Part 7: 8: Life and Death

Chapter 1-8: Life and Death





When we last left off, Derek had to run or taxi or whatever his way back to Hope, because there was an accident and there are literally zero surgeons available tonight for some reason.





Angie: The patient... He was suffering cardiac arrest, and... and... I couldn't resuscitate him! The other nurses are busy, and... with Dr. Kasal gone, I can't... Wh-what am I supposed to do? The patient's going to die! But, I can't... I can't even...

Knowing this place, the other nurses are busy playing poker.

Derek: Calm down, Angie! Take me to the O.R.

Angie: O-okay...



Finally, a real operation! My go-to source (that one blog from 2006) points out "Ex-ER and current House, M.D. actor Omar Epps" and "Scrubs actor Neil Flynn." I don't know if either of those guys are still on their shows, though.

Derek: What's the situation?

Angie: The ambulance brought him here as soon as they could. His heart isn't beating... I tried reviving him, but-

You can't live for more than a few minutes once you undergo cardiac arrest, so I sure hope this wasn't long ago.

Derek: Angie!

Angie: What do I do!? I need help! I...



Angie: D-Dr. Stiles...

Derek: The only person who needs help here is the patient, and we're the ones who are going to help him. It's up to us, and only us. We're going to save him. I can't do this without you, Angie. I want to save his life.

"I want to repeat myself over and over when he could already be quite dead."

Derek: Pretend this is a normal procedure. Calm down; think things through.

Angie: F-first we need a pulse. We need to get a pulse.

Derek: Understood!





OPERATION VIDEO
Gamevee
Viddler

I was messing around with auto-duck in Audacity for this one, so the game audio is louder but fades out when there is commentary. I can't say if people will like this or care, but I wanted to tinker with it, so here it is.

Watch the video or read the captions. Or both, if you really want.



No medical drama would be complete without the defibrillator. I don't think they actually work on cardiac arrest in the real world, but this game sure hasn't shown any realism so far, so why go against such a long-standing convention?



To use this baby, you first physically move the Wii Remote and nunchuck towards the screen. This is not very comfortable. Next, the pink bar will fill and empty, as shown here. You have to press B and Z at the same time when it's in the green to revive the patient. You can also hit the light gray twice. The dark gray gets you nothing. You need to use this as few times as you can for the special bonus here.

In UtK, the mechanic was totally different. You had a little bar that moved up and down the patient's chest, which you needed to first gel and then follow with the hand to gently massage the heart back on. This was interesting, because you started with, I think, a minute on the clock, which got boosted up to five whenever you got the heart started again. If you cleared all those cuts before massaging, you'd end up saving that much time for your score. SO wrests control from you for the defibrillator, so you can't cheat like that on the Wii.

Anyway, let's light this bitch up.



Woo!



Angie: ......! Vitals are still below 30! He's not in the clear yet.

Derek: That sounds more like the Angie I know.

Angie: Dr. Stiles... are we going to save him?

Derek: Of course we are.

Angie: Understood!

Now you can suture all those cuts.



Angie: Bleeding seems to have stopped, but his vitals are dropping fast! He suffered a lot of damage to his chest... what else could it be? Perform a lobectomy! I think there might be something in his chest!



Oh. That's bad.

Angie: Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you have the skill to treat it like this. We recovered his pulse, so maybe we should wait for Dr. Kasal's help. ...No, the longer we wait, the lower his chances of survival. I don't know what to do! Either way, I won't blame you. This is your decision.

And I think we can tell what that decision will be: kick some surgical rear end.



This bit was a hell of a lot less forgiving on the DS. If you didn't stop to gel the wounds you basically had no chance. Here you can just rush in and start pulling glass with no regard to safety whatsoever. I think I like it this way more.



After that, you need to do this again.



And now, the medical boss fight:



One HUGE piece of glass. You have to be careful that you get the thing completely out before you go for the tray. Once it's dealt with, you just suture the wound.



Finally, the patient is sav-



Oh, what the hell?

But suddenly...!









Angie: (H-He sutured the myocardium in a split second!) I-I think we're finished. Let's close him up.



Angie: I froze, and all I could think about was running away. But, you didn't worry at all. You stood your ground, and did what needed to be done. You... you are a real doctor.





And that's another one down. I'm not too confident on my score this time, either.



This level only has three bonuses, with a 1000 points no-miss clause being the one I screwed up(I'm not actually very good at taking out shards. Don't tell anyone.)



...Not that the game shows any mercy on you if you get a miss. UtK2 is the only game in a series that seems to be well-balanced in terms of ranks. In most of the others it's almost down to C or S/XS.



Derek: His condition's stabilized for now. Let's keep an eye on him.

Angie: Yes, doctor.

Derek: We need to contact the other doctors, and-

Angie: I'm way ahead of you. Most of the off-duty staff have agreed to come in. I also called Dr. Kasal.

Derek: Good work. Thank you.

Angie: You should get some rest. We were in surgery for a long time.

But I only had a five-minute time-limit.

Derek: Yeah. If it's okay with you, I think I'll do that.



Angie: Yes?

Derek: Everything you said this morning was true. But... I'm going to stay here as a doctor. I'm going to try harder. I'll become a better surgeon, and make you proud.

Angie: If that's the case, stop coming into work late, and don't leave without doing your paperwork.

Derek: I'll do my best.

Even in his moment of humility, Derek can't 100% commit to buying an alarm clock.

Angie: And there's one other thing...

Derek: Huh?



Angie: I shouldn't have to worry about being embarrassed to work with you.

Derek: Heh... I'll be more careful.



Angie: I understand. Have a good rest... Dr. Stiles.

End of Chapter 1-8

And that's the entire first chapter. It's also the only one with it's own story-arc, that doesn't just end at an arbitrary point.

If you only played Under the Knife, the next episode will be interesting for you: It's the first Wii-exclusive operation. Look forward to it!