If you are reading this for the first time, either you are newly appointed as a medical doctor or assistant, or have found yourself needing to provide emergency medical service to a fellow crewmember. If this is an emergency, do this first:
0) If you have an inaprovaline syringe and the patient is not breathing, use it on the patient immediately! This will stabilize them and give you time to relocate them or provide care.
1) Call for help immediately and give your current location so emergency personnel can help you.
2) If there is an emergency in the area that threatens you and the patient, attempt to relocate the patient outside of the emergency zone if this is possible.
3) If emergency personnel are on the way, there are still several things you can do to increase the patient's chances for survival:
3a) If the patient is not breathing, you can administer an injection of inaprovaline (a standard part of most station medkits) to temporarily stabilize them and prevent death by suffocation. Note that this is not a cure and will not keep them from dying without further medical care!
3b) You can also perform CPR on the patient, which can be vital if emergency personnel are on the way but the patient needs immediate help. This will prevent death by suffocation while you are performing CPR, which can be all that is needed for emergency personnel with medical equipment to arrive and take over.
3c) If you have medical training and/or basic supplies, you may also wish to treat obvious injuries (open wounds, in particular) with bandaging, burn ointment, or bruise packs. Note that if you are not certain of WHY a patient is in critical condition, attempting to apply medicine is generally unwise and may not help with the problem.
4) If emergency personnel are not on the way, you will need to bring the patient to Medbay as soon as possible to give them any chance of survival. Stabilize them and treat life-threatening injuries if at all possible, then bring them to medical assistance.
5) If there are no medical practitioners available at all, or if you ARE the medical practitioner, this guide will provide sufficient information to handle nearly every medical emergency if you have the proper equipment, and will also provide information on improvised techniques. Remember, stabilize the patient first before you do anything else!
There are various forms of harm a person can befall on duty, and as a rule they are referred to under certain specific categories by medical equipment and diagnostic techniques as follows:
Trauma: Most injuries (whether it be from a slip and fall, being struck by a flying soda can, being stabbed by a crazed crewman, or being chewed on by a space beast) count as trauma. Trauma may also be accompanied by bleeding (particularly if bones were broken or the injury is from a sharp or penetrating object), internally or externally. Trauma will heal very gradually on its own, though the injured party may die well before this becomes useful.
Burn: Typically caused by fires, acids, electrical shocks, exposure to extreme temperatures, explosions, breathing superheated gases, beam weapons, or certain other extreme measures, and requires different treatment methods. Internal burns are much harder to treat.
Toxic: Damage caused by poisonous substances and toxins, including radiation, nerve toxin, hazardous materials, tainted food, and some diseases.
Suffocation: Exposure to a nonbreathable environment will result in suffocation, as will certain toxins. People who have stopped breathing due to being in critical condition will automatically begin to suffocate. The rate of breathing (and thus suffocation, if in a nonbreathable environment, or recovery, if in a breathable environment and breathing normally) is dependent on activity; running around in a vacuum is likely to cause major problems very quickly.
Bloodloss: People generally need blood to function properly. If they are missing blood, due to open wounds, internal injuries, being drained by a vampire, or other rare instances, health problems will increase as blood decreases, with effects including shock, slowed movement, random stun or knockouts, and at critically low levels, brain damage and suffocation. It should be noted that bleeding people will bleed out medications, so fixing bleeding wounds is usually a priority.
Brain: Brain damage is typically caused when an individual has been put in critical condition, suffered severe head injuries, were imperfectly cloned, or suffered the effects of certain viruses or chemicals. Brain damage will make it more difficult for the user to perform some actions, may cause them to self-injure in some cases, and in severe cases may cause them to stop breathing. Sufficient brain damage will result in the unfortunate individual being unrevivable.
Genetic: Genetic damage is typically only suffered by the recently cloned, though radiation and certain other creatures or situations can cause it as well. It is difficult to detect directly without a genetics analysis, although being irradiated or harmed by a known source are strong indicators.
