“Waine said a good miniature - which is what I want,” and he patted his breast pocket to show the intended site of the painting, “by an artist is priced at four marks. Is that correct?” Iantine nodded, unable to speak for the lump in his throat.
Surely M’leng was dramatizing matters? Or was he? In the background, Iantine could hear T’dam advising his listeners on the types and severity of injuries and the immediate aid to be given to each variety.
What a bizarre, and cruel, lecture to give to the weyrlings!
And yet - the thought stopped him - was it not kinder to be truthful now and ease the shock of what could possibly happen?
“This evening?” M’leng said firmly.
“This very evening, M’leng,” Iantine agreed, nodding his head.
When the green rider had left him, it took the young artist some long moments before he could return to his sketching.
Well, this was one thing he could do as a gift to the Weyr for all their kindnesses to him - he could leave behind a graphic gallery of everyone currently living in Telgar Weyr!
Fort Hold
Classes were also being held that same day in Fort Hold. in the College assembly room, Corey, as Head Medic, was conducting a seminar for healers from all over Pern who had been flown in for a three-day clinic. This included a first-aid session dealing with both human and dragon injuries. She was assisted by the Fort Weyr medic, N’ran, who had originally studied animal medicine before he had inadvertently Impressed brown Galath. Galath, on this occasion, was outside, enjoying the sun, while a green dragon, who was small enough to fit in the Hall, was being used for demonstration purposes much as Ormonth was at Telgar Weyr.
“Now we have been able to duplicate the records of Doctors Tomlinson, Marchane and Lao which include some fading photos of actual injuries. Lunch is fortunately sufficiently in the future,” she said with a quirky smile. Then her expression turned sober. “The verbal descriptions are worse, but it’s necessary to impress on all those who have to deal with a man began and his ground injuries how incredibly fast,” she ticked off one finger, how horrendous Thread is,” another and then with a sigh, “and how quickly we must act to…” her pause was longer now, “…to limit suffering.”
Murmurs answered her and she could see that some of the audience had paled. Others looked defiant.
“From what I, and my staff,” and she indicated those in the front seat, “have determined, there is little option. The alternative of getting into cold between as the dragons can is not available to us.”
“Yes?”
“Why not? If that’s an alternative…”
“For them, not us,” she said firmly. “Because all the records emphasize the speed with which Thread consumes organic material. Too swiftly to call a dragon, even if any were available, in your locale. A whole cow goes in less than two minutes.”
“Why, that’s not even time to…” voice trailed off.
“Precisely,” Corey agreed. “If a limb is scored, there’s the chance it could be amputated before the organism spreads over the body.”
“Shards! You can’t just…” another man began.
“If survival means loss of just a limb, it can be done.”
“But only if you’re right there.” Corey recognized him as a practitioner in a large hold in Nerat.
“And many of us will be right there,” Corey said firmly, “with the ground crews, sharing their dangers and hopefully saving as many as we can.”
She managed a wry smile. “Any body of water handy is useful since Thread drowns. Quickly, according to reports. Depending on the site of the injury, water can impede the ingestion long enough for an amputation to be performed. Even a trough is sufficient.” She glanced down at her notes. “Thread needs oxygen as well as organic material. It drowns in three seconds.”
“What if it’s burrowed into flesh?”
“Three seconds. Flesh does not have the free oxygen necessary for Thread life. Ice, too, can retard progress, but that isn’t always available either.
“Let us assume that we have, somehow, halted the organism’s progress but we have a bad scoring and/or an amputation. Numbweed, numb weed numb weed And bless this planet for inventing something it didn’t know we’d need so badly. In the case of an amputation, of course, proceed with standard practices, including cautery. That at least would eliminate any final vestige of Thread. There will be significant trauma so fellis recommended if the patient is still conscious.
She glanced down at her notes. “Tomlinson and Marchane also indicate that the mortality rate, due to heart failure or stroke, is high in Thread injuries. Lao, who practiced until the end of the First Pass, notes that often patients who had received slight scores, successfully treated, died from the pathological trauma of being scored. In preparing our groups for this problem, do stress that Threadscore can be successfully treated.”
“If we can move fast enough,” a man said facetiously.
“That’s why it’s important for a medic to accompany as many ground-crew teams as possible. And why first-aid procedures must be taught to every Hold and Hall within your practice. There are only so many of us, but we can teach many what to do and cut down on fatalities.
“And,” Corey went on, “we must emphasize that all nonessential personnel is to STAY safely indoors until ground crews report the area safe.
“Now, we will go on to dragon injuries since these, too. will occur and those of us on the spot may need to assist the dragon and rider. They will have the one advantage we can’t provide - the chance to go between and freeze the attacking organism.
“But the score will be just as painful.
“The larger proportion of draconic injuries are to the wing surfaces… if you please, Balzith,” and she turned to the patient green dragon and she obediently extended her wing as the medic conducted that section of her lecture.
When they had adjourned for lunch, prior to discussing other problems - such as hygiene and sanitation within small and medium holds where the amenities were not as efficient as in the larger population centers, Corey was approached by Joanson of South Boll and Frenkal of Tillek Hold, both senior medics.
“Corey, what is your position on… mercy?” asked Joanson in a very thoughtful tone.
She regarded the tall man for a long moment. “What it has always been, Joanson. We have, as you realize, quite a few persons in this audience who have not received full medical training. I cannot ask them to do what I would find very, very difficult to do: administer mercy.” She gave Joanson a long stare, then glanced at Frenkal who seemed to enjoy the ethical spot she was in.
“We are sworn to preserve life. We are also sworn to maintain a decent quality of life for those under our care.” She felt her lips twitch, remembering that there were occasions when those two aims were in conflict. “We must, each of us, reflect on how we will face such a desperate situation: whether to cut short a final agony is necessary, even ethical. I don’t think there will be much time to consider morals, ethics, kind or cruel, at the time we are forced to take action.”
She paused, took a deep breath. “I do remember seeing the tapes the Infirmary used to have, showing very graphically an animal being eaten alive by Thread…” She noticed Joanson’s wince.
“Yes, eaten alive because Thread caught the hind end of it. I think, if it was someone you knew, you’d opt for the quickest possible end to that.” Since they were not the only two who approached her on that subject, she was almost glad when the lunch break ended and she could address the less vexious matter of amputation.
Everyone needed a refresher on that procedure, especially an emergency type of operation when there might not be time for all the preliminaries that made for a neat stump. She did have the new bone cutters - well, more axes than the traditional surgical tool - for distribution afterwards. Kalvi had brought them with him.