Asking for Help

[Katherine_Swan 0]

This log took place just before last weeks sim. Both Sam and I were to busy to get it editted and out to the string and on the boards. Hope you enjoy it.

 

 

Sam Semaj walks into sickbay and toward where he sees Swan standing, "You needed me for something Dr.?"

 

Katherine looks up as Sam walks in the door. " I do. I have a question want to ask you Hypothetical of coarse. If you have a patient that is having an issue that you think needs to be brought out, but the patient does not want it disclosed. Where do my loyalties lay? With Star Fleet to tell them that said patient may be dangerous? Or the Patient with the Hippocratic oath? I want your opinion." Katherine has a very upset on her face as she awaits his answer to her.

 

Sam Semaj was a little taken aback by the question, "Well, for now I'll skip past the part where you said hypothetical, because I can tell it's clearly not. There are some pretty well-defined guidelines for these things. Some come from SF protocol, some are based on patient practice, and that includes the non-medical care I provide. For all non-department heads, officers and non-coms, the department head gets notified of any medical or psychological condition that will affect job performance or will cause risk to the individual or those around him.

So a disruptive psychological disorder, a communicable disease, a suicide attempt or threat, though that one is exceptionally rare, these things get reported to department heads and if the situation provides risk outside the department, command staff gets notified, usually suicide or anything involving harm to others goes to the CO anyway Department heads can elect to have things kept private from their team members command staff can sometimes have things kept private from the rest of the senior staff, but a lot of times situations effect that group and it's wise to have everyone in the know beyond those situations that can have adverse effects on the people around an individual or themselves, confidentiality is strongly adhered to. So that's at least the guidelines, but situations are often grey, can you provide me with anymore details?"

 

Katherine takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Well I not sure how far I can go. What if its a person higher in rank or possibly higher in command than you? What are the statues on those instances?" Kat wanted to tell him but she was afraid to do to the replications from higher up.

 

"Well listen, I'm held to confidentiality, and can make decisions on whether to take something higher than me, and there are only three higher ranks on this ship than I have, so it can't explode or anything like that...why don't you show me just the medical data or describe the situation without using names and then maybe I can help you think about how to proceed?" Sam says as he stands there in front of her.

 

Kat thinks for a moment, then trys to think of a way to phrase it so it can still be annonoumus. "OK Here it goes. I had a patient come in and disclose to me that they were joined." Kat then cringes as she remembered there are not many trills on the ship to begin with. " This wont get to anyone else except you and I correct?"

 

The counselor replies, "Well...that depends on the situation, but I think you're safer doing this consult than letting something hazardous happen to the crew."

 

Kat looked at him and motioned for them to move to the office "OKay, Well a problem came up with the simbiont, and the person almost lost their live. I was able to come up with a treatment but had to use some creative work to do so. They didn't want the drug needed to be replicated as it would register and make things known. Anyway, they are doing ok now but have to return here for treatment every day until completely recovered." Kat shakes her head as she figures Sam knows who she's talking about now.

 

Sam leans against a console thinking, "So...joining is something we keep on record, are you saying you had recorded that this person was not joined and they confided that they actually were?

 

Kat gets a worried look on her face. "Well, I..." she stops for a moment and continues. "It was logged before I came into this. But I guess you can say yes, I now know that they are joined. I guess that's why they didn't want it known."

 

"Sorry, I'm confused. Didn't want it known that they were joined, even though it was in their file?

 

"That's just it. Its not in their file. Their file was in the system long before I got here. That's why I ... I'm asking you this now. I learned the Rules , regulations and proticals when I took my doctrine. But that was what, less than 6 months ago. I guess HQ figured you would come up on things as you go alone, but I don't think they would figure something like this."

 

Sam shook his head. "I'm just trying to be clear, you're stepping around trying to not reveal to much, but you're confusing me in the process. This crew member lied about being joined, has a symbiot but did not report that in their medical file and somehow avoided it getting discovered?"

 

Kat looks straight into Sams eyes and nods. "yes"

 

Sam finally getting that cleared up, then continues. "Ok, that was my first question, here's my second. If you didn't replicate medication to cure this persons...problem, what did you do?

 

Kat turned away and walked over to a desk and sat down. Now she could possibly get another person in trouble as well. Eagle had helped her, him and the twins. She took a deep breath and began again trying not to give away too much. The Counselor follows her to the desk and grabs another chair, feeling this may take a while and has a seat himself. "Well The symbiot would have know how to create the drug so I had a Vulcan well Half Vulcan come in and melded with the Symbiot to get the ingredients and tell me how to make the drug. It worked, I was able to get what I needed without using the replicator."

 

Sam leans down and puts his head on the desk and sighs, then sits back up:: Ok...you're not in trouble or anything, this is just a....complex situation. So what is it you are worried about, the precarious condition of the patient? Does he need to get regular medication to maintain his condition?" Sam stops thinking for a second and then continues. "Well, you could be in trouble, but lets keep talking."

 

Kat sighs, "Being in trouble is nothing new to me Sir. I mean look how I came to be here in the first place and the condition should right itself in a few weeks of treatment. But if this happens again theres a possibility that things could happen much different and more be at stake. That's why Im wondering if I should disclose to whomever I need to whats going on or continue with my patient doctor confidentiality."

 

Sam sighs again. "Well...here is a list of things you can't do. You can't lie about something like joining on your medical records. You can't falsify medical records to keep off some thing like symbiot presence, you can't use lab materials to synthesize a medication without logging the reasoning for it. And telepathic interactions like mind melds must be supervised by command staff or CMO, and though you are currently the most active attending physician, you are not the department head on paper. As far as answering specifically about your patient's issue...I need to know the condition exactly and the risks and dangers involved even if you don't answer to who it is." With what he has heard so far from Kat he has an inkling that an oddly behaving trill he witnessed earlier could be explained by this situation...but realizes the seriousness of that and doesn't want to get to that part of the situation yet.

 

"SO what you are saying is that at the moment If this goes any further, I will be in the brig along with my patient. As I said that's not new for me but my Patient Im not sure of. If I go to the Department head," now shes trying to cover even more as to the identity of the patient. "I will not only get them in trouble but myself as well. Correct? For I have done all of the above." Kat was ok telling on herself but not on others.

 

Sam Semaj looked at her squarely, " Brig might be a little over the top thus far. But listen, I need to know what the medical issue is, or all I know is that there is a secret trill symbiot running around and that you are lying to protect it. It's possible that only 5 people have to know any of this happened, and that no serious repercussions will come of it, but for that to happen, someone needs to start being up front.

 

Kat looks to the floor. She wasn't sure fessing up at this point would be a good idea. "Sam? what if I didn't tell you, What would you do? Or what action would you have to take with me telling you this much."