Sickbay - Chance

Posted on Sun Nov 25th, 2012 @ 10:38am by Lieutenant Commander Terrell Kona & Lieutenant Commander William Harding M.D.

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Piper Medical Center

* * * Piper Medical Center * * *

Medical personnel swarmed in the operating theatre as Harding transported in with Chance. In seconds the young man's body was up on the biobed, sensors were connected, scans were being run, and hyposprays were in use. Scrubs were slipped onto Harding as reports were shouted at him fast and furious. He took them all in, his brain now in work mode. He'd put the anger aside for later as it was a useless emotion in this situation. He moved to Chance's side now as Chanella reported that Kona was on his way.

Looking down at Chance as the resuscitation team worked frantically, his brain clicked into gear. He had the computer begin recording as he made voice notes, describing the injuries even as the scans recorded them too. Harding was a firm believer that scans were great but real observation sometimes brought things to light a computer missed. Like right now, for instance. The computer noted the blood that covered the young man, and it's composition, but it would find nothing odd in its color. The wire had sliced through both the carotid artery and several veins and what Will saw splattered over Chance was blood that was a deep rust color. It set off his mental alarm. Chance was thought to be human. What Harding was seeing told a different story.

"Computer access medical file Chance Conradi. Display on my overhead and begin playback. As the computer voice joined the rest of the cacophony, Harding went to work on the gaping wound in Chance's neck.

At that moment, Kona rushed in, out of breath. Norval had the site to site put him just inside the Piper Medical Center entrance to avoid beaming into anyone. Then Kona followed the rush of bodies to this grisly scene. Harding was attempting to staunch the flow of blood from a crew member's neck wound and there was blood everywhere. Kona swept his hands under the sterilizer and held them out for a nurse to put gloves on them. Then he stood opposite Harding at the patient and asked, "What do you need me to do?"

"Start repairing!" Will ordered. The hands of both men were moving almost too fast to separate one from the other, repairing deep damage while a trio of nurses kept suctioning the blood away. "And look at the blood color, Terrell. Certainly not human, which is unusual, since he's from a human family. The color is consistent with --"

"Species Human and Vulcan," the computer announced.

"Maybe that is why we are having such a tough time getting the bleeding stopped. Maybe we missed something that we wouldn't see in a normal, full blooded, human," stated Terrell to no one in particular.

"Certainly does change things a bit."

"Blood pressure falling rapidly," Chanella reported. "Attempting to stabilize."

They continued to fight the battle, repairing the severed areas as fast as they could. With the aid of the computer, and the two doctors, they finally began to make some headway. "Excellent work, Terrell," Harding commented. "Fifteen cc's chloromydride. Let's see if we can give him a jumpstart."

Obtaining the drug, Terrell administers the drug, via hypospray, to the still comatose patient. "Hopefully this does the trick, given his half human physiology." A single heartbeat registers on the bio-monitors, and then another. This is going to work, thought Terrell.

Harding's eyes were glued to the monitor as well, and he felt his own heart jump with each registered beat. "Come on, kiddo. Give me something here," Harding murmured. "Come on."

The heartbeats began to come more regular, strengthening in rhythm and frequency. Both doctors felt the ray of hope that their patient was going to make it given everything he had been through in the last moments. Then without warning, the heartbeats began to fluctuate again. First skipping only one beat out of three, and then missing three out of five. "It isn't working," said Terrell, despair causing his voice to be near a whisper. "Can we give him another dose?"

Harding nodded. "We've nothing left to lose at this point." He looked back to the monitor and now the beats grew further apart, then stopped altogether.

Terrell reached for another hypospray and adminstered another dose of the chloromydride to no effect. The heartbeats had completely stopped now and the patient had flatlined. Terrell started CPR in hopes of bringing the patient back again.

Harding watched as Kona worked feverishly but neither the drug that should have revived him, nor the CPR had any effect. Finally, he reached over, resting his hand on top of Kona's. "We did our best, Terrell. Chanella, time?"

"0130 hours." Her voice broke as she read the time.

"Computer begin recording." When the beep came, Harding continued. "Patient Chance Conradi, cadet 4th Class, official time of death, 0130 hours. Chief medical Officer William Harding and Assistant Chief Medical Officer Terrell Kona attending. Report will be attached. End recording." He turned his gaze to Kona now, fighting back the anger that rose in him at the horrible circumstances and his own inability to fix it. "We'll keep him in stasis for now, as there will be an ongoing murder investigation. And maybe...." He stopped and shook his head. "Call in the stasis team."

Terrell placed the call to the statis team and then turned to CMO Harding. "So what happened here and who is our patient? I don't recognize him."

"Chance Conradi, younger brother of Lt. Commander Oralia Zeferino, Chief Security Officer." Harding's voice was heavy and dull. "Cadet. Age eighteen. Far too damned young to be here on this table." He wiped his eyes and sighed deeply. "Will you oversee the stasis team? I need to go speak to Oz."

"I didn't know that Ms. Zeferino had a brother, though I did know her from my time on the station before," started Terrell. "I will take care of the stasis team. Please give my condolances to Lt. Commander Zeferino."

"Thank you, and I will." He gave Kona a nod and departed to change from scrubs into something presentable before seeing Oz.

**********

Lt. Commander William Harding, CMO
Hating His Job Some Days

Lt. Commander Terrell Kona, ACMO
Wondering the meaning of everything