Part 13: - A rare display of intelligence

13 - A rare display of intelligence

(Music: Routine)





"Please enter."

"Pardon me, but why was I called to your office?"

"Why don't you have a look at this examination report, first?"

"Who's this for?"

"Linda Reid."

"..What do these headings mean? I don't recognize them. 'Positive Chiral Reaction..?' GUILT: Positive. Spectral Analysis G1-R?"

"Those tests are beyond our capabilities, so we enlisted help from an outside organization. In the last few years, a bizarre disease with varying symptoms has been reported in several isolated cases. The one thing they had in common? Each victim's body turned against itself, and they all died. Because of that, we believe each subject was infected by GUILT. (Gangliated Utrophin Immuno-Latency Toxin)"

This acronym only exists in the English version, in which a member of the USA localization team took a medical textbook, flipped to the index, and chose the first words that came up that sounded interesting. The Japanese name for GUILT was ギルス (Girusu), or so I'm told, so just the transliterated english word "Guilt." "Gangliated" means to have ganglia nerve cells. "Utrophin" is a strange choice, its big brother "Dystrophin" is a structural protein that muscle cells need to survive - Utrophin occurs in usually only in human fetuses and is replaced, except in the cases of muscular dystrophy. "Immuno-," just means it relates to the immune system, "Latency" refers to a dormant period inside the host. Together it means that the immune system creates it, which is does, we'll see more of later. Finally, "toxin" means it is produced by a living organism such as a bacteria or a virus (though viruses are considered nonliving, the one exception). Compare to a "toxicant," which is something man-made. There is a difference.

In short, GUILT is a toxin that, when injected into a host, tricks the body into synthesizing its own personalized killing machines. From what organism does this toxin originate? We'll see.

"Then, you think Reid's illness was..."

"Exactly. Linda Reid was a GUILT victim. I'm surprised you were able to treat her without the proper resources."

"It was a difficult operation, but... I wanted to save her."

"Well, that decision may have changed your life. The organization we mentioned before has shown interest in you."

"What? Why me..?"



"What organization is it, anyway?"

"They're an arm of the World Health Organization that specializes in exterminating intractable diseases that threaten mankind. They're called Caduceus."

For those of you who live under a rock, the WHO is a subsection of the United Nations. From now on the series will mostly forget that they are apart of the United Nations and act like each individual Caduceus is only interested in their country of origin.

"Caduceus? I remember seeing them listed in cancer and AIDS treatment essays. Aren't they the ones who eradicated the TFTA influenza last year? ...Caduceus wants me?"

The WHO does work to eradicate diseases in real life, chiefly tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria currently. In one badass step for mankind, they eradicated smallpox off of the face of the planet in 1979. AIDS is very difficult to near impossible to vaccinate against due to having trillions upon trillions of possible combinations, billions of which will occur in a single host alone, as well as plenty of other reasons. This game exists in a universe where it is almost entirely eradicated, because it does show up again in Trauma Team. I have no idea what the TFTA part of the TFTA influenza is supposed to mean unless they just made up antigens, it's probably an acronymn for some futuristic Avian Flu. With the rapidly changing nature of influenza viruses, eradicating it, let alone vaccinating against it, is some insane shit.

"What are you going to do, Derek? You've been offered a chance to work at the forefront of modern medicine."

"Well... I mean, it's an honor.. But, it's all so sudden. I'm not really sure what to do. I mean, it'd change my whole life."

"You don't need to decide right away. Just remember that this is a choice, not an order."

"The only reason I told you this is because an old friend asked me to. To be honest, I'm against you joining Caduceus."

"What? Why?!"

"I don't think a research laboratory is the environment for you. Didn't you say you wanted to help patients face to face?"

(..That's true...)

"You should see this, as well."

"It's... a letter? 'Kyriaki - Sunday. Death is denied to those who want it, though it be their destiny. They search for it like a treasure, but the modern age conceals it.' What's this supposed to mean?"

"It arrived shortly after Linda Reid was hospitalized. We don't know who sent it. Supposedly, these letters arrive shortly before GUILT does.."

