Medical Preparations

Posted on Thu Aug 2nd, 2018 @ 5:14pm by Commander Talia Varen & Lieutenant Commander Marit Lantry M.D., Ph.D. & Lieutenant John DeMarck

Mission: Weathering the Storm
Location: CMO's Office

Despite its obvious size, on most days, it was easy to forget just how massive the base was. Certainly, all of the people who lived and worked there saw the large groups coming and going regularly, but on a day to day basis, people could be forgiven if their perception of the station was primarily influenced by the small groups of people they worked with on a regular basis. Naturally, the infirmary saw a fair share of activity, but on a regular workday, it wasn't like people were paying close attention to how many of the patients they saw called Starbase 332 Home.

That was until now.

With the storm coming, everyone was very much aware of how many people were on the station and in Marit's case, that meant her maternal impulses were in high gear.

Turning to Tallia, she offered, "Everyone should have a designated safe space for the storm plus there are several places with extra room just in case. I've also organized A roster for each shelter with everyone who should be inside along with their required medications and other special needs. There's not going to be much room for personal property, which could cause some tension depending on how long we must stay in place, but that's why I'm going to make sure one of my staff is posted at each shelter. Most of them should have updated basic medical training just in case. Is there anything else you need me to do?"

"I don't care about their medical abilities one lick, so much as their ability to calm people. The last thing we want is panic and confusion in a packed storm shelter. There are some extremely critical patients that I am going to remain with, simply for expedience sake- but there should be some room to manouver people if you or anyone else has a crisis that is outside of your expertise."

Getting the impression she had stepped on the doctor's toes without meaning to, Marit replied, "I'm not suggesting my people are as good at providing medical care as you are, Doctor, and I will be sure as many people as we can get to you should they need it, but I was just suggesting they could help with the load some. Of course, I understand counseling's primary responsibility will be to keep people safe and calm in the shelters. Speaking for me personally, I am a trained physician so I can offer some expertise in that area as well, although like I said, I don't pretend to be as medically experienced as you are, of course."

"Honestly will you relax?" she muttered feeling the other woman's brief flash of anxiety. "Take a deep breath counselor, and tell me which of your personnel would be best suited for which evacuation area." She pointed to the various evac areas "Each one will be staffed with security of course, to mitigate problems. 1 Physician, 1 counselor, a nurse and at very least a corpsman or EMT. This one is senior staff and their relief. Sickbay will evacuate to here..." and she pointed to an evac zone that was heavily shielded. "Junior staff and families, Engineering and repair teams will be stationed here and will be periodically leaving the safe zone to do repairs- I need a counselor with medical experience there, Civilian population will be in these three."

"I assure you I am quite calm," Marit replied patiently, not wanting the talk to get off track, but also wanting to make it clear the doctor's perceptions were inaccurate, she added, "I have drawn up a list of my staff and suggestions of where I believe they should be posted, subject of course to whether my recommendations make sense given your plan. Given your need for a counselor with medical expertise to be with the engineering teams, I could go with them unless you see a need for me elsewhere?"

John looked at the roster on the padd he had been handed just now. Being new to the base meant he was still finding his way around, still getting to know his colleges. On a starship that was much easier. The crew were small, at least in comparison with a base as massive as this one. A small crew meant a small medical staff. On the ships he had served on till now the medical staff was usually composed of a CMO, AMO 1 or maximum 2 doctors and usually 2 nurses, one per shift. All the orderly work had to be done by the doctors and nurses together. Having designated people to take care of among other things, patient transport gave the doctors and nurses the time to actually treat the patients. "Sir, I have never been in an ion storm. What can I expect?"

Marit offered a nod of acknowledgment to John, but waited to hear what else Talia would have to say.

"Power outages, equipment failures, anything with an internal power cell should be fine so your osteo-regenerators and dermal regenerators should be fine. Medically speaking there shouldn't be much more than bumps and bruises and the occasional broken bone...but that's if everything goes perfect in the evacuation. It's likely there will be fights, and inter-familial tensions to work through. However, there might be quite a bit more hands on medicine than you're used to. If we have really bad luck and the ion shielding fails we'll be dealing with radiation burns, radiation sickness, or radiation poisoning. I'll make sure we have kits to handle those things in each evac zone." Talia's voice was soft and she chewed her lip absently.

Marit nodded. "You're right. We need to be prepared for anything. I hope we can avoid fights between crew members, but I know a lot of that will depend on how long they're stuck in close spaces."

John nodded. "I think I can work with that. So, should be a quiet day indeed." the he said jokingly, nodding back at Marit. "At what time should the evac area's be operational?" Somehow, and John couldn't get his finger on it as to why, he was getting exited. On a starship an ion storm is sort of a right of passage. He wasn't sure how it is on a starbase but he still liked to look at it that way.

"I expect crews are working to make that happen ASAP. I'm sure they have to be prepared for any sudden changes in the storm," Lantry answered.

"I would say medically speaking that engineers, repair techs and the most senior staff will be at highest risk simply because of their 'front line' jobs. No engineer or technician may spend more than 2 hours outside of a safe zone, without being checked for radiation exposure and having rest time. No exceptions. That allows for work to be done, and hopefully the e-suits can hold off the radiation for that long. If they can't we'll have to reassess on the fly." Talia's eyes were piercingly bright as she scrolled through the information. "Go get your personal teams ready and check your equipment, there's plenty to do before the storm hits."