First Aid for Fandom | Thursday, period 1

[sharp_man]

Class was back in the Danger Shop again, though there were no bodies here this time. Yet.

"Today," Hannibal announced to them, "we'll be discussing burns. Burns can be caused by heat, chemicals, electricity, or excessive sun exposure, and there are different degrees of them, each requiring its own sort of treatment."

He pressed a few buttons on the console, and now there was a body. Frederick Chilton, again. He had good skin for this sort of thing. Hannibal held up Chilton's arm. "A first-degree burn is characterized by red skin with no blisters." A few more buttons, and Chilton had a burned arm, ranging from a little pink at the shoulders to a deeper red by his wrist. "As you see, there is still a range of damage. It will hurt, and after a day or so, depending on the degree of damage, the injured skin may peel off."

He gestured at it. "This sort of burn affects only the first layer of skin, and is a very mild sort of damage. It will not require medical intervention, unless it should become infected or the pain is inconveniencing. For first aid, you can apply a cool - not cold - wrap, or an ointment or cream for pain. Avoid those with oil, as that may inhibit the healing. For these, you will have plenty of time to read the ingredients and recommended uses of any ointments you may have, as treating them is hardly urgent."

He let them observe the burns and finish taking notes.

"More serious than those are second-degree burns." A few button-presses, and Chilton's arm got worse. "These include further redness, blisters, and some thickening of the skin. The damage extends beyond the first layer of skin." He gestured at the blisters. "Because of the more open nature of these burns, it is important to keep them clean and bandaged properly as they heal, which may take several weeks. In severe cases, some medical intervention may be required, but for the most part, so long as the burns are not in sensitive areas or overly extensive, they will again only require cleaning, bandaging, ointment, and something for the pain."

Hannibal demonstrated the proper way to wrap a burn. "You don't want to use anything that will stick to the skin, and you want to ensure that you keep it clean. You can also apply cool compresses or water to them, gently."

After they had a chance to take those in, he continued. "Third degree burns are the next stage. These continue through every layer of skin, and are the most severe sort most people are likely to encounter. They are not, however, the most painful, as they are likely to involve nerve damage as well. Their appearance can vary depending upon their cause."

A few more buttons, and there were various sorts of burns on Chilton's arm. Hannibal pointed at each in turn. "They can be waxy and white, charred, dark brown, raised and leathery, or may have undeveloped blisters. These will require medical intervention if they are to heal without severe scarring. What you can do for these burns while you await help is move the person away from whatever has burned them, make certain no clothing is stuck to the burn, clean any large and obvious foreign objects, and raise the injury," he pulled Chilton's arm up, "above their heart. If they are wearing anything in the burned area, remove it before the area swells. Keep an eye for other complications, such as blood loss or shock, and treat them if you can."

Some more button presses, and the students would probably be glad that Hannibal hadn't included smell in this lesson.

"A fourth-degree burn is one that continues through all the layers of the skin and the fat beneath it, and into the muscle or bone. Treat them the same as you would a third-degree burn, which is to say, get help. And until then, keep them clean and elevated if you can, and treat any secondary symptoms."

A few more buttons, and then Chilton was gone, and there was a city block again, although this time, rather than a generic disaster, there had fairly obviously been a large fire. "Go," Hannibal urged them. "Help whomever you can, call me or find one of the fictional doctors or EMTs in the area. Let me know if you have questions."

Comments

Class activity

[sharp_man]

Help out burn victims.

Re: Class activity

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot was going to help the burn victims. She had every intention of doing so, in fact.

Just as soon as she was done running around surveying the scenarios and satiating her curiosity, first. Wrapping her head around human tolerances for certain damaging factors was still something she hadn't had an opportunity to do.

... A few sim people might have burned completely away while she watched hawkishly and took thorough notes in order to better understand the process. It was okay, she figured, since they weren't real.

Re: Class activity

[sharp_man]

Hannibal chuckled. "Once they get to that point," he said, gesturing at the charred all-but-skeleton in front of her, "they generally can't be helped. You'll have to start sooner."

Re: Class activity

[era_two_triangle]

"I intend to," Peridot said, turning wide eyes toward Hannibal. "But I decided that it would be wiser to observe damage to this scale here, in a simulated environment, than to wait until I encounter it in a real situation where a person might need assistance. I have no frame of reference for..." She spread her hands at the sizzling... mess. "For any of this. Tolerances to varying amounts of heat, all of it."

She paused, then added, "Humans are far more fragile than I had realized."

Re: Class activity

[sharp_man]

Hannibal thought about it and nodded. "Quite right. I'll simply program a few more of them, so you have adequate numbers to assist as well as observe. And I can't deny human fragility - after all, humans can be burnt by excessive exposure to our own sun. Although that very rarely goes beyond second-degree burns."

Re: Class activity

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot was shaking her head a little, now.

"How do humans even exist?"

She asked this about once a week, honestly.

Re: Class activity

[sharp_man]

Hannibal chuckled. "Precariously. But there is an artistry to it."

Re: Class activity

[era_two_triangle]

"Why did it have to be art?"

Peridot's scientific mind didn't mesh well with art at all.

Now, if it was meepmorpistry...

Re: Class activity

[sharp_man]

Hannibal raised an eyebrow at her. "You don't approve of art?"