All medical personnel have in their possession a health analyzer that can provide useful diagnostic information quickly and efficiently in a format that is readily understandable by both medical and nonmedical personnel. A Health Analyzer scan will give an indication of overall patient health, damage levels, location of burn/trauma damage, blood levels, body temperature, and some medical conditions that may or may not be obvious on first glance.
In situations where there are multiple critical patients being reported or flooding into medbay, use the Triage System. Wearing a Medical HUD will help you spot out which individuals are in the most desperate need of treatment first.
Color | Description | In-game definition | Real world treatment type | Suggested in-game treatment |
---|---|---|---|---|
Black | Patient is dead | Patient is dead | Remove to prevent infections | Ignore until all live patients dealt with, then take to morgue. |
Red | Patient is seriously injured and in danger of dying | Critical condition (vitals below 0); Patient is losing blood; Quickly dropping vitals; Lethal disease in late stages | Immediate treatment | Treat their condition as soon as possible. If unable to treat immediately (OR busy, no vaccine), put them to cryosleep. For diseases, inject Spaceacillin to stop progress. Stabilize all critical patients before proceeding with in-depth treatment. |
Yellow | Patient is severely injured, but not in life-threatening danger | Vitals between 0 and 30%; Potentially lethal disease in its early stages | Delayed treatment | Treat as soon as all red triage patients are stabilized. |
Green | Patient has light injuries | Vitals between 30 and 80% | Minimal treatment | Ignore until the last of the yellow triage patients have been taken care of. |
White | Patient is uninjured | Vitals between 80 and 100% | There is no reason to treat them when you have a million more seriously wounded people | Ignore until all green triage patients have been taken care of. |
This shows up as a BLUE number on the Health Analyzer and Crew Monitoring Console
Suffocation results from being in areas with low oxygen, low blood count, internal damage to the lungs or heart, or from the patient being in a critical state.
IMPORTANT: Non-human individuals may suffer suffocation damage from low amounts of other chemicals instead. Inaprovaline, Dexalin or Dexalin Plus may not be an appropriate response in these cases.
If damage comes from being in a low-oxygen environment, internals or being in an oxygen safe place will slowly heal the patient.
Dexalin or Dexalin Plus will heal the damage. Dexalin Plus replaces the need to breathe altogether; Dexalin gradually repairs suffocation damage.
Inaprovaline will slow progress of suffocation damage in critical patients.
CPR will also slow progress of suffocation in critical patients. (On help intent, click on the patient with nothing in your hands to administer CPR.).
If damage comes from internal organ damage, Peridaxon may be able to repair it. Administer Peridaxon in small doses while monitoring for improvement.
This shows up as a GREEN number on the Health Analyzer and Crew Monitoring Console
Toxin damage sometimes causes vomiting. Getting a blood sample of the patient with a syringe and using a Mass Spectrometer will reveal what toxins are located in the patient's blood. Radiation will also cause Toxin damage.
Stabilize a critical patient.
Administer Dylovene.
If necessary, remove the patient from the source of the poison.
Monitor the patient's vitals for any changes. Some poisons are tricky and stay in the system for a long period of time.
Poison can be removed from a patient's bloodstream by putting them in a sleeper for dialysis. This will also lower their blood volume.
Treat the root cause. Toxin damage can be caused by infection, exposure to phoron or radiation, poisoning, medication overdoses, alcohol and drug abuse, viral disease, and several other more exotic sources.
If the patient was poisoned severely or for an extended period of time, check for organ damage.
This shows up as a RED number on the Health Analyzer and Crew Monitoring Console
Brute damage is caused by anything that can beat up a person, cut them, or fill them full of lead. It is often paired with broken bones and internal bleeding.
Locate the injuries using a Health Analyzer.
If a location shows up as “Bleeding”, prioritize it. Stop bleeding with Gauze or an Advanced Trauma Kit; then apply the same treatment to non-bleeding locations.
Bicaridine helps repair injuries, but doesn't prevent infection.
