Love Conquers All

Posted on 05 May 2012 @ 8:33am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D.

2,913 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Sickbay
Timeline: MD 05 - 1700 hrs

[ON]

As her duty shift finished, Lirha left the bridge in Commander Holliday's care and quickly made her way towards her quarters. Once she arrived, she took a long and relaxing sonic shower and reflected on their current assignment. Despite the warp core malfunction, Galileo's journey had gone relatively smoothly so far and she was happy with everyone's performance. Her mind slowly shifted to the one matter which was still upsetting her, the condition of her friend Dru. Lirha had checked on her periodically over the past two days, she hadn't been given an exact timetable for the counselor's condition. As captain of the Galileo and as her friend, Lirha needed to know if there had been any updates in her condition, and decided to visit sickbay to speak to the medical officer on duty.

It was a short ride in the turbolift down to Deck 4 after which Lirha walked down several corridors until she arrived at the large gray doors to sickbay. The doors parted with a swish as the captain stepped inside where she quickly found the counselor resting quietly on the far biobed, not looking much different than when she had last seen her. Lirha looked around the quiet room for any signs of a medical officer.

Studying the PADD infront of her, Pola tried to take in the information but it wasn't working. Sitting back in her chair she found she had too much on her mind. At first her promotion to CMO had been joyous, an achievement but now reality had set in. Now she was nolonger just an emotional support for this crew, she was in charge of them. She was in charge of duty shifts, making sure equipment was running correctly, handling requisitions...everything under the roof that she had so easily passed off before. Then there was Dru, her condition hadn't changed and to be honest, the Doctor found she was starting to worry.

Hearing a noise in main sickbay, Pola stood up and moved to the door way only to be confronted with a green skinned woman who could only be one person..the Captain. Nervously straightening her jacket, Pola fixed a smile on her face and moved towards the woman. "Hello. I'm Doctor Ni Dhuinn, can I be of any help?"

"Hello, Doctor." Lirha replied in a friendly voice. She took notice of the new medical chief who she had yet to officially meet. Doctor Hilyer's departure had been rather sudden and unexpected, and she hadn't had time to officially meet his replacement. With black hair similar to her own and grey eyes, she was an attractive and fit woman of average height and athletic build. "I came to check on Lieutenant McCarthy and get an update on her condition." she said as she glanced over at the sleeping woman.

Watching her Captain, Pola wondered why the woman was here. Regular updates had been provided to the XO as Drusilla had been senior staff. Also it was responsibility fell to the XO to keep the family updated. Certain Lirha must have had her reasons, the Doctor invited the woman to follow her to where they had the counsellor being carefully monitored. Pola found it easier to explain if she could use the monitors for reference, especially where she was speaking to someone who may get easily confused with medical references. "In all honesty there is no updates. Can you tell me how much your currently aware of and I can take it from there?"

Lirha followed the doctor to the biobed and stood on the opposite side facing her. "I was told she suffered a severe concussion and had to undergo emergency surgery." she said, then sighed and looked down at the sleeping woman. "And that she is in a comatose state...indefinitely." she added, her voice betraying a hint of sadness.

Nodding her head, Pola found herself curious as to why there was an element of sadness in Lirha's voice. Shrugging it off, the Doctor moved a monitor so as it was in Lirha's range of sight. "It was a little bit more then a concussion. Drusilla had two impact zones on her brain were damage was present. In one place her skull was pushed in, meaning surgery had to be done to relieve the pressure. The second sight, the brains itself was damaged at the back." Taking a slight breath, Pola prepared to delivery the worst of the news."When I preformed surgery on the second location I found a pre-existing condition. She had a slow bleed on the brain which may have occurred over the last few days, if anything the bang she had to the head may have saved her life."

Inside, Lirha cringed as the blue-collared woman explained, in detail, the severity of Dru's injuries. The poor counselor was lucky to be alive and Lirha silently cursed the spirits for allowing such a horrible accident to occur to one of her friends. In addition, she didn't quite understand the last part of the doctor's diagnosis. "Pre-existing condition?" she asked quietly with a raised eyebrow.

Nodding her head, Pola brought up a copy of Drusilla's brain waves so as to check how she was getting on. "Drusilla had what's called subarachnoid hemorrhage." Pola paused for a moment as she tried to process how to explain this in plain english. "Basically a small bleed occurs in the brain which over time builds and builds, forming clots which can be dangerous, aswell as the bleeds themselves being dangerous. The problem is that this kind of issue cannot be detected unless it is specially looked for. Warning signs would be bad headaches, nausea, loss of appetite, a stiff neck. You may have heard the word aneurysm before? This essentially has a ruptured aneurysm."