Re: Class activity

[notamascot]

"They're not real," Kaylin said. (Complained? Well, not exactly, she didn't actually want anyone hurt.) "It seems wrong to make this almost sort of a game."

As she did what she could to help the not-people who always seemed so weird to her.

Re: Class activity

[sharp_man]

"Generally a class like this would have you attempt to judge the severity of burns from photographs, then practice bandaging your classmates," Hannibal said. "It would offer no experience in handling actual burns or in dealing with your response to them. This," he waved at the fake street, "seemed a much more effective method, short of bringing you all to the site of an actual disaster."

Re: Class activity

[notamascot]

Kaylin might not have seen quite the variety of burns that were here, but some of the things she had seen would turn most people's stomachs. But it wasn't the same some how.

"I just... I don't feel anything," she said awkwardly. "Real people, if they're hurt... I know. This is... weird. There's just nothing there."

Re: Class activity

[sharp_man]

"Unfortunately, if there's a way to mimic the more spiritual or magical portions of people with this room, I haven't yet discovered it," Hannibal said. "Consider this a test of working without that knowledge. Gain what information you can through other means."

Re: Class activity

[notamascot]

Kaylin shrugged, "That's easy enough," and it was, for her, "Easier than for real because I don't have to think about anything else."

Re: Class activity

[sharp_man]

"Good." Hannibal nodded. "Then you can use this to hone those skills, so perhaps they'll be more automatic when you do have to think about other things."

Re: Class activity

[notamascot]

"Like running drills with the sergeant," she said with a sigh. "I know."

Re: Class activity

[greenexorcist]

Shiemi was wandering the scene, applying salve and bandages where she she could. She may have forgotten that it wasn't real...

Re: Class activity

[sharp_man]

That was fine; this exercise was more effective the more real it seemed. Hannibal watched and nodded to her.

Re: Class activity

[somethingwithturquoise]

These supplies were so clean! Summer had to marvel over them for a moment, because how cool was it going to be to patch wounds with sterilized shit instead of tears from bloody t-shirts? Sweet.

And, from that first one, she went into some kind of zone as she hurried between victims. Her patch and wrapping work was solid. Not great, but solid, and the thing was how fast she went. Maybe too fast, but her body felt that urgency to do what she could as fast as she can, before it was too late. When she reacjed a few victims she felt were beyond her help, she'd reach for her side, always a little surprised to not find her gun or her knife there to put the poor bastards out of their misery. But she'd realized what she'd done a second later, shook her head, muttered an apology, and went where she could be more helpful.

Re: Class activity

[sharp_man]

Hannibal watched for a little time, then approached her with a new roll of gauze when she was running low.

"You seem to be quite efficient at this. Would that have anything to do with why there was a robot version of you here these last several weeks?" he asked.

Re: Class activity

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Thanks," Summer, still in crisis-mode (honestly, it did seem super real), reached for the gauze and took it before his words really registered. Which meant that, once they did, she promptly dropped the roll.

"Shit!" she swore as she swooped down to pick it up quickly, before it could collect too much dirt, brushing off whatever stuck to it because it was still such a precious commodity in her brain. And then she looked up at Hannibal wide-eyed and a little guilty. "You figured it out, too, huh?"

It was proving to be quite an interesting game to find out who knew and who didn't.

Re: Class activity

[sharp_man]

Hannibal raised an eyebrow. He had, in fact, noticed that she smelled of metal and was acting oddly, but more importantly, he'd listened to radio that morning.

Still, there was no sense in letting her know outright.

"Would you care to discuss it?" he asked.

Re: Class activity

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer...might have forgotten the whole mentioning it on radio detail. She'd had a really busy and overwhelming week over here.

She considered his question for a moment, looking down at some of the bodies she'd patched up, nice, relatively healthy bodies compared to what she'd seen over the last month. Caught her lower lip between her teeth. Thought of how it would probably be good to talk about things, probably healthy, but that would mean, you know, talking about things...

"Mmmm," she said, brow wrinkling, "not really."

Re: Class activity

[sharp_man]

"In that case, I'll only insist upon it a little," Hannibal said, grinning. "I am professionally nosy," he pointed out, as if his profession was the reason, "but I am also extremely discreet, should you change your mind. I take confidentiality very seriously, and bribe the squirrels accordingly."

And he was hardly going to judge her for any past dietary indiscretions.

Re: Class activity

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer fidgeted, shifting her weight, eyes still cast toward the bodies on the ground rather than chancing to look at Dr. Lecter. After all, wasn't it not wanting to talk about things that had lead to the thing she didn't want to talk about in the first place? But then what? It wasn't like she could just be all oh, yeah, I personally CHOSE to stick around a war-torn nuclear apocalypse instead of dealing with my parents' divorce. I killed people...lots of people. Razed entire villages, tore apart communities because they looked at me funny or stepped into the wrong square of scorched earth. I killed people and ate them and made fashion accessories out of their body parts. We created civilization, and, once we got bored, we took it away in the blink of an eye. We were like gods, drunk on our own ambrosia. Oh, and I also got married to a dude I known for, like, five days, who wore a bucket on his head...

Yeah, right.

But she did give a hesitant, "I'll...keep that in mind," which wasn't an outright no, so...yay?