn't right, he would have spoken but he had no air to expel to sound the word. With his other hand he tapped his chest. His hold on her jacket was fierce, rough.


An alarm sounded on her tricorder, his oxygen saturation was dropping. The scanner swept over him again and again words in that liquid language came out. " give me a chest tube tray and at pulmonary to that set up is Bay 3 ready?" Spraying the left side of his chest with that same antiseptic solution, she pulled out a laser scalpel and cut the uniform from his chest. Her fingers tracked down first rib second rib third rib fourth, fifth, snd sixth she activated the laser scalpel there and briefly she cracked a smile at the appearance of the chest tube at her left hand immediately when she needed it. The clear tube she slid into the incision she'd made until blood poured out of the tube. That should allow his lung to re-inflate.

Jack pictured Acacia for the first time, remembering her wild coloured hair, her soft gentle voice. He remembered how they talked, how they got closer. He remembered her laughing as they ate, picture her laying with him naked under the stars in his room as they watched them pass. He visualised Samantha talking to him about her, Mark cheering him on, the feel of her fingers over his scarred back.

The joy she brought into his life, the touches around his quarters that she had brought with her. He recalled the fight she had with his assistant and the talk from others about it. He'd never had anyone fight over him before and while that may not have strictly been the case, it served to prove her point of how she felt about him.

Her face was pale and stoic as she stood over him, when they materialized in the surgical suite. A mask was placed over his nose and mouth, and humidified oxygen poared out. A hypospray of anasthetic hissed at his neck. "Alright Jack...Ill see you on the other side." Bending close to his ear so noone else could hear what she would whisper before the anasthetic took him into sleep "I love you."

Jack remembered when she changed her hair colour, the smile on his face as he sat in his office gazing out at the floor where marines trained, sparred and cleaned gear as he thought about her. She was younger than him true and yet she didn't care, the warm feeling he got with a touch, feeling her lean against him or laying next to him.

The moment his face went slack with sleep, Doctor Thomas raised her shoulders and spoke to the team that had joined her. "Alright, lets get the radiation out of him, every stitch of clothes off and washed down. We cant repair the damage if hes still irradiating himself."

Jack was stripped down, washed multiple times with radiation absorbing agents. They left his skin with a hint of blue coloration. His vitals displayed on the screen, and Acacia winced. The nurse was already opening a bag of crystalloid and she nodded her approval. "Computer, what is the blood type Lieutenant Colonel Jason Frost?"

"A+, begin replication blood product?"

"4 units and hold."

"A few minutes later a bag of bright red appeared in the sterile replicator basin. The nurse hooked it to the line that fed into the internal jugular vein. It was the fastest way to reperfuse him, and safest since they would be working on both arms. Acacia was watching his lungs carefully because they had been damaged by the radiation. "Where is the bleeding coming from?"

Another alarm rang as his blood pressure began to drop. "Dont you dare" she growled at him, running a regenerator over each bleed as she found it.
"Hang the next bag on a pressure infusion, and start dopamine, 3 mics per kilo." She didn't stop to see if they were doing as she asked, she simply opened an incision to get a better look.

Arterial spray soaked the front on her uniform and she pressed gloved fingers against the brachial plexus which had ruptured. "Clamp" she ordered, having to wet her lips in order to speak. Her hand extended and a clamp was placed in it. The placement allowed her to visualize the artery.

"Grenade tore you up, it shattered the collarbone. Bone shard tore the brachial artery. " she muttered as she grafted the repair onto the artery. Releasing the clamp, she was relieved to see color return to his bare fingers.

Chewing her lip Dr Thomas' eyes flickered to the pressure readings and relief tore through her as his pressure began to rise. Her sunrise hair was braided neatly back and a mask sparkled over her lips. An osteoregenerator brought the bone fragments back into place. The ribs were easy to repair as well, but the lung damage was delicate.

Hours would pass with her total focus on the man she loved. Blood and bones arteries and veins passed before her eyes, in the endless repairs and hyperfocus she needed. This wasn't the kind of focus she wanted but she had an enormous amount of work to do to save his life.

Her mind was spinning with the idea that he could die under hands. She wouldnt ever recover if he passed and she would work herself to total collapse to save him. She could cry later, once he was stable.

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