First Aid
Posted on Sun Jan 28th, 2018 @ 11:57pm by Lieutenant Alana Tovan & Commander Talia Varen
Mission:
A Day in the Life
Timeline: After "Hot Fix"
Alana winced, cradling her injured right hand, as she entered the infirmary. The pain from the plasma burn was excruciating, but it was her own fault that it was so bad. If she hadn't stayed to completely finish the repair after the plasma burst, she could have received medical treatment right away. But her she was, nursing her wound, with one more repair job in the books.
She walked over to the front desk, where a yeoman with more enthusiasm than Alana thought she could handle greeted her. "Good evening, Lieutenant. What can we do for you?"
Alana sheepishly held up her hand. It was covered with severe burns, blisters, and dried green blood. "I burned my hand," she managed to mutter.
The yeoman's eyes grew wide. "You certainly did. Let me call for a doctor." The yeoman paged for the nearest doctor while Alana turned away and started pacing. The walking seemed to take her mind off the burn.
Varen entered sickbay from the far door and winced inwardly at the charred look of the Lieutenant's hand; who was pacing sickbay. "Lieutenant how in all the hells did you manage that?"
Tovan shrugged the best she could as she showed the badly burned hand to the doctor. "Power relay. Whoever repaired it last did a pretty sub-par job. A coupling failed, and I got a little singed. But it's okay now. I got it fixed."
"Yeoman, will you get me a dermal regenerator and a burn kit please? " Talia brought out a clear box that was filled with a bluish gel substance. It was cool to the touch on the outside of the box, and the gel was infused with both cooling and pain relieving properties. "Hand in the gel, and spread your fingers as much as you can."
Alana gave the box of gel an unsure look, like she didn't trust it. But she followed the doctor's orders and put her hand into the gel. It was cold to the touch, and immediately gave a strange sensation as just her finger tips felt relief. She slowly slid the rest of her hand into the gel, sighing silently as she got down to the edge of the burned tissue. After spending the last hour with searing pain, the relief was a godsend.
Talia smiled to see the sheer relief on the other woman's face. The doctor took the burn kit from the yeoman with a murmur of thanks and cracked the seal. Laying out her instruments on the table and unpacking the kit took but a moment. Then she took up a tricorder to scan her hand thoroughly. "So when did this happen? Theres quite a bit of damage secondary to the central burn."
"Roughly an hour ago, I'd say," Alana replied. "I had to finish the job. It was dangerous to leave the coupling the way it was. Someone could have been seriously hurt if that coupling decided to fail on someone else."
"I'd say it seriously hurt you, but I take your meaning to mean it may have been more deadly." She moved the box with the gel and her hand at the same time to a small panel. When the box touched the panel, the gel began to move, swirling around the injured limb.
Alana's cheeks turned a light shade of green. "I suppose it did seriously hurt me, but by then the damage had been done. I couldn't leave a job unfinished." The swirling motion was even more soothing on her burned hand, and Alana became more relaxed as the pain started to subside. "In hindsight, I probably should have come straight down and had someone else finish the repair. But in my experience, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."
"And if you'd done permanent damage to yourself?" Talia questioned as she placed what looked like a modified dermal regenerator on a port in the box. The light that came from the regenerator made the gel cast off little motes of light as if glitter floated within it. It was a beautiful sight, and one that made a smile tug at Talia's lips.
"Yeah, yeah, Doctor," Alana replied. "In hindsight it was a terrible idea. Somehow I convinced myself that it wasn't as bad as it looks. The lesson has been learned."
"Very good. Make a fist?" her dark violet eyes were on the fingers in the gel mixture. The regenerator applied through the gel did something unique, and scattered the field so that the whole appendage got healing in equal measure.
Alana followed orders and closed her hand. It still ached, but was feeling a lot better than it had. The gel oozed between her fingers, giving her an odd sensation.
"Excellent, spread your fingers as far as you can." came the next command.
Alana followed orders and spread her fingers out wide. She already found it a lot easier to stretch out hand than she did when she started.
"Good. It seems to be working quite well. A few more minutes in there and you'll be good as new."
As the minutes passed, Alana could feel the pain fading from her hand. She wasn't sure what this wonder gel was made from, but she was thankful for it. "Thank you, Doctor. I guess I need to learn to take better care of myself."
"That's a statement I can get behind" Talia chuckled and then asked quietly "Alright, pull your hand out and do the same flex and extend the hand and fingers."
Alana pulled her hand out of the gel. If she thought it felt cold going in, it felt even colder coming out, as the rapid evaporation brought a cooling effect to her hand. The burn appeared to be gone, but the next test was to see how well it could move. Following orders, she stretched her hand and spread her fingers wide. "There's a dull ache, and a little stiffness, but it doesn't hurt nearly as bad as it did."
A hypospray of analgesic and muscle relaxant pressed to her throat and hissed quietly as it delivered it's medicine. "Try again now."
"Much better," Alana replied as she stretched her hand out again.
"Very good." Talia filled a hypospray and handed it to her. "When it starts to get stiff and sore again later on this evening- take this and then drop it in a recycler."
"Will do, Doctor. Thank you very much for the help," Alana replied graciously. She took the hypospray with her good hand and placed it in her pocket.
"My pleasure"
Lt. Commander Talia Varen- MD.
Chief Medical Officer
Starbase 332
Lieutenant Alana Tovan
Engineer
Starbase 332
