Cleaning the Mess

[Nicolas Lepage 0]

Nick was standing beside a biobed equipped with a surgical support frame. Ever since patients started pouring into sickbay 45 minutes ago he had been in the OR. He had ordered Mimi to remain on the Endeavour and oversee triage there, so he was the only physician on the Pandora's Box. The patients who were beamed to the PB were only those whose condition required immediate surgery or other extensive treatment just to make sure they'd survive.

 

Nick ran the anabolic protoplase along the patient's intestines which had been ruptured when a sharp object had pierced his abdomen. This surgery had been the messiest so far. Opening and cleaning the abdominal cavity was always a time consuming and unpopular job. Fortuantely all that was left now was healing the actual injury. The rest could be done by Robin.

 

Five minutes later Nick had changed into new scrubs, grabbed a coffee and a PADD with the details of his next surgery. This patient had already undergone treatment for his pneumothorax. Nick scrolled further down and sighed as he saw the reasons this man was schedules for surgery. The fractured femur had ruptured the femoral artery. Nick raised a brow and looked over to the patient. The guy had been lucky he had been found so quickly. An injury like this could be lethal within minutes. Thanks to modern technology the bleeding had been stilled and the damaged part of the artery had been bypassed externally to ensure blood supply to the leg.

 

After taking a last sip of his coffee Nick called over to Mary-Alice. He needed her to assist him so he wanted to discuss the procedure with her...it would save them time later. As Mary-Alice approached Nick held out the PADD to her and started explaining what needed to be done. While the nurse was perusing the PADD the CMO sent a young medic he had never seen before to get what exactly he needed for the surgery.

 

"Is this the last one?" Mary-Alice asked.

 

Nick nodded. "Yes but I'm not sure how long this will take. I think it'll be best to replace the damaged part of the artery. We will have to check for bone fragments, too. I hope there won't be any problems due to blood loss. I'd like to wait until he's more stable but an external bypass is always a risk. Ready?"

 

Mary-Alice nodded almost imperceptibly and walked off in the direction of the patient. Nick followed her. As they stood on opposite sides of the biobed he looked down onto the patient. With a sigh he picked up the exoscalpel and made the first incision.