Doctoring
Medical Doctors have a bad rep for never being around and being useless. Can you do better?
The Health System
All crewmembers begin at 100% health, and with 4 categories of damage- suffocation, toxin, burn, and brute. Any damage taken will add to its corresponding category and subtract from total health. As one's health declines, they will find it harder to move around. At 0% health, the patient enters critical health. They will fall unconscious (if not already), and slowly take suffocation damage until they are stabilized or they die. Once the patient's total damage hits 200 (-100% total health), they die.
Drugs
Medical Doctors begin with some of these in Medbay, and some can be created by Botanists (though you'll really have to nag them for it). The Quartermaster can also provide a medical resupply kit. Advanced drugs can be created by the Scientists, assuming they haven't already burned themselves to death.
Basic
| Drug | Use | Advanced version |
|---|---|---|
| Bicardine | Brute Damage | |
| Dexalin | Suffocation damage | Dexalin+ |
| Dylovene | Anti-toxin | |
| Kelotane | Burn Damage | |
| Tricordrazine | All damage types. Slower than the dedicated drugs. | |
| Inaprovaline | All damage types, but only while the patient is in crit. Stops suffocation damage from being in crit. | |
| Cryoxodone | Heals burn & brute, use in Cryo. Works best when patient is cold. | |
| Benzocytizine | Flushes chemicals out of people's systems, but causes toxic damage | Tribenzocytizine |
Advanced
| Drug | Use |
|---|---|
| Alkysine | Brain damage (concussions) |
| Antihol | Treats drunkenness |
| Hyronalin | Radiation medicine |
| Arithrazine | Improved Radiation medicine |
| Dexalin + | Suffocation damage, more effective than dexalin |
| Imidazoline | Eye damage |
| Leporazine | Stabilizes body temperature |
| Ryetalyn | Genetic defects |
| Spaceacillin | Treats virii |
| Synaptazine | Treats paralysis |
| Tribenzocytizine | Less toxic damage than regular benzo |
Damage
Suffocation
The patient has been exposed to an area without proper atmosphere, or strangled. Suffocation damage will heal naturally if the patient gets air again, provided the patient has not gone into critical health.
Treat with Dexalin and/or move them to an area with air, where they will breath normally and the damage will reduce itself. If the patient has an air tank on them, make sure it's on-- and if it is on, their suffocation may be because it's empty, so take it off.
A patient in critical health can't breathe unassisted. Inject inaprovaline to stabilize them, or give CPR by using an empty hand on them with the help intent on. Make sure neither of you are wearing masks in the latter case.
Toxin
Toxin damage can come from a few sources. The primary remedy is dylovene (anti-toxin pills) but some care must be cautioned, as it is a potentially addictive substance. Try to use as little as possible.
- Breathing plasma can cause toxic damage-- move the patient to a safe area if there is a gas leak.
- Certain virii can cause toxic damage, treat the virus first, then treat for toxins.
- Ingesting harmful chemicals can cause toxin damage. Treat the poisoning first, then treat for toxins.
Burn
Burn damage can come many sources, such as:
- Fire, acid, and electrical shocks are the most common.
- Exposure to space tiles without protective gear will cause burns.
- Explosions
- Freezing temperature will not hurt someone unless they are standing on a space tile.
- Inhaling superheated gas will fry someone's lungs from within, causing massive burn damage. Make sure you have internals on before rushing to help these patients.
- Certain weapons (such as a welder or energy weapons) will also cause burn damage.
- Eating spicy food or food injected with certain hot chemicals
If the patient is on fire, put the fire out before anything else. The "burning" sprite is slow to update sometimes, so it can be hard to tell if you have extinguished the fire. The easiest way to extinguish a burning patient is to stand next to them and use the "spray all around you" command on the extinguisher, though this will deplete it. If you put a burning patient into cryo, they will take burn damage faster than the cryo can heal them! Once the source of the burn damage is removed, treat with kelotane, tricordrazine, burn patches, or cryo.
Brute
Brute damage is probably the most common form you will see. It comes in many forms:
- Bruises from physical combat, melee weapons, bullets, etc.
- Blasts from a laser gun
- Explosions
- Slipping on space lube
- Taking a trip through a waste disposal chute
If the patient is shot with a projectile, they will take "bleeding" damage until the bullet is removed-- this requires use of the Robotics surgery bed and a scalpel. Brute damage can be treated with bicardine, tricordrazine, healing patches, or cryo. Medbots will treat most minor brute damage on their own.
