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 in and out of consciousness with an ever increasing chance of cardiac arrest. If left untreated, they will slowly take suffocation damage until they reach 200 total damage (-100% health) and 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.
Want to brew your own? Go hog wild!
Basic
| Drug | Use | Advanced version |
|---|---|---|
| Ephedrine | All damage types, but only while the patient is in critical condition. Also stops suffocation. | Epinephrine |
| Epinephrine | Similar in application, but somewhat more effective. | Atropine |
| Salbutamol | Treats suffocation damage. | Perfluorodecalin |
| Styptic Powder | Slows down the health loss from bleeding and heals brute damage. Only apply topically (patch, dropper etc)! | Synthflesh |
| Silver Sulfadiazine | Heals people with burn damage. Only apply topically (patch, dropper etc)! | Synthflesh |
| Saline-glucose Solution | Slowly heals brute and burn damage, handles circulatory shock. | |
| Activated Charcoal | Treats toxin damage, absorbs other reagents in the body. | Pentetic Acid |
| Calomel | Flushes chemicals out of people's bloodstreams, but causes toxic damage in the process. | Pentetic Acid |
| Potassium Iodide | Basic anti-radiation medicine. | Pentetic Acid |
| Cryoxodone | Most damage types; used in cryo chambers. Only works at low temperatures! | Omnizine |
| Salicylic Acid | Basic painkiller. Moderately reduces the speed penalty from injuries, reduces overheating. | Morphine |
| Morphine | Sedation. Low doses significantly reduce the speed penalty from severe injuries and help with jitteriness. |
Advanced
| Drug | Use |
|---|---|
| Atropine | Atropine is more rapid than epinephrine in a crisis situation, but will poison and debilitate anyone in good health. |
| Perfluorodecalin | Treats suffocation very well, but leaves the patient unable to talk in the meantime. |
| Synthflesh | Heals brute and burn damage very effectively. Only apply topically (patch, dropper etc)! |
| Pentetic Acid | Will rapidly remove any toxins and decontaminate the patient. |
| Omnizine | Heals most types of damage. |
| Haloperidol | Anti-psychotic/sedative. Rapidly removes psychoactive drugs and stimulants, can cure certain psychoses, causes brain damage. |
| Spaceacillin | Treats viruses. |
| Mannitol | Cures brain damage. |
| Mutadone | Cures some genetic defects. |
| Oculine | Treats eye damage. |
| Antihol | Treats drunkenness. |
| Insulin | Handles hyperglycaemic coma if someone passed out from 200+ units of sugar in their bloodstream. |
| Diphenhydramine | Also known as antihistamine. This can help deal with histamine, itching powder, certain bug bites too. More planned. |
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 Salbutamol 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 saline and/or epinephrine 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 activated charcoal (anti-toxin pills).
- 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
- Blasts from a laser gun
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 burn medication 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.
- 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 styptic powder, synthflesh, healing patches, or cryo. Medbots will treat most minor brute damage on their own.
Surgery
There are two operating tables in the center of the medbay, a third in the Morgue and another one in Robotics. There are now several problems people can run into that require immediate surgery in order to save the patient. People coming into the medbay will expect you to be able to help with surgery, so you should familiarize yourself with it.
Bullets and foreign objects
Scenario: The patient has all his limbs, but is bleeding profusely.
Diagnosis: Your patient is most likely suffering from a case of bullet-having. Inquire if he's been in any gun fights lately to confirm your suspicion. He needs to be placed on the surgery table and hit in the stomach with a scalpel to be cured.
Scenario: The patient is delusional, screaming about monsters that eat people and that he's some kind of super hero who beat said monster, but ended up accidentally swallowing something he refers to as a headspider.
Diagnosis: Your patient is clearly insane, but he should be put on a surgery table and shanked in the stomach with a scalpel until he stops screaming about monsters. Any foreign object, including the heads of space monsters, will be removed in the process. Make sure to stop operating on him after the foreign object comes out or when it's clear that he was in fact making the whole thing up.
Limb removal
Scenario: The patient is a healthy human with four or more limbs. For reasons known only to him, he'd like to have less limbs.
Diagnosis: Limb removal is the only cure to limbs. Put the patient on a surgery table and use a scalpel, circular saw and then scalpel again to cut if off. Note that even if you neglect to do the final scalpel cut, the half-cut limb will still fall off after some time. This procedure will inflict a lot of tissue damage, start a bleeding and could put the patient into critical damage where they could die from shock. You need to have medical drugs at the ready. If you are unable to stop the bleeding from a missing limb, cauterize the wound with an open flame by either using a welder on the missing limb or setting the patient on fire. Note that setting patients on fire is very bad for their health, and if they die, it is very bad for you.
Limb replacement
Scenario: The patient is either an amputee or is already undergoing limb removal. He claims he needs his limbs in order to do his job.
Diagnosis: Your patient is a liar, no one does their job, but you should probably give him some more limbs anyway. You have three options:
- Find and re-attached the missing limb. Put the patient on the table and hit his missing limb with the new limb. Attach it with a medical stapler.
- Use the limb from a donor. Put the patient on the table and hit his missing limb with the new limb. Attach it with a medical stapler. Note that donated limbs tend to reject their new owners, which may lead to the patient beating you to death in a fit of rage while flipping you off in a very rude manner. For your own personal health, donor limbs should only be the absolute last resort.
- Use a robotic limb. Put the patient on the table, hit his missing limb with the robotic one and attach it using a welder.
Brain surgery
Scenario: Your patient is quite dead, or wishes to be, and you need his brain for whatever reason.
Diagnosis: Surgery is the only way. Put the patient on a surgery table, alternate between using a scalpel and a circular saw on his head until his brain rolls out.
Scenario: You are in possession of a detached brain, the Chef does not want it, the Chapel doesn't have brain-sized coffins and there is no Cyborg to put it in.
Diagnosis: The brain will need a new host, and surgery is the only way. Ask the geneticists for a dead body from someone they've already cloned or were unable to clone due to it being braindead. It should not be rotted. Remove its dead brain, and while the host body is on a surgery table, click on its head with the other brain to insert it into its skull. Take the body back to genetics and ask them to scan and clone it. If everything went right, the brain should be cloned in its new host body.
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 Calomel. You can dispense calomel 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. Calomel will cause toxin damage itself, so it should only be used to remove far worse poisons. It 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 certain poisons, a Blowout, Mining accidents, or being shot with a rad-bow. Potassium Iodide or Pentetic Acid 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 Mannitol, but if the brain damage is genetic in nature, a Geneticist will have to fix it.
Hyperglycemic 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, or give them Insulin.