Broken General

Posted on Sat Apr 22nd, 2017 @ 8:18pm by
Edited on on Sun May 7th, 2017 @ 7:46pm

Mission: Down on the Upside
Location: Deck 9
Timeline: Current

Cara was in her office nibbling at a sandwich while she went over some personnel records as she needed to move some people around to provide better coverage of the Medical facility. She was working with the staff of an Enigma Class ship on a station the size of a Galaxy Class ship...the problem being providing medical care to a difference of 5700 and efficiently staffing a full service 115 bed Medical Facility.

=^=Dr. Nichols to Surgical Suite 1. Dr. Nichols to Surgical Suite 1, please.=^=

Cara frowned. It was unusual for her to be paged to the Surgical Suites unless there was a problem. She took a big bite of her sandwich, tossed the remainder of it in the trash can by her desk and hurried out of her office. A few minutes later she stepped through the doors of Surgical Suite and walked over to the nurses' station. “You paged me?” she asked.

“Yes, Doctor. Dr. Ledall wanted to speak to you,” the nurse said. She looked up as the door to one of the Operating Rooms opened and a doctor emerged, removing his surgical gown and mask. “There he is,” she said.

Ledall saw Cara and walked over to her. “I would have had you paged sooner but I've been kind of busy,” he said.

Just then the Operating Room doors slid open and a hover gurney carrying General Mitchell emerged and headed for the Recovery Room.

Cara's mouth dropped open. “My God. What happened?” she asked.

Placing his hand on Cara's elbow, he directed her over to the nurses' station where he brought up an image of Mitchell's spine. “He was brought into the ER after having been injured during some sort of altercation. He had several fractured ribs...one of which punctured his left lung...and a fractured his T12 vertebra.” He pointed to the image on the viewer. “As you can see it pinched the spinal cord against L1. They repaired the rib fractures and re-inflated the lung down stairs and I managed to retrieve all of the fragments of shattered vertebra and regenerate it but I can do nothing for the cord,” he finished with. “It's up to him now.”

Cara stared at the image for several seconds before finally looking at Ledall and asking, “how long?”

“It could be weeks....or it could be months,” the surgeon said. “You know as well as I do that spinal cord injuries are unpredictable. He will be in a lot of pain for for several days so we will keep him sedated for a week. As long as he doesn't develop pneumonia from the weakened lung and having to be inactive...we should be able to gauge the extent of his impairment...if any after a week.”

Cara frowned. “If any,” she repeated what Ledall had said. “Keep me posted. I'll let CDR Knight know.” She looked in the direction of the Recovery Room and could see through the acrylic door as the nurses were getting Mitchell situated in a bed. She shook her head, sadly.

“I will,” Ledall said and headed to the Recovery Room to check on his patient.

Cara watched as the door slid shut behind him before finally leaving the Surgical Suite. Out in the corridor she leaned against the wall and took a deep breath as she said, “computer....location of CDR Andrew Knight.”

=^=CDR Knight is in his office on Deck 1.=^=

“Thank you,” Cara said, instinctively. Then she pushed off of the wall and headed for Knight's office.