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.

As a Medical Doctor, your primary function is to heal the injured and save them from the brink of death. If this fails, you are expected to drag those that perish into [[Cloning]] to be reborn (or utilize another method of resurrection). You have a powerful tool at your disposal that can diagnose injuries and diseases in the form of a [[Health Analyzer]], conveniently located in all medical kits, including the one you have at round start. You can even use your PDA to scan for injuries by engaging the Health Scanner function of it, thanks to the MED-U cartridge inside it.

Utilizing the Health Analyzer will give you a readout of all the ailments a patient is suffering from, and a quick overview of all the damage types and simple treatments is found below. To facilitate conservation of consumable supplies in treatment, it is recommended to bring the patient into Medical and put them in a [[sleeper|Sleeper Pod]], which you can then use to inject them with a limitless amount of five basic healing chemicals, only requiring power to do so. Be aware that Sleepers, much like every other piece of technology on the station, can be upgraded by the [[Science]] department to have a larger array of more powerful healing chemicals to administer, as is detailed on the Sleepers page.

Regardless of if an implement is as sharp as a kitchen knife, or as puncturing as a bullet, the damage it will cause is classified as ''Brute Damage''. Due to this wide range of applying forces, Brute Damage is inevitably the most common form of damage, and proper treatment thereof is crucial. A patient suffering from enough Brute Damage will visually have large bloody red streaks on their body or massive purple-red bruises, and an examination will confirm this. Brute damage is often treated by [[Guide_to_chemistry#Libital|Libital]] injections through the Sleeper Pods, or through the application of [[Guide_to_chemistry#Styptic_Powder|Styptic Powder]] and other advanced medicines to the afflicted areas, which is made in [[Chemistry_Lab|Chemistry]], which is attached to the Medical lobby. Your starter First Aid Kit also has a pile of sutures inside it, which can be applied to injured areas to heal their Brute Damage with short delay.

Brute damage can also cause bleeding, which is covered in the [[Guide_to_medicine#Treating_Bleeding|guide to medicine]] more extensively. To put it concisely, if a patient has brute damage, first diagnose if they are bleeding, as that will cause more complications if it continues unabated. If they are bleeding, wrap the wound in gauze (located in your First Aid Kit) to give yourself time to treat the damage causing it, while taking note of their blood levels. More often than not, a patient will be able to recover their lost blood over time (a healthy diet will speed this process up). Still, if the Health Analyzer reports a '''LOW''' or '''CRITICAL''' blood level, or the patient says that they are feeling lightheaded or look pale, they will need a [[Guide_to_medicine#Treating_Bleeding|blood transfusion]]. If attempting a transfusion, be sure to give the patient the correct type of replacement blood, or you may end up harming them further - the Health Analyzer will provide a blood type readout, as will the patient's medical record file.

The second most common type of damage is ''Burn Damage''. This is caused by a multitude of sources, from fire and inhospitably high (or low) temperatures to laser blasts to standing in space unprotected. Burn Damage visually manifests as grey streaks on a person's body, which can be hard to see on more thoroughly dressed up individuals. Burn damage is often treated by [[Guide_to_chemistry#Aiuri|Aiuri]] injections through the Sleeper Pods, or the application of [[Guide_to_chemistry#Silver_Sulfadiazine|Silver Sulfadiazine]] and other advanced medicines. Your starter First Aid Kit also has two packages of regenerative mesh inside it, which can be applied to injured areas to heal their Burn Damage with a short delay.

Regardless of how the damage is accrued, it is dangerous in that it has no visual tell. Individuals suffering from poisoning will appear just the same as anyone else, aside from their decaying health and potential fits of vomiting. Toxin Damage is also marginally more involved to treat than Brute and Burn, as the Sleeper Pods have no way to treat it (until upgraded by Science). As such, these cases will necessitate a trip into [[Medical_Doctor#Medical_Storage|Medical Storage]] to grab a Toxins Treatment Kit, which will contain [[Guide_to_chemistry#Charcoal|Charcoal]] syringes and pills; differing ways to administer the same treatment.

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.

Not directly used for healing, but indispensable for advanced treatment. When laid on a stasis bed, a patient is stunned and stops having ''life ticks''. In the simplest terms, this means that all their life functions, metabolism (including reagents and oxygen usage), breathing, disease progression, organ decay, bleeding and catastrophic combustion reactions with oxygen in the air, are put on pause.

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?

Cryogenics tubes need a few crucial pieces to function, the first of which is [[Guide_to_chemistry#Cryoxadone|Cryoxadone]]. Cryoxadone is a powerful regenerative chemical, but it only functions when the patient is at extremely low temperatures, which will be addressed shortly. A few spare beakers of Cryoxadone should be located near the Cryogenic Cells at the start of the round for quick insertion, but with too much use they will need to be replaced by Chemistry.

Next, turn on the freezer attached to the Cryogenics pipe network and set the temperature as low as possible. This will cause patients in the cells to plummet in temperature, activating the healing properties of the Cryoxadone.

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

* [[Changeling|Changelings]] under fake death stasis can not be revived with conventional methods.  

*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.

*Emagged defibrillators on disarm intent act as a stun baton would.

* Muzzles can be used quickly to shut people up before they yell a very incriminating message on common radio. Pair this up with an anesthetic tank and quickly swap the muzzle with a medical mask, set internals and that's a wrap.

*Using the sedate button can easily overdose your victim with morphine.

*Necrotic Revival surgery can be utilized to create zombies... become the plague doctor you were always meant to be.  

==To Conclude==

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.