Posted by Fleet Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Sickbay- Letting Go

Posted by Civilian Sair Songz (Counselor) in Sickbay- Letting Go

Posted by Lieutenant Ben Hudson (Chief Medical Officer) in Sickbay- Letting Go
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻
A Kobliad male appeared in Sickbay with a Kobliad female in his arms. One of the nurses, Syeda Castillo, recognized Sair’s mother, Kel, from the time Kel had helped out Sair during the strange aging thing. She rushed over to help them get to a biobed.

“Sair is on her way,” Sal said and the nurse nodded. She had given the counsellor her deuridium injections a couple of times and while she wasn’t going to get in the way, she also knew just enough that she should stay close.

Sair appeared, rushing in with a bag. She said very little as she adjusted the biobed monitors and then pulled out items from the bag. The first was the soft thick blanket that her mother preferred and she draped it gently. She took Kel’s hand. “Hey, we have you, okay?” she said with all the certainty she truly felt.

“She’s right,” Sal said, taking her other hand.

Kel nodded, even as she struggled to take in fuller breaths.

Sair’s eyes flicked to the readouts and she had been correct: her mother’s neurological responses were deteriorating rather quickly. It meant that her brain was having a hard time controlling her body and everything would begin to shut down. “You let me know what you feel you need.”

“I will. Not yet. But I am in some pain,” Kel said.

“I can give you something for that.” Sair moved over to grab a hypospray.

~Sair Songz, CNS

The doors to Sickbay slid open and Coxhrane walked in. He looked at the assembled Songz family and then quietly took a seat on the other side of the room.

Cochrane, CO

Sair acknowledged Alex with a nod and then administered a strong painkiller. There was no point in going in softly. After a few moments, Kel was able to draw in a bigger breath, even if it still seemed strained.

Ben stepped from around the corner, having heard Kel and Sal enter the sickbay. He kept quietly to one side of the, tapping in a few commands into a console. A holographic privacy screen quietly materialised, affording the family a bit of privacy should anyone else come into the recovery ward. Ben knew that this wasn’t something that Kel would recover from, but it was the most appropriate part of sickbay to use.

He caught Sair’s eye long enough to let her know that if there was anything she needed, he was there to help.

Lt. Hudson
Chief Medical Officer

She nodded at him and then went back to looking over the readings. After a few moments, Sair grabbed a blanket from the warmer and draped it over her mother. “Rest if you can,” she said softly.

Cochrane walked over to the CMO and said softly “How long do you think it will be, Doctor? I want to make sure we have everything prepared for the Songzs so that the… transition… will be as smooth as possible for them.”

Cochrane, CO

Sair stepped away and over to Alex and waved Ben over.

“So, as I suspected, she’s started to go through organ failure. On Kobliad, we have protocols for how we handle this final stage, and one thing is that long before we get to this point, the patient sets out their medical directives. I just want to make sure that we’re all good here, because for Kobliads this final stage is always very painful and denies people dignity. Long ago we made sure that we did everything we could to help people maintain that dignity and have a death that was in some way in their control. So, as many people write down in a legal fashion, my mother has been very specific about which point she wishes her doctor, me in this case, to let her go. We usually use a strong barbiturate that completes the organ shut down while she’s sedated. She will feel nothing of it. We’re not quite there yet, but probably sometime in the next twelve hours or so. And legally we need another doctor as witness.” She did not plan on debating or arguing this path, but she wanted to make sure they understood what was going on so it didn’t become a big deal at that time.

~Sair Songz, CNS

Ben nodded. He was familiar with the early 21st Century debates about whether euthanasia was compatible with the Hippocratic oath; and indeed, the debates hadn’t stopped there, with different professionals’ beliefs and cultures all having a say. Ben, however, he disliked the thought of someone who was clearly terminally ill having to endure inhumane suffering against their wishes.

“Of course, Sair.” he said, sympathetically. “If I can take a look over your mother’s wishes, as well as the latest scans, I will be the witness.”

Lt. Hudson
Chief Medical Officer

“Thank you,” she said softly and Sair went and grabbed a PADD, uploading three sets of scans, plus Kel’s medical directive. She returned and handed the PADD to Ben Her mother’s boarding scans, ones from a week ago, and the ones she just took. It showed a steady progression of the deuridium treatments inability to maintain Kel’s cell structures. Her current readings showed low grade fever, tachycardia, and tachypnea, with the breathing problems being the trigger for her to come to Sickbay. Her ABG (arterial blood gas) was sitting currently at 62. (close to needing supplemental air). Her directive stated she would accept oxygen, but not if she was not cognizant. She was very clear that she wanted to be conscious and fully aware when the final decision was made. She had also told Dr. Winters (and it was noted) that if she was not able to make the decision herself that Sair was her medical proxy.

“It was likely that this was not the first signs of her current symptoms and her lungs will fail first. Based on the many cases I’ve seen, as soon as we give supplemental air, we don’t want to go more than a couple hours before acting. The pain gets pretty bad after that.” Sair spoke softly, though there was a professional poise present. After all, this was all too familiar territory for her. She had been through this process with hundreds of patients. The only difference this time was that this was a family member. Some might think that changed the scenario, and it did in some areas, but there had never once been a patient death that didn’t affect her. The ones that were easier were actually ones like this where they could make it as peaceful as possible. The ones that had ripped her apart were too awful to speak of. She did not want that for Kel Songz. “If you would like to speak to her about it, you can. She’s able to talk. Just quite tired, and I’ve administered 15 mg of triptacederine for her pain, so it’ll take a few minutes for that to fully kick in.”

~Sair Songz, CNS

Cochrane looked at Said and said “I will be back in a few minutes.” and he walked out of Sickbay.

It was several minutes later when Cochrane returned. In his hand he held a fist-sized octagonal crystal on a dark metal base. He walked to Sair and said “Here. I thought your mother might like this.” and he held out the crystal and touched the base. Three stars… two white and one blue… floated in a celestial ballet in the holo he held in his hand. The white stars were similar in size, with the blue one being slightly larger. The white ones were orbiting the blue one, and rivers of stellar energy and bits of star debris spiraled around them all, wrapping them in blue-white ribbons that filled the empty space around them with light, light that seemed to flow away from the three stars in one direction on the far side of the image where the black hole absorbed it. The image even showed the black hole in all of it’s glorious fury… the Songz-Manhattan System.

Cochrane, CO

“Oh,” Sair whispered, entranced. That late night on the bridge after their dinner sprang to mind, and that beautiful moment with her mother and son as they all witnessed the extraordinary event with the crew was right there in front of her. She gave Alex a soft smile. “Thank you, I think she will too.”

Sair brought over the crystal and set it on an overbed table and slid it to the side so it was in view for Kel. She didn’t want the table in the way of caring for her mother, but it still needed to be in clear sight so Kel didn’t need to move her head too much. Her father smiled. “And there is that beautiful view.”

“A beautiful view that we now have beautiful music for,” Sair said.

~Sair Songz, CNS