Medical Technician

The Medical Technician is the primary medical first responder aboard the SEV Torch. Next to the Physician, they are the most vital part of the medical machine. While the Physician handles most of the intensive cases, Medical Technicians are tasked with the retrieval and stabilization of said patients. When a member of the crew is critically wounded and can't reach the Infirmary, it's the Medical Technician's job to go and retrieve them. When there's a state of emergency onboard the ship, it's the Medical Technician's job to watch the sensors and make sure that no one's gotten hurt. When the medbay is clogged with patients and the Physician is locked up in the operating theater, it's the Medical Technician's job to make sure no one dies in the interim. When the Physician needs an extra pair of hands to keep a patient stable, it's the Medical Technician's job to provide. You may not hold a scalpel, or even a medical degree, but without you, Medical doesn't function. So put on your first responder jacket and load up your medical belt; it's time to save some lives.

Medical Technicians answer directly to both Physicians and the Chief Medical Officer. You take orders from both, but the Chief Medical Officer is your ultimate boss, and their orders take priority.

Starting Out
A Medical Technician is the liaison between an injured crewman and proper treatment at the Torch's infirmary. Your job consists of keeping an eye on the sensors, assessing injuries, bringing someone back to the medical bay, and keeping critical patients alive between injury and surgery.

Before you start, there are several things to take note of:
 * 1) Speed is key. While true efficiency will come with time and practice, a few seconds can often make the difference between life and death. It's highly recommended you become at least mildly familiar with the ship and its maintenance shafts before taking on a first responder role, so you aren't running around looking for wherever 'Requisitions' is. (Deck two, by the way.)
 * 2) Stay alert. Watch the sensors. Listen to comms in case someone shouts for medical. Keep an eye out for any tell-tale trails of blood or prone body in an open space.
 * 3) You are your number one priority. Yes, it's your job to save lives, but you can't very well do that when you're in critical condition after a Mercenary has shot you in the lungs. Don't put yourself into danger trying to save a patient, and use caution where you can. Don't have your fellow medtechs being the ones dragging you to the infirmary.

The Very Basics

 * EMT Belt: A six-slot belt, useful for holding assorted medications, sterile gloves, bandages, or whatever you can think of.
 * White webbing: A vest you can attach to your clothing for extra storage.
 * MT chest rig: A two-slot storage item that fits on your outer clothing slot.
 * Health Analyzer: Hold this and click on someone for an instant readout of their medical status.
 * Advanced Trauma Kit/Gauze: Used to bandage wounds and stop external bleeding. While they serve the same purpose, Advanced Trauma Kits promote faster healing. Using an Advanced Trauma Kit is much more preferred to using gauze.
 * Advanced Burn Kit/Ointment: Used to treat burns and prevent infections. Much like their brute damage counterpart, Advanced Burn Kits are superior to ointment because they heal injuries quicker and disinfect better.
 * Syringe: For injecting medication. To change the transfer rate, right-click or alt-click on a syringe. To change if it's drawing or injecting, click on DRAW or INJECT.
 * Roller bed: For transporting patients. Click on the roller bed while it's in your hand to deploy it; to fold it up again, click and drag the deployed roller bed to you. To buckle someone to the bed, click and drag their sprite on to the roller bed.
 * Autocompressor: Essentially an automated CPR machine. To put it on a patient, remove the patient's backpack first. It is worth noting that autocompressors do not resuscitate a flatlined patient, and are only for keeping the heart going when blood isn't flowing properly. Much like CPR, an autocompressor can damage the ribcage and heart if it is left on for long enough.
 * Rescue bag: This is for transporting patients who are in hostile environments, such as space or a fire. Click on the folded bag to deploy it, and click on it while deployed to open it. You can also inject medicine through the bag via syringe.
 * Streamlined medical voidsuit: For when an area is depressurized, somebody got spaced, or the hangar is full of toxic gasses. See Internals and EVA for more details.

