It's a scientifically documented fact that murder and suicide rates go up in hot weather. Violent crime reports nearly double in urban areas during the summer months. In fact, the famous serial murderer Richard Ramierez operated almost exclusively during the summertime. There are more reported cases of road rage, and more domestic assaults. I never thought to wonder why that was, I simply accepted it as fact and went on with my life. Heat does strange things to people, but I never had any more than a passing interest in the cause or effects - just that it happened.I never gave it a second thought, that is, until the air conditioning on the seaQuest broke. Heat does strange things to people on land, then it certainly does much stranger things to people underwater. Within days, there were more. bizarre. happenings than I've ever seen on this boat. First Lucas and I have to work to reprogram the language base for Lucas' vo-coder. I don't think I've ever seen the boy that frustrated - not that I can entirely blame him, of course. Then, just as I'm starting to believe we're making some headway, in come Leslie Farina and that monkey of his. Of course all that commotion distracted Lucas (although I can't particularly blame him with that either). I'm surprised we got the language base back at all after that little fiasco.
If people act strange when the weather turns hot, do they also act strange when the weather turns from hot to cool again, as it did so suddenly on the seaQuest? It seems as though it was barely two days after the new thermal chip was installed on B deck before I was called to do the hardest medical procedure of my entire career. Not hardest because of the technical difficulty of the procedure (although there were several complications), but hardest because of the nature of the injury and the patient involved.
Lucas.
He had lost nearly his entire blood volume, and his body wasn't able to compensate. Thus, when he was brought in, he was in severe shock, extremely close to death. His respiration was almost nil, and his blood pressure and heart rate were - and still are - dangerously low. I immediately checked the ABCs, just like I was taught my first day of medical school.
A. Airway. Lucas' wasn't blocked, but it was in danger of closing if he lost any more blood, making his body begin to shut itself off. I intubated before I even checked the B part of the basics.
B. Breathing. Although it looked disturbingly as though he was not breathing at all, there were very, very faint breath sounds upon closer inspection. I had Lewis work the manual air pump while I finished the primary survey.
C. Circulation. The main vein in Lucas' left arm was slit open from his wrist to his mid-forearm. This meant, quite simply, that the blood being pumped through his body was not returning to the heart. Instead, the blood that was supposed to be travelling through the veins to his heart was instead spilling onto the floor, where it does no good to anyone.
There was a great deal of initial shock at seeing Lucas in that particular state. I've had to deal with several medical "crises" in the time I've known Lucas -- mono, pneumonia, various colds and flues that seemed to affect every crewmember at the same time -- but never have I had to treat him with more than an antibiotic and some rest. Never a grievous injury, and never anything self-inflicted.
The shock had to be pushed aside, however. There was not enough time for my lab technicians to run a blood type cross-match for a transfusion, so I simply had them bring me as much type-O blood as we had in stock. I could only pray that it would be enough to bring Lucas back from the edge. The cut was tricky to stitch up, because of the damage to the blood vessels, but it was possible. We finished as fast as possible, since logically we couldn't start pumping new blood into his body until there was a closed path.
After the suturing, we administered a compound designed to speed up blood cell production, and I went to talk to Captain Bridger. I told him as much as I could, and gave him the best prognosis I could given the circumstances. I simply told him that Lucas was in severe shock because he had lost more blood than his body could replace, and that we were doing everything we could to speed up the healing process and to make sure he was comfortable.
I know when he wakes up (I refuse to entertain the "if he wakes up" scenario), we're going to have to deal with the fact he obviously attempted to kill himself. For now, however, we have nothing to do but wait.
Heat does do strange things to people.