Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Side sim: Matters of the Heart

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Side sim: Matters of the Heart

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Side sim: Matters of the Heart
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
In Sickbay, Roman’s heart’s rhythm was returning to normal. Grat’s treatment to restore typical electrical impulses was working and the heart’s sinoatrial node was taking over natural pacemaking. The erratic heartbeats were becoming more organized and regular.

The deep tissue repair to the heart had repaired a lot of the damage to the heart’s muscular walls, but it still wasn’t strong enough to pump enough blood to the body without the support of the pulmonary support unit. When they tried to wean him off the support, his heart began to struggle under the strain. But he was stable as long as he was on the support, so they were just waiting for the heart to heal a little more so it could handle the demands of the body on its own.

The dermal regenerator had healed the damage to the muscles in his arms. The muscles in his chest would take another round. The electrical burns on his palms needed another couple of rounds to fully heal.

They were going to wait a few more hours before trying weaning him off the support unit again. By the time Morgan escorted Rand back, they were about ready to try again.

~ Roman

After spending all the time with Morgan that he did and being in medical, Randy was familiar with most of the security staff. When he came out, finally, to get Rand, he paused to see K’pok, Morgan’s shift partner standing very close to Rand but his focus on everyone but her. That was enough for Randy to feel sick. It had been deliberate. Or there was enough evidence to make them wonder.

Rand watched her brother make his way across the room. Her mind blissfully numb at the moment. Randy led her into the back, K’pok taking up a spot just outside the door. Rand stopped far enough inside the door shut. Randy put both hands on her shoulders holding her against him. Roman was unconscious, the biobed beeping at different frequencies and rhythms for all the things it was monitoring. His breath seemed laboured to her, but Randy assured her he wasn’t in pain. She couldn’t seem to look away from the pulmonary support system. Grat explained what had happened to Roman, medically anyway, and that they would start trying to wean Roman off of it soon. He left for a moment, giving them privacy.

He would also have explained that attempting to wean him off wasn’t a riskless procedure. Sometimes damaged hearts gave out instead of taking over. Especially if it wasn’t ready. That was why they waited so long in between attempts to wean him off it. He was still on the pain medication Grat had ordered as well as the medication to assist his heart, though that they were hoping to wean him off after they weaned him off the support unit.

Since she was his medical contact as well as his fiancée, it was also explained to her that the surgery had saved his life, but surgery involving hearts was very invasive. It wasn’t as bad as if they’d needed to do surgery on the heart itself, but they’d still had to do damage to the ribs in order to gain access to the heart cavity.

Rand didn’t need the details, she remembered. She also realized she could be asked to make very hard decisions for Roman. They’d never talked about it. “You..you..um…should do as much of the bone fuser and dermal regenerator sessions as you can while he’s asleep. He…uh…he,” her voice shook and tried to crack and she stopped talking. Randy squeezed her shoulder and she took an unsteady breath and sniffed. “He’s a horrible patient. He’ll fight about the treatments and…”

Randy rubbed his hands up and down her arms. “We know. Grat will keep him sedated until his heart is strong on its own. It doesn’t have to work so hard when you’re asleep.”

Great nodded, “Quite right. And he will get his treatments no matter awake or asleep. We won’t postpone them. I’ll leave you alone for a few minutes.”

Roman wouldn’t have put her down as his medical proxy if he didn’t trust her to do her best to do what he’d want, as well as what was best for him. And though he couldn’t tell her that now, he hoped she knew that. That whatever she did, he wouldn’t blame her for it.

Rand made her way over to the bed, Randy having taken her PaDD and set it down somewhere. She started to hold Roman’s hand but they were heavily bandaged and so she just clasped her hands in front of her. “Is that what I looked like?” Her voice was incredibly quiet, “In…in the hospital…after…?”

Randy held her in a hug, standing behind her, and kissed the top of her head. “Yeah. But you’re okay now and he will be too.”

Rand nodded her head but more because she didn’t know what else to do. Her hands wrapped around, hanging on to his forearms. “It was deliberate… someone sabotaged the machine he was using. I saw the incident report when I took Morgan some rosters and files she needed. She’s given me a security detail incase....incase they try to hurt me too.” Randy had already figured as much when K’pok was with her. Rand turned into her brother, crying silently but all encompassing.

Finally Randy made her sit, “Talk to him, he can hear you.” He left to get her water and something for the headache she would have.

Rand didn’t know what to say, she laid both her hands on his arm, carefully. “Roman, I love you.” She set her head on the edge of the mattress and cried quietly until Randy or Grat returned.

Rand

Roman seemed to react, though faintly, to her touch and her voice. They’d had to change him into a medical gown for the surgery, and there was a long, stitched up incision on his chest, over his heart, bandaged in order to protect it. He was still hooked up to the pulmonary support system, so there were tubes and wires connected to his chest. His breaths deep and even as he slept, kept under by the sedative medications they were keeping him on. His hands were heavily bandaged to protect the burned skin. Overall, despite his muscular body, he looked awfully frail and weak in the biobed, wired up to support with the machines and biobed monitoring his bodily functions. With the support of the machines, his heart rate sounded pretty close to normal. A monitor showed his blood pressure as normal.

It was about an hour before the medical staff returned to try weaning him off the support system, having wanted to give her time alone with him first.

~ Roman

The door opened and Rand turned quickly to see who it was. Randy came in first, and after rubbing her shoulder a moment, he handed her water and told her to drink it. Grat and Temple came in looking at the equipment and his vitals. Randy moved Rand out of the way to the head of the bed. Rand rested her hands on both his shoulders and whispered softly in his ear. Mostly in Gaelic because she didn’t want anyone to hear what she was saying. “Ròmanach, tha gaol agam ort. Tha thu gu bhith ceart gu leòr. Tha fios agam gu bheil thu oir tha thu tòrr nas làidire na tha mi. Tha m’ uile chridhe agad, agus bheirinn mo chridhe dhuit gus do thearnadh.”

And Roman if he were awake, would have told her he’d never want that, that he’d rather be gone himself than be without her.

While she was whispering, eyes closed, she couldn’t watch, Grat began trying to wean Alden off the machines.

Rand

It wasn’t a fast process, mostly because it needed to be done slowly in order to not overwhelm the heart and make it give out. As they worked, his vitals started to fluctuate. His breathing remained mostly even, but his heart rate started to go up and his blood pressure started to drop, so they had to slow down and wait to see if his vitals would stabilize. Last time they tried this they hadn’t and they’d had to abort the process. They waited several minutes and were about to abort when finally, his vitals started to go back to normal. After another several minutes, they went on. The whole process took two hours as they stopped like this each time. But at last, they were done, and when they finally turned the machine off, they watched his monitors with held breath to see what would happen.

And at first, it didn’t look good. His blood pressure dipped dangerously low, his heart pumping fast and hard to try to compensate. But then, things started to get better. First, the blood pressure started to come up, and then in response the heart started beating more normally. It looked like he was going to be okay, and after a couple more tense minutes, they felt confident enough to disconnect him from the support system entirely. But they’d be keeping a close watch on him for the next several hours at least to make sure things stayed that way.

Roman’s breaths were still deep and easy, his vitals holding steady on their own. Even once he was awake, he’d need to take it easy and let his heart rest. And most importantly, report any symptoms before they get out of hand. But he wasn’t awake yet. When to wean him off the sedatives was up to Grat.

~ Roman