"Have you been able to fully repair the hemorrhage?" the captain asked as her eyes traveled to the nearby monitor which displayed Dru's vital signs.

Pola nodded her head, "All the damage has been repaired and things had looked well but the energy the brain uses in order to function...well it got drained down for want of a better way to explain it. You'll notice that we are breathing for her..this occurred because her brain went into a hibernation. There is still brain activity, you can see it here on the monitors but it is only the bare minimum."

Pausing for a few moments, Pola placed her hand on Drusilla's shoulder, looking down into the woman's face."She's a fighter Ma'am. She's gotten this far I feel she will get further."

Hearing the medical chief's optimistic outlook put Lirha more at ease and she let a slow smile spread across her lips as she too glanced down at the sleeping woman. "She looks comfortable," she said, "Is she in any pain?"

"It's hard to tell. Part of testing if a person is in a coma is carrying out a comparison of certain tests against what is called the Glasgow Coma Scale. It's an extremely old fashion way of doing things but the brain is still such an unknown organ to us. Part of the test is seeing how a person responds to pain, nothing to dangerous, just things like pressing on the pad of the nail. She came up with a completely negative response." Pola raised her hand, to move it through her hair, letting out a long breath.

"I'm sorry if this is all extremely technical, everything I'm trying to explain."

"It's alright, Doctor," Lirha began, "I get the gist of it." she said, then took Dru's hand in hers and gently squeezed it. "Is there...any way to predict when she will regain consciousness?" she asked in a hopeful voice.

Biting her lip Pola was uncertain how to respond. "In all honesty Ma'am.....there is no way to predict it. Literally speaking it is all up to Drusillla herself now on when she wishes to come back to us. We've done everything we can in the perspective of medical intervention." Looking across at the monitor Pola frowned as she noticed a sudden spike in the neurological levels which was there one minute but gone the next. Turning the monitor towards her, Pola pressed a few buttons to show the reading which had spiked, trying to figure out if it meant something.

As Pola spoke, Lirha felt a slight pressure in her hand and immediately looked down, staring at the counselor's hand which was wrapped in her green fingers. "Dru?" Lirha asked as she suddenly bent down closer to her. "Dru...wake up" she said louder, squeezing her hand in return and hoping for another sign of life. Optimistically, she looked up at Pola. "I think I just felt her move." she said, "Her hand just squeezed mine." she added with bright green eyes.

As Pola turned to Lirha an alarm suddenly sounded from the monitor, uncertain of what was happening, the Doctor grabbed and activated the scanner. The neurological levels had dropped back down to the levels Drusilla had been at for a few days. "Is she still holding your fingers?" As Pola watched she suddenly became aware of a gurgling noise coming from Drusilla's mouth. Realising what was happened, the Doctor grabbed the endotracheal tube while was enabling the counsellor to breath. Watching the chest movements, Pola waited for an outward breath and then started teasing the tube out from the woman's trachea, gently teasing it through so as to cause no damage.

"I don't know..." the captain replied as she gave Dru's hand a hard squeeze and a bit of a shake. The initial movement had been brief but Lirha swore that she had felt the counselor's hand move. Now, she couldn't feel anything. "Dru?" she repeated, staring down and watching the doctor pull the tube from her throat.

Meanwhile in the Depths of the Unknown

She could hear a voice. Lirha? Why was Lirha calling out to her. Trying to speak, Drusilla found she couldn't move her lips. As an awareness started to come about her, the counsellor started to realise she had no control over any of her basic functions. Her eyes wouldn't open, her limbs wouldn't move. Starting to feel a panic, she reached out to the one known in all of this...Lirha.

Feeling the Captain's hand in hers, Drusilla willed herself to squeeze her hand. The effort required made her feel so tired all of a sudden. Feeling the darkness press back down on her, Drusilla tried to cry out again Lirha I'm here. As the darkness descended she tried to hold onto Lirha but the darkness was too over powering.Lir....


Back in Sickbay

As the tube came out, Pola reactivated the sensor cluster above the biobed, carefully watching Drusilla's chest movements while waiting for the results. Leaving the counsellor's mouth open, and head tilted slightly back, the Doctor smiled as she realised Drusilla was breathing on her own. Bringing up the scans results, Pola noticed that the slight peak in the neurological levels was back but now remained stable. "It looks like Drusilla is starting to fight back."