Tramadol or another painkiller helps a patient remain functional despite pain from injuries.
Robotic limbs damage cannot be treated by the standard equipment located in Medbay. Those patients should be sent to the Roboticist for repairs.
This shows up as a ORANGE number on the Health Analyzer and Crew Monitoring Console
Burn damage can result from fire, electrocution, energy weapons, or exposure to extreme cold.
Locate the injuries using a Health Analyzer.
Apply Ointment or a Burn Kit.
Kelotane or Dermaline (Dermaline is stronger) will help heal burns.
Burns easily become infected. Watch for fever and toxin readings.
Robotic limbs damage cannot be treated by the standard equipment located in Medbay. Those patients should be sent to the Roboticist for repairs.
Some damage does not show up in any category, but will show that the person is injured when scanned.
Creatures in the Research and Development location can cause genetic damage when attacking people. Being a new clone can also come with genetics damage, or heavy experimentation with genetics can cause this as well.
Fighting on the holodeck will result in holo-damage. Hallucinations brought on by drug use or genetic defects will cause unlisted damage as well.
Attempt to confirm how injury was received.
Genetics damage is healed with time spent in a cryo chamber. Clonexadone heals faster then Cryoxadone in this case.
Holo-damage is cured by having the patient sleep it off.
For hallucination damage, treat cause of damage, (repair any genetic damage for radiation or inject dylovene for poisoning), and then let patient sleep it off as you would with holo-damage. Sedating the patient for their own safety is highly suggested.
Triage Level: Yellow or Red (depending on extent)
Symptoms:
Causes:
Suffocation damage won't go away until blood levels are normal.
People who lose too much blood will die at around 60% blood volume. This cannot be prevented except by replacing the lost blood.
Treatment:
Triage Level: Red
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Triage Level: Yellow or Red (progresses if left untreated)
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Even once you know what's wrong with a patient, you still need the equipment to do something about it.
Tool | Purpose | Usage |
---|---|---|
Ointment | Speeding up healing of burns. Also can be used to treat infected wounds. | Apply to injured area. |
Advanced Burn Kit | Speeds up the healing process of burns. Also treats infected wounds. It is more effective than Ointment. | Apply to injured area. |
Gauze/bruise pack | Speeding up healing of brute damage. Also stops wounds from bleeding. | Apply to injured area. |
Advanced Trauma Kit | Increases the speed of healing for brute damage and stops wounds from bleeding. It is more effective than a Bruise Pack. | Apply to injured area. |
Health Analyzer | Must-have tool for Medical. Scan people to find out damage levels (and location for brute/burn), some conditions, blood levels and some other info like body temperature. | Scan patient to receive readings. |
Syringe | Administering medicine to people (5 units per injection). Taking blood samples. |
Click on things/people to inject or draw. If either of characters moves during it, injection fails. To switch between draw/inject modes, click on syringe in hand. |
AutoInjector | A single-use 5 unit injector commonly containing inaprovaline for use in emergencies. | Click on patient while holding the Injector. |
Using proper medicines can be difference between life and death for patient.
Some chemicals come pre-made in medikits or vendomats (i.e. inaprovaline and Dylovene), but most of them have to be made in Chemistry Lab.
Used to transfer chemicals (usually blood) from the vessel loaded in it to the patient in small dosages every second. Since some medicines are metabolized slower than new are injected (e.g. Tramadol will last in blood ~10 times longer than most meds), IV medication can still cause overdose with those chemicals, so mind dosage.
Hooking/unhooking patient: Click and drag IV sprite on patient.
Loading chemicals:Click on unloaded IV with vessel in hand.
Unloading chemicals:Click on loaded IV with empty hand.
Changing modes: To change modes between giving/taking, right click on IV and use Toggle Mode option.
Used to transport patient fast and safely.
Buckle/unbuckle patient as with chairs and usual beds.
Can be folded into pickupable roller bed item.
Buckling Patient: Drag the patient on top of the unfolded bed, click and drag from patient to bed.
