Wounded Marine

Posted on Thu Dec 5th, 2019 @ 4:16am by Lieutenant Sonia Kapoor & Master Warrant Officer Charles Willey [Wilhelm]

892 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Pirating Typhon resources
Location: Typhon Main Sickbay
Timeline: Before Distressed Liner

ON:

Warrant Officer Willey and a young Marine beamed into one of the emergency rooms from a site to site transport. Charles looked down at the young Marine on the bed then up to the approaching medical staff. "Patient is Lance Corporal Booth both legs broken in the center of the femur. Right is a clean break. Left is crushed. Both femoral arteries are secure as well as airways. There are 3 micrograms of anethrazine onboard," he reported, then stepped back as the approaching doctor and nurse took over.

"Thank you, Warrant Officer. Succinctly reported," Dr. Kapoor said, barely glancing at him. "Standby, please."

"Red, check vitals and stabilize that right leg. I'm going to have a look at the left one."

"Right," the nurse said, plugging the corporal into the bed's monitor, and immediately clicking the medscanner on. Running it over the cleanly broken leg, she said, "No fragments in evidence, Doctor. Transverse alignment should be routine." Glancing at the monitor, she advised, "Hypovolemic shock symptoms present, but pulse steady."

"Yes, there's a lot of blood vessel damage along with the comminuted bones here. Thankfully, it's a closed fracture," Kapoor replied, frowning. "It doesn't seem like he should have lost that percentage of blood or fluids, however, and his skin is warm and dry. Check for other damage while I'm stopping some of the bleeders. I'm grateful for 24th century medical techniques right about now. Are his lips blue?"

The nurse checked visually, and replied, "Not yet."

Sonia's lips quirked up, "You're feeling positive," she said.

Addressing the warrant officer who had brought the injury into Sickbay, Sonia asked, "Do you have details of the accident? Did he fall or have something fall on him?"

"He was doing maintenance underneath one of our combat vehicles using only the tractors. The dolt forgot the physical safeties. Only a half second power interruption, down she came." The MWO stated.

The doctor winced. "Ow! I'm surprised the wounds aren't worse, then. It's fortunate it wasn't his chest. There would have been nothing we could do for him then."

"I'd say he's lucky all around," the nurse added. "He could have lost both legs, and I think Dr. Kapoor will save him from that."

"I hope so," the doctor agreed, as she scanned to see if she'd missed regenerating any of the blood vessels in the crushed leg. "Are you his superior?"

"No," Willey said, then continued, "I'm the 21st Marines senior corpsman. Or if your not familiar with the term, paramedic." He said with a small bow. "Normally I would've taken the Lance to our own surgeons, but they're off station on a humanitarian mission to a nearby colony."

"That explains it," Sonia nodded, setting the medscanner down. "I don't often see a Marine in here, but if you hadn't acted quickly, he might have bled out." She glanced at his vitals. "He's stabilizing. Looks like we've avoided shock. I'm immobilizing both legs, and the simple fracture will heal relatively quickly, within a few hours."

Kapoor called up the visual of the interior of his right leg. "At that point, we'll prep him for surgery, because he's going to need a rod and clamp on this bone," she pointed to the area of fragments, "to keep the pieces together during healing."

As a courtesy to the corpsman's proficiency, and because it was a Marine who lay on the bed with a serious break, she asked, "Do you concur?"

"Sure Doc. Quick, efficient and a guaranteed chance of success. It's better then what he'd get on some of the hotspots I've been to," Willey said rubbing the gray stubble on his chin.

"There's another alternative," Sonia mused. "We could print a new bone. The problem is the body still has to accept it, and even with his own DNA, that takes time. More than healing all the little breaks?" she shrugged.

"Probably less, but it's always possible to have an infection, or something equally untoward happen. We can go that route, though, and I'd give him an 75% chance of healing faster, and being back on duty a few days sooner. From the Marine perspective, do you think his commanding officer has a preference?"

"The Colonel's standing orders for something like this is that he trusts the judgment of the senior medical officer present to take the best actions," Willey replied.

Dr. Kapoor nodded her head, "I guess that means it's up to me, and I'm going to try to save his own bone. If it doesn't work, I can still fall back on printing one from his DNA. Thank you, Mr. Willey. He's going to be out for a while, and immobilized. You are welcome to stay with him, if you wish, or leave. Leave your contact information with the appointment nurse, and I'll let you know when he's awake."

"Thank you, ma'am. I'll let his CO know what's going on. I better be going soon, two platoons are going to start combative training and a corpsman on hand is always helpful." The MWO said heading toward to door. "If you'd like, I'm open for a coffee or a drink sometime."

The doctor looked up in surprise, but the Marine was already out the door. His offer left her feeling ... pleasantly confused.

OFF:

MWO Charles Willey
Senior Corpsman, 21st Marines

Dr. Sonia Kapoor
Chief Medical Officer

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