AN: Okay I've put a really big glossary at the end for any unfamiliar terms with an attempt at layman's explanations, in the order they appear in the fic. For anyone visually impaired using text-to-speech software, if your software is having difficulty with these terms, MESSAGE ME and I'll put up a recording of the difficult chapters for you to listen to, as well as the full glossary.
I'll explain my reasoning as to why Bones works like this later in the fic, but for now, just go with the flow that she's a hands-on doc. I'm running off a mishmash of current techniques and futuristic diagnostic equipment. I figure the rebellion wouldn't have all the really cool shit, and what cool shit they do have, they use as sparingly as they can. I've done my best to make this as medically accurate as possible.
Disclaimer:
I own nothing you recognise. This is all completely un-beta'd and totally fresh off the top of my brain!
By the time they reach landing pad A2 – the closest landing pad to the internal bulkhead, and thus the best place to land for quick access to/from medical – the Delta class T-3c is already landed and beginning its hatch opening process.
"Clear the area!" Linta booms, and people scramble out of the way but for four security personnel. They stand between them and the hatch. Tib and Dart stand on either side of a gurney, ready to roll it up the ramp as soon as it finalises its descent.
The hatch thunks against the metal flooring and the air clears. A huge man stands and gestures.
"Hurry!" he says. "He cannot breathe!" Bones identifies the edge of panic in his eyes, movement, voice, before they're thundering up the ramp and into the belly of the shuttle.
There are two men lying on the floor. One is bleached-bone white beneath his oxygen mask. The other watches them with dark eyes from a pinched face. The security personnel diffuse into the ship, checking for any threats.
The medical team descends.
"Tib, get me stats on dirty mo," Bones snaps, whipping out her stethoscope and plugging it into her ears. She hears a noise of protest from said man. Tib kneels and whips out his medisensor.
"Dart, I want triage and stats on everyone else on this ship." Dart moves off after a quick salute to check over the large man who first gestured them in (tentatively holding left arm, dragging left leg from the hip) and the woman sitting off to one side with a brutally tight tourniquet around her thigh.
Linta jerks open the prone man's robes to bare his chest, one hand reaching up to probe his trachea and tip his chin back. She pulls off the oxygen mask and whips out an endotracheal tube and laryngoscope.
"I'm hearing nothing," Bones says. She throws her hand up to the man's neck to probe his jugular. Swears and jabs a blood pressure and heart rate monitor onto his finger. It beeps. "We've got heart rate, no breath, cardiac auscultation negative," she rattles. "BP fourty over twenty."
"Cyanotic mucous membranes and lips. CRT way over two. Larynx and trachea clear. Intubating," Linta replies.
"Possible pneumothorax, thoracocentesis now," Bones says. Her hands reach for her gloves, swabs, sterile scrub and preps a needle and syringe. She sticks the plunger end between her teeth, whips on her gloves. Swabs the skin in the lateral ninth intercostal space and scrubs it down hard. Removes the cap from the needle and carefully guides it between the ribs. She draws back on the plunger. "Fuck it's haemothorax."
"Bones, it's blast injuries," Tib says. There's a moment of silence.
"Fuck," she says.
"Endotracheal tube in," Linta says. "Delivering one hundred percent oxygen, artificial respiration." Bones continues pulling the plunger, and continues sucking up blood.
"BP thirty five over fifteen," Bones calls out. She pulls off the full syringe and sticks a new, much larger one, on the needle. She withdraws the plunger at a steady rate.
"Pilot, third degree burns! Thirty percent TBI minimum, no respiratory involvement, facial involvement at one, two and three, hand involvement at three and then he piloted the damn ship," Dart howls from somewhere near the front.
"Get more gurneys!" Bones yells, and the security personnel scatter to obey.
"Dirty mo suspected multiple fractures T10 to L5, clean fracture left clavicle, blaster right shoulder, fractures to left ribs three and four, right nine, nerve impingement suspected to hindlimbs, HR, RR, BP stable," Tib calls out.