Other Ailments
Poisoning
The patient has some awful chemicals in their bloodstream. Your PDA can be switched from Medical Analysis to a Reagant Scanner to see what it is, or you can take a blood sample, put it in a beaker, and look at it to see what chemicals are inside. The most common sources of poisoning are Sleepy Pens or Changeling stings, which pump the victim with chemicals that have disorienting and debilitating effects on top of the toxic damage. Other sources of poison include some of the more notorious choices from the station's Vending Machines or poisons cooked up in Chemistry and Hydroponics.
To flush the chemicals out of the patient's system, you must use Benzo/Tribenzo. You can dispense benzocytazine in the form of 30 unit pills from the Medbay vending machines, though you may want to dissolve the pill and inject it in smaller amounts using a syringe. Both drugs cause toxin damage as long as they are in the person's system, and will remove all chemicals-- including beneficial ones. You must closely monitor the patient, giving them anti-toxin as soon as the benzo is depleted, then repeating the process if harmful chemicals remain.
Virii
There are many different types of virii on the station, each with their own effects and possible cures. Using a medical analyzer on someone who is infected will display a report in red text, containing the name of the virus, its stage, and possible cure. Wear gloves and a medical mask to offer some minor protection against disease and load up on spaceacillin.
- Food poisoning is the most common virus you will encounter, caused by eating bad food. The patient need only sleep it off. Stuff them in a sleeper or let them sleep in the secure recovery area.
- Robotic Transformation is caused by eating roburgers or exposure to nanites. If untreated, the patient will explode and become a cyborg. Treat with electric shocks.
- Kuru is caused by eating brain burgers or exposure to prions. There is no known cure, so scan them at Genetics before they die.
- Grave Fever is caused by a Vampire ability and must be quickly counteracted with spaceacillin to prevent the patient from becoming a Zombie.
- Necrotic Degeneration is similar to grave fever but extremely contagious. Don't approach someone who is infected unless you have protective gear and the ability to cure yourself. It is initially spread by bites from NPC Zombies.
- Memetic Kill Disorder (MKD) afflicts those who have become followers of His Grace. They take damage so long as they are not near the toolbox. Back up their DNA in Genetics because they will die soon, no matter what you do.
- Type D-Owns Syndrome occurs after eating a droopy cake. It will eventually kill the patient, so hassle Chemistry for curing drugs.
Other virii do not appear outside of admin intervention or random event. For the full list, check out the Virus page.
Addiction
Addiction functions similar to a non-contagious disease. You will receive an indication using a health scanner that also displays what stage it's in. The patient will know they are addicted because they are receiving constant messages to use whatever chem they are addicted to. Common addiction sources are dylovene, hyperzine, and nicotine. With each progressive stage of withdrawal, the symptoms become worse-- stunning, vomiting, shaking, and so on. An addict can be treated either with hair of the dog for temporary relief, or they'll just have to tough it out. If they have the chemical in their system, try flushing it out as if it were a poison. If the patient consents, keep them in the secure area of Medbay with the beds until they overcome the addiction. This is more for their safety, as they are very weak and open to mugging/assault during withdrawal.
Radiation
Radiation will cause toxic damage as long as it's in someone's system. Radiation can come from Genetics testing, a Blowout, Mining accidents, prolonged exposure to the Singularity, or being shot with a rad-bow. Hyronalin or Arithrazine will remove the radiation, but if those are unavailable, the patient will have to wait for the radiation to subside on its own. Radiation can be monitored using the Geneticist's DNA Manipulator, or using the Health Analyzer by observing the point until toxin damage stops accumulating. Excessive radiation can cause genetic defects which require the Geneticist to fix.
Concussion
The analyzer will report that the subject has suffered minor/major brain damage, and looking at the patient may reveal they have a stupid expression on their face. A concussion can be treated with Alkysine, but if the brain damage is genetic in nature, a Geneticist will have to fix it.
Hypoglycemic Shock
In the event that someone has a lot of sugar in their blood, around 80 units, they'll fall into a diabetic coma. Scanning them with the health scanner won't show anything, but you can deduce why they're unconscious by using a reagent scanner or blood test to see their sugar content. Treat this ailment as if they were poisoned.
Being Shot
Should someone start bleeding all over the place, and they tell you they've been shot by a gun, it's time for surgery.
- Place the victim on the operating table.
- Grab a scalpel, preferably just find one by one of the two surgery tables in med-bay, if not, ask the robotics to grab you one.
- Target the chest, if you haven't already.
- Click the person while they are on the table, and you should get a message about digging around, then finding a spent bullet.
- Scan them with the health analyzer or PDA and treat them for any other damage that may have occurred, plus any brute damage from the bullet.