Unbuckling: Click on the bed.
Folding: Click and drag roller bed sprite to your character.
Unfolding: Click on folded item in hand.
Stops metabolism(breathing, bleeding, chemicals in blood, etc.)
One-use only(don't open that bag until you're ready to treat them)
No IC skills required(one of the few devices that are ICly as simple to use as OOCly)
Causes brain damage to the occupant so should only be used when the patient is in critical condition.
Medical Doctor Closet - Contains different uniforms for different sections of Medbay, as well as different colored surgical scrubs.
Medical HUDs - When placed on like glasses, allow you to see a patient's vitals from a distance. More can be acquired from Research and Development.
Medical Belts - Can be loaded with medications for easy access.
Medical Kits - There are four different kits: First Aid, Oxygen Kit, Burn Kit, and Toxin Kit. More can be ordered from cargo.
Nurse Outfits - Can be worn by female doctors. In emergency may be worn by male ones too.
Various Beakers - These have multiple uses depending on type, and can be replenished by the Chemist. Browsing over the Guide to Chemistry will let you know what chemicals do what.
Bio-Hazard Closet - Are filled with biosuits to be worn when there is a viral outbreak.
Straight Jacket and Muzzle - For restraining dangerous and possibly insane patients. Usually considered a last resort.
Syringe Gun - Can be loaded with a single syringe that can be shot at a person from a distance.
Prescription Glasses - For helping those who can't see good and wanna learn do other stuff good too. Also contains prescription meson glasses and sunglasses.
Space Cleaner - Can be fired ahead three tiles to help clean up the inevitable mess that Medbay becomes.
Syringes - For use in taking blood and injecting chemicals into patients.
Body Bags - Used for storing dead bodies in. Can be labeled with a pen.
Sink - Use this to wash your dirty, dirty germ covered hands.
Mass Spectrometer - Used for testing toxins in a patient's blood. One does not start off in Medbay and has to be ordered from Research and Development.
Used for putting critical patients into stasis, finishing newly cloned patients, or treating patients with genetics damage. Be sure to check periodically to see if the chambers need to be restocked with chemicals.
Cryo starts out warm and has to be set up, and is useless until it's cold and loaded with medicine. Since it's the patient's body temperature that determines whether cryoxadone and clonexadone work, you won't get very fast results until the cryo tube is cold enough to quickly freeze the patient – around 50 Kelvin is good. Removing space suits speeds up the process as well.
Make sure the engine is running – ask Engineering. Cryo tubes take a lot of energy, and if the engine's not up yet, there won't be enough energy to cool the tubes.
Make sure the oxygen canisters are connected to the cryo tubes. If they aren't (they start out connected), use the nearby Wrench on both O2 canisters to secure them.
Take a nearby beaker filled with Cryoxadone and then click on the same cell you placed the clone in to load the beaker into the cell. Note that Clonexadone is exactly the same, but heals genetic damage faster and should be used when possible. Get some from the Chemist. Faster still is a combination of clonexadone and cryoxadone. Some chemists make their own custom mixes.
Set the freezer's Target gas temperature to its lowest amount by clicking on the far-left “-” until the number in the center no longer decreases.
Set the freezer to On.
If patient is wearing any suit that protects from cold (i.e. space suit), remove it.
Grab the patient.
Click on one of the cells to place the patient inside and set the Cryo status to On.
Note: At this point, the clone will begin to heal slowly if cryo was set up correctly, shown by the increasing health indication in the cryo cell's menu. If patient is not healing, either the patient is not cool enough inside the chamber or the beaker within the chamber has run out of chemicals.
Click on the cyro cell to check on your patient. When their health reaches 100, they are healed and can then be ejected (right-click > Eject Occupant).
Remember to turn Cryo status to Off when not in use to save oxygen and chemicals.
Sleepers are used to administer medication and perform dialysis.
Placing patient in: Grab them and click on the unit.
