Liquidsun
Medicine
Medicine 2043
Advancements in technology mean even serious injuries such as head wounds can be treated in relatively short times, given the right equipment. An organ or limb damaged beyond repair can be replaced as good as new with biocopies and gene-alts. However, humans are not immortal. Having your head blown off is still more or less fatal. the situation can be best summarised as "if you're not dead, the medics can probably get you working again, but not necessarily fighting fit".
Injury
A normal human being has body points on their extremities and body as indicated on the body point allocation chart under Body Points.If you consider the damage calls of most firearms, this ain't many. Likewise, as you are wounded, you become more affected by your injuries.- Location damaged, but still above 0:
- It hurts, but the location is still useable.
- Location on 0:
- The location stops working. If it is the body or the head, you fall over unconscious. If it is a leg, then you cannot walk, but you can still crawl. If the location is an arm, then you must drop whatever you are carrying in that hand.
- Location on -1:
- The location is seriously damaged. Even once treated, there will be some permanent damage (at the referee's discretion). Time for the cyberware.
- Location below -1:
- The location is beyond help. Without immediate expert attention that location has "had it". If the location is your head or body, then you are dead! At best, the location can be stabilised until serious medical facilities can be reached.
Doing Something About It
Your First Aid skill cross referenced on the table below will tell you what you can do for the various injuries, and how long it will take. Successful treatment depends on having medical supplies at least equal to your skill level.- "No Skill"
- You just try your best and hope your medkit knows what to do.
- "Basic"
- Limited training. You are not really used to major gunshot wounds or napalm burns. Equivalent to civilian paramedics or average military training.
- "Advanced"
- Trauma team level. Highly trained. Even in the worst case scenario, you can at least keep your patient alive until hospitalisation.
- "Exceptional"
- Either a fully automated A&E unit or an expert wired to a portable medicomp, chipped for every possibility and smartlinked to an Acme Surgeon-o-Matic.
Diagnosis
Anyone with Basic first aid or above can diagnose the patients approximate condition given a couple of minutes and a medexpert. Without a medex (or the skill) you can only try and treat the obvious and hope for the best.The following table gives the time take to treat one body point of damage, and the effect you can have on the wound in that time.
Table 12: First Aid
| Damage Level | |||||
| Skill Level | Subdual Only | Location Above 0 | Location At 0 | Location At -1 | Location Below -1 |
| No Skill (natural healing) | Heal 20 | Heal 30 | Stabilise 20 | No | No |
| Basic | Heal 10 | Heal 20 | Heal 30 | Stabilise 20 | No |
| Advanced | Heal 5 | Heal 10 | Heal 20 | Heal 30 | Stabilise 20 |
| Exceptional | Heal 5 | Heal 5 | Heal 10 | Heal 20 | Heal 30 |
- "Heal"
- The medic can restore 1 hit point for each period of time over which they maintain the treatment.
- "Stabilise"
- The best the medic can do is stop the location worsening by treating it for the time period shown.
- "No"
- The location is beyond the medic's help.
- A mortal wound (or a subdual wound that becomes lethal by taking a location below 0) will inflict one extra body point of damage per 5 minutes that it is left untreated. If it is a limb and it reaches -2, then it is considered beyond help. Body point loss then continues from the total remaining Body points until treatment or death.
- Treatment times are for each Body point treated, not for all lost Body points on that location.
- Subdual damage (at 0 hit points or above) will all be recovered when treated.
- Once treated, a location must be rested for as long again as it was treated for (arm in a sling, etc.). Any exertion will cause all treated damage to be taken once more (i.e.: the wound reopens etc.).
- If a medical kit at least equal to the character's skill is not available, then they will function at the skill category below their own (i.e.: a shift up the table, so Advanced becomes Basic, etc.).
Natural Healing
A normal human will recover subdual damage at a rate given by the "No Skill" row on the First Aid table, i.e. 1 point per 20 minutes.Enhanced Healing
A rare ability which, by whatever technique, allows superhuman recovery. Such individuals heal as per one of the rows on the First Aid table unassisted by medicine or outside help.Such a character cannot be helped by external medical treatment, unless the medic has a skill level better than the character's internal healing mechanisms. In such a case, the character will be healed just like any normal character.
Examples:
Regenerative enzymes
Accelerated systems
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