For Making Your Job Easier

 * Pry bar: For opening de-powered doors or emergency shutters.
 * Shortwave radio: For coordinating with other crewmembers and other medical staff when Telecommunications goes down.
 * Flashlight: For traversing maintenance shafts or the ship during a power outage.

Upgrades
Items that can be requested from Research & Development, and are highly useful in their own right.
 * Stasis bag: An even more effective version of the rescue bag, this places a patient into stasis, keeping them alive and relatively stable for longer. You can still inject medicine through it.
 * Hypospray: The Chief Medical Officer gets one of these by default; it instantly delivers 30u of medicine (or other chemicals) in a vial that can be switched out like magazines, like a more effective autoinjector.

Medicines To Keep

 * Inaprovaline: A general stabilizer; brings heart rate to an equilibrium, slows bleeding, provides limited blood oxygenation, and heals minor brain damage.
 * Dylovene: An anti-toxin that counteracts poisons and minor radiation damage, and heals minor liver damage.
 * Bicaridine: Heals brute damage. Do not inject during surgery.
 * Dexalin/Dexalin Plus: Supplies brain with oxygen even after lungs have failed.
 * Kelotane/Dermaline: Usually mixed together in a 1:1 ratio called KeloDerm. Treats burns and prevents infections.
 * Tramadol: A painkiller, injected when the patient is in shock from pain.

How To Save A Life
For an in-depth guide to TeguStation medical, see Guide to Medicine.

Step One: Heeding The Call
Your call to action can be found in a number of ways; a victim might shout "MEDICAL TO [LOCATION]" over comms, a Physician, or yourself might note somebody with abnormal sensor readings, or you're scavenging maints for action figures and come across somebody silently bleeding to death. Either way, it's time to make your way to their location, and...

Step Two: Triage
Scan your patient with your health analyzer. Rarely, you can treat them on-site. Most of the time, you'll have to stabilize them for the trek back to the infirmary.

Patients that you should prioritize may have:
 * Weak, extremely weak, or fading brain activity: Your patient's brain is dying!
 * Major systemic organ failure: Multiple organs of your patient's are failing. Generally abbreviated as MSOF.
 * Arterial bleeding: Your patient is bleeding at an exponential rate.

Step Three: Stabilizing And Transport
Oh no, your patient has one or more of the above critical conditions, or the health analyzer says they're going into shock! Stay calm; panicking will only make the situation worse. Follow these simple steps: Remember; so long as the patient's brain is not dead, there's hope.
 * 1) Bandage any bleeding the patient has. You can generally assess where a bleeding wound (as well as any foreign bodies) by looking at someone. Shift-click to examine the patient and figure out where to target with your bandages.
 * 2) Inject the appropriate medicines. From highest to lowest priority:
 * 3) If your patient has low brain activity or arterial bleeding, inject Inaprovaline.
 * 4) If your patient has major organ failure, inject Dylovene.
 * 5) If both of the above are true, only inject Inaprovaline. (Mixing Inaprovaline and Dylovene will make Tricoradzine, which heals brute and burn damage slowly.)
 * 6) If your patient has obvious lung damage (i.e. is gasping), inject Dexalin/Dexalin Plus.
 * 7) If the readout says your patient is going into shock, inject Tramadol.
 * 8) Bring your patient to medbay. Buckle your patient to a roller bed or zip them into a rescue/stasis bag to transport them. DO NOT DRAG YOUR PATIENT; this will only make their wounds worse. If you must, use grab intent on them to move them without worsening their condition.

Step Four: Supporting Your Physician
So you brought your patient to the infirmary without them dying. Good job! Give them to a physician and describe the patient's condition. The physician will generally do a more in-depth scan with the Body Scanner to determine what needs to be done. If the physician brings the patient into one of the operating theaters, it's your job to push the body scan to the displays in the surgery room so the doctor isn't flying blind. You can do this by pressing the 'Push Scan To Displays' button on the Body Scanner pop-up.

In case your physician asks you to help stabilize a patient during surgery, you will need to have your medications and possibly a defibrillator ready, in case of flatline or low blood oxygenation. Remember not to inject any medicines that heal brute damage during surgery; this will heal an incision.