Getting patient out: Right-click on unit → Eject Occupant.
Dialysis: Once the patient is inside, click 'Start Dialysis'. Dialysis filters out blood, having the bonus of pulling out chemicals. This treatment should be used when you believe someone to be overdosing or to be poisoned. The beaker inside the sleeper will fill with the blood and eventually you will need to empty it. To retrieve the beaker, right-click on the sleeper and click 'eject beaker'. Dialysis can cause a patient to suffer from severe blood loss if the patient is left in too long.
Use console to interact with unit.
The machines will not stabilize critical patients on its own, though they can be used to administer inaprovaline and other necessary chemicals.
Inaprovaline - Helps keep critical patients stay stable by preventing them from taking suffocation damage.
Soporific - Puts a patient to sleep.
Dermaline - Heals burn damage.
Bicaridine - Heals brute damage.
Dexaline - Heals suffocation damage.
Body scanner is used to locate broken bones, organ damage, and internal bleeding. Also can be used to find implants and foreign objects inside people.
Placing patient in: Grab them and click on the unit.
Getting patient out: Right-click on unit → Eject Occupant.
Use console to interact with unit. Printing out a report and sending it along with the patient to surgery will help the surgeon.
Used to heal some suffocation damage caused by being in critical condition. Inaprovaline is usually better, but if you have a patient with severe poisoning and Dylovene in their system, Inaprovaline will just react to form Tricordrazine, which isn't particularly helpful. In this case, administer Dylovene and stabilize with CPR. Clicking someone with an empty hand and help intent will perform CPR on them.
Shaking an individual means that they are not in critical. Will not work if either you or your patient is wearing a mask.
When a patient is low on blood, they will need a blood transfusion. Most efficient way to do this is IV drip and blood bags. Just load bag in IV and hook the patient up to it. If that's not available, injecting patient with blood (i.e. with syringe) would work too. Blood can be put in a pill as well.
Iron and nutriment both speed up recovery of blood.
It's important to use the right type, so bad things won't happen. If there is no exact same bloodtype available, look for replacement by these rules:
Negative can take only negative.
All types can take O.
A can take A.
B can take B.
AB can take all.
O can take only O.
If patient is diagnosed with lack of head and the patient's torso is destroyed or missing, this will be needed to clone them.
These are the vital machines and rooms you will need to treat your patients.
The surgical area of Medbay is comprised of several smaller rooms. There's the main Operating Theatre for surgeries, an Observation room for people to observe, a rest area for patients, and a cold storage room. See: Surgery for more details on preforming surgeries.
Surgery Room Features:
Operating Table - Where all your surgeries should take place.
Surgical Tools - Your primary tools needed for surgery.
Surgery Holo-Light - These lights let others on the outside know that surgery is being performed. They should be on during every operation.
Observation Shutter Switch - Prevents people in the observation area from watching the surgery.
Anasthetics Closet - Holds anasthetics and medical masks for patient's use during surgery.
Patient Closet - Can be used to hold a patient's clothes, and also contains spare clothing for a patient.
Cold Storage - Contains freezers to hold spare organs, and a spare anasthetics closet.
Sink - For washing your dirty hands before and after surgery.
Surgery Cleaner - Sterlize the operating table after every surgery by clicking on it with the cleaner in hand.
The main housing station for the chemist. They are in charge of the making and passing out of chemicals to assist members of the station. See: Guide to Chemistry for more details.
This is where the geneticist works on manipulating the human genome, torturing monkeys, and clone a dead body or two during a shift. See: Guide to Genetics for more details.
Hopefully, a virologist will spend more time in here curing diseases rather then releasing them. See: Guide to Virology for more details.
This area contains the majority of the tools you will need for curing patients.
These are best used for non-critical patients awaiting treatment, patients needing to rest after treatment, or for holding mentally unstable patients waiting evaluation.
This is where cadavers are stored. There is an autopsy table located here, as well as several morgue trays. See: Guide to Cadavers for details on dealing with dead bodies.