Grabbing a pen light, Pola opened each of the counsellor's eyes for pupil reaction. Moving then to take one of her fingers, the Doctor pressed gently on the nail bed to test for any pain reaction. Noting no reaction for either the slight feeling of euphoria was quickly diminished. It was good news that Drusilla now had the ability to be able to breath on her own but she was still in a comatose state.

"Is she breathing on her own now?" Lirha asked. She had stepped back a bit to allow Pola the necessary room, but still kept a hold on Dru's hand.

Having forgotten that her Captain was standing there, Pola looked over at her from the monitor, noticing for the first time the woman was still holding Drusilla's hand. "She is indeed Ma'am. You mentioned earlier you felt her squeeze your hand? It looks like her brain had a raise in her neurological levels, basically the energy required to run the body. It looks like it was focused into moving her hand but re-diverted in order to enable the body to be able to start breathing again."

Running a hand across her hair, Pola smiled at Lirha. "All in all it's positive Ma'am. We'll closely monitor her to see if anything else changes in the meantime."

Lirha sighed, finally letting go of Dru's hand and stepping back. She looked up at the doctor and gave her a nod. It was great to see Dru making progress, and Lirha couldn't help but think that the counselor was on the verge or regaining consciousness. Of course, there was no way to be certain, but she felt much more reassured than she had five minutes ago. "Thank you, Doctor." she said. "You'll keep me informed of any updates to her condition?" she asked, though it was more of an expectation than a question.

"Lira..." Pola stopped as she realised her mistake, she might be able to get away with calling the XO Jonathan but the CO wouldn't be a good idea to push. "Ma'am.....I don't want to butt in or anything as it's none of my business but....I know you've visited her quite abit. It's good to have people who care about her around her, as silly as it sounds it gives her something to come back to."

Clearing her throat, as she tried not to overstep her boundaries. "Don't be afraid to talk to her, they say that sometimes people in a coma can still hear and recognise voices. I know I'm a Doctor and I believe in facts but I can't deny...it's weird that her first progression was to squeeze your hand instead of just breathing..maybe it means something."

"I hope you're right." the captain replied in a sincere voice. Though still unconscious, the counselor had indeed made great progress in the few minutes that Lirha had been in sickbay. Perhaps the doctor was right, and Dru could hear or feel Lirha's presence. Regardless, it had just become a bright point in the captain's day, and she knew she could finish the rest of the day with her mind hopeful and at ease. "Well, I must get going, Doctor." she finally said to Pola. "I trust everything in Medical is running smoothly and you're adjusting to your new role?" she inquired.

Nodding her head, Pola felt slight relief at the change of subject. She still know this woman well and didn't want to overstep any boundaries. "I'm just in the process of finalising the last of the senior staff's medicals. I had our chief of op's here just before you left and I believe I'm grabbing our XO just at the end of Beta shift. The good news is there's been no major issues as of yet."

Pausing to allow the Captain to respond, Pola frowned as she suddenly remembered something, "I know you had your medical before the ship left Earth but am I correct in saying your due a renewal of your pheromone suppressant?"

"Yes, I suppose it's about that time." she replied with a sigh, then folded her arms and waited patiently for the doctor to retrieve the hypospray. It had indeed been seven days since her last injection on Earth, and it was probably best for her to not be giving off powerful pheromones on the bridge during stressful situations.

Retrieving the required vial of the suppressant from the replicator, Pola retrieved a hypospray to place it in before moving up to Lirha's side, pressing the hypospray against the side of the Captain's neck. "Any issues with the pheromones or anything else you need to talk to me about?"

Lirha rubbed the side of her neck, more out of habit than discomfort. "No," she replied, "Nothing that comes to my mind at the moment." she said, then paused to consider the injection she just recieved. "Although, it would be nice to not have to come to sickbay every week...is there some sort of longer-term solution to my pheromone suppressant? I asked Doctor Hilyer about it briefly while we were in San Francisco, and he hinted at the possibility of such an alternative." she said.

Tugging her hair out of it's bun, Pola raised her hand to run her fingers through it, deep in thought."In all honesty I'm not aware of anything but it's not my area of expertise. What I can do is once I have sickbay in order and everyone's medicals up to date, I can take a look over Robin's notes and conduct some research, see if I can find anything. Would that be ok?"

"That would be great, thank you, Doctor." she replied with a smile. "I will be back later tonight to check on the lieutenant. See you then?" she asked in a light voice as she headed for the door.

"I'm here until 0000hours Ma'am...later knowing my luck so I surely will see you later." Smiling Pola gave a brief wave before turning back to her station to start a quick cleanup, anxious to get back to Drusilla to try figure out what exactly was going on.

[OFF]

--

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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