"Four gurneys! More hands, now!" Bones shouts out the hatch. She is rewarded with the whining of the grav-gurneys and the thundering of feet as they ascend up the ramp. Tib takes over directing the extra assistance.
"We've got assisted respiration," Linta says. Bones withdraws the needle and pulls the robes further open, gaping them well past his waist. He's nude beneath the robes. She taps his distended abdomen. It wobbles.
"Ascites!" Bones says. "I need to know what's going on in there now, get him up we need the bioscanner!" Security personnel leap to obey.
"Wait! Fracture to C6 to C7, neck brace!" Linta yells, and the helping hands immediately stop. Tib thrusts the neck brace into Linta's grasp and Bones moves to hold the head and neck stable while she carefully slides the bands beneath. She clamps it shut.
"Right, on three, we lift and get him onto the gurney," Bones says, keeping careful hold of the man's head. Four security personnel dive in and clench their fingers in the man's robes, one on each corner. "Right. One, two, three!" The lift is seamless. Linta keeps the oxygen tubing clear, and the man is deposited on the first of the grav gurneys.
"Dart, load up and send along in triage, I want char-grill naked and in bacta now."
"Confirmed char-grill loaded, mine for stripping and bacta," Dart replies. "Dirty mo your second, short-stack third, human wookie to nurse for blaster."
"Confirmed," Bones says. "Push!" she tells the security personnel and they pelt down the ramp at full tilt.
Endotracheal tube - oral breathing tube.
Laryngoscope - looks a bit like the forceps they stick up your hoohaa but curved to go down the throat, for visual inspection of larynx and placement of endotracheal tube.
Auscultation - listening (to anything) with the stethoscope.
BP - blood pressure. First number is the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats (so the pressure against which the heart must pump), the second is the pressure in the arteries between heart beats (so the pressure at which the heart fills).
Cyanotic mucous membranes - mucous membranes are our favourite thing to check because they tell us a LOT and QUICKLY. Cyanotic mucous membranes are blue mucous membranes, indicating a low oxygen saturation in the tissues.
CRT - capillary refill time. This is when you push on the gum and lift your finger to watch how quickly the white-bleached finger indentation fills. This is a quick gauge for circulation - the faster it fills, the harder or faster the blood is being pumped around the body. The rule of thumb (for animals at least) is CRT of less than 2 seconds is adequate, CRT around 1 is optimal. Any slower than 2 and you start worrying about circulatory issues.
Intubating - sticking an endotracheal tube into the trachea to assist with breathing.
Pneumothorax - fluid in the pleural cavity between the lungs and the internal thoracic wall. Our bodies are crazy hax. We have visceral pleura lining the outside of our lungs and parietal pleura lining the inside of our thoracic cavity. These two pleura are separated and lubricated by a very thin layer of fluid. This allows the tissue of our lungs and thoracic cavities to slide against each other during inhalation and exhalation. Things get very bad when you have anything ELSE between those two layers, like fluid. Suddenly it starts getting very hard to breathe.
Thoracocentesis - is, in this case, an emergency procedure where you stick a needle into the pleural space (being very careful NOT to hit the lung) to remove the other substance in the pleural space and to make it easier for the animal (or in this case, human) to breathe.
Intercostal space - the space between ribs. So the first intercostal space will be the space between the first and second ribs, etc.
Haemothorax - blood in the pleural space / thoracic cavity.
Blast injuries - see next chapter.
TBI - total body involvement. This is how much of the body in its entirety is covered in burns.
Facial involvement at one, two, three - first, second and third degree burns to the face.
Hand involvement at three - third degree burns to the hands.
T10 to L5 - thoracic vertebrae 10-13 and lumbar vertebrae 1-5 - basically all his mid back.
HR - heart rate.
RR - respiratory rate.
Assisted respiration - basically breathing for him.
Ascites - fluid in the abdominal cavity.
C6 to C7 - cervical vertebrae 6 and 7, so lower neck.
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