Medical Doctor: Difference between revisions

|guides = [[Guide to medicine]], [[Surgery|Guide to Surgery]]

|quote = Hello, how can I help you? Oh, I see you've already broken into Medical Storage and stolen supplies to treat yourself.... How proactive.

}}

Medical Doctors fill a tricky role aboard the station, and are somewhat outpaced by the march of medical technology. With the advent of cloning, saving lives is no longer as all important as it used to be, as death can effectively be made temporary. However, it is your goal to prevent your fellow crew members from getting to the point of needing to be turned into a duplicate of themselves. You are the first line of defense. Your department employs Medical Doctors like yourself, a Psychiatrist, [[Geneticist]]s, [[Paramedic]]s, [[Virologist]]s, [[Chemist]]s, and a [[Chief Medical Officer]] and is often tasked with solving many of the station's problems.

The lockers in Storage contain a full set of medical equipment, from Nitrile Gloves, to a Medical HUD, to a [[Defibrillator]], so it is always advisable to suit up when beginning your shift. Additionally, other various Medical equipment and clothing is available from the vending machine in storage, and there is a biosuit available for if a [[Virologist|biohazard situation]] should arise.

Stopping organ decay is one of the more important uses. If someone is dead, you can put them here so their heart doesn't decay. Stasis also stops poisons and any damage if the patient lacks functioning lungs or breathable air. There are very few ways for people to suffer damage or die while in stasis. You don't want anyone to die, do you?

* Showers (wrenched to be cold) work just as well as cryo, as long as you have Cryoxodone in your system.

* You will be forced to conduct [[Coronary Bypass]] surgery during a shift sooner or later. This must be done when a patient's heart has reached over 60 damage.

*You can replace the Cryoxodone in the Cryogenic Cells with acid, so instead of healing people it will melt them to death.

*Syringe guns are one of the most potentially lethal weapons on the station. A simple 15-unit Lexorin or Plasma syringe will either kill or severely wound the victim unless the victim receives actual medical care. If you have more time, you can also create interesting poison mixes that will down people in less than 10 seconds, or add something that stuns to the mix. Anyone with a thick suit will block syringes, unless you are using Piercing Syringes. Your killing potential can be upped even more by getting a bluespace syringe which can hold 60 units in total.

You are a Doctor. Your job is to help people - sometimes forcibly - and deal with the fallout from the numerous violent calamities that inevitably descend on the station. You serve both as a go-between for the station at large and the more specialized Medical departments. Medical is a challenging and thankless place to work. People will only acknowledge your existence when they have a need for your services, and even then they will shove their way past you to put themselves in a Sleeper Pod and demand attention. Additionally, individuals will often seek Medical's supplies, such as soap, space cleaner bottles, and syringe guns. You're a likely target in an attack on the station, as wiping out the ability to heal and clone significantly cripples the station. People will often grab supplies from the Medical vending machines and leave without a word, only stopping to yell profanities at you when you try and stop them. It can be discouraging and crushing work, especially when a rush of injured people all pour in at once and do nothing but scream at you to help them first, or when a viral outbreak occurs and your department is swamped by rioting plagued people. But being a Medical Doctor can be full of rewards, such as seeing someone who came through the doors nearly dead walk out unassisted in perfect health thanks to your intervention, or getting a heartfelt thank you from the Botanist after you stitched his legs back on.