"...Huh?"

"That means GUILT doesn't occur naturally... Which means it could be some kind of man-made virus."

I thought we've already established GUILT is a toxin created by an organism. You called it a parasite and a toxin before and now it's suddenly a virus? Next he'll be calling it bacteria. Make up your mind, Greg!

"The WHO is considering it terrorist activity."

"What?!"

"Someone is creating GUILT and releasing it into society. We don't know who or why.. it's almost as if it's meant to confuse us. The UN even created a new term to describe this: 'Medical Terrorism.' Caduceus is anticipating a large scale GUILT outbreak... and they need skilled doctors to be ready for it."

I guess the term "bioterrorism" wasn't good enough for them.

"Hopefully now you see the stakes involved in this. Think it over. Don't make your decision lightly."



"-Hope Hospital, Room 207-"



"It just hurt so badly... I thought I was a goner."

"Well, appendicitis is a fairly common procedure. But, congratulations on your recovery, Mr. Sasano."

"If my wife gets sick, I'll make sure you're the one operating on her!"

"Hah, well, it would probably be best if she didn't get sick at all."

"I guess that's true. Haha!"

(Talking with the patients is one of my favourite parts of the job.. Could I really leave that behind?)

"Derek, we'll be starting the operation briefing soon."

"Okay."

(Music: Patient Profile)



"She's a very young child with a valvular heart disease. It was a tough decision, but her parents finally decided to go ahead and have the procedure done. There's only one main objective for this surgery: Replace a valve in her heart with a synthetic one. You'll use a triple incision to excise the valve - cut three times. You'll need to be as cautious as possible, understand? Technology has allowed us to deal with all kinds of situations, but heart surgery will always rely on the doctor's skill. Angie, keep an eye on the oscillograph to aid Dr. Stiles."

"I understand."

"Don't let the gravity of this operation intimidate you. The conference is over. She's in your hands now, Derek."

Okay, Derek is suddenly an open heart surgeon. Anyway, the patient's name comes from the Scrubs actresses Sarah Chalke (whose mother's name is Angie, a German woman) and Eliza Coope. Probably.



(Watch this Operation: Mission 2-11, S Rank.)

(Music: Precision)

"Her report details frequent occurrences of light arrhythmia. Be ready for the unexpected, just in case. Let's get started with the operation."



"She's suffering ventricular fibrillation! I'll attempt to stop the convulsions! 3, 2, 1... Clear!"

Everyone give a round of applause for a mostly correct way to use a defibrillator in a medical drama.





"There's a good chance her heart will continue to go into convulsions. I'll stand by with the defibrillator in case we need to use it again. If that happens, you'll need to massage her heart immediately. The defibrillator may have a high success rate, but allowing the heart to flatline repeatedly is obviously very dangerous for the patient. Make sure you revive her right away if that happens."

Angie, when I said the defibrillator stopped hearts, I... didn't exactly mean they stayed that way. Anyway, I guess Angie is horrible at using a defibrillator and continues to kill the patient so it's our job to do a heart massage if ever the defibrillator fails at returning her pulse to normal. Which it will. Every single time. Unless defibrillators don't work on people with irregular heart beats or something, what the hell.

"Now, continue the operation. Please open the atrium."



...I...



..I don't mean to be a pervert, but that doesn't look like the inside of a heart to me.

"But before that, we'll need to drain this blood."



If you miss at all here, the heart will stop and will need a massage.





At this point there's about a 50/50 chance that the heart will go into V-Fib. Be careful and watch the vital bar.





"The valve transplant is complete! Let's finish up here."



"Now she can play outside with all of her friends."



"Having someone cut open your chest is so unnatural. But something in that little heart refused to give up. Maybe it sounds silly, but I keep thinking about it. The human body is truly amazing."

Angie seems to really love kids, as long as they aren't over the age of 13. I wonder what her childhood was like?

In the video, I S Rank the operation. This operation is ridiculously easy. When you excise the valve, there will be a 50/50 chance that her heart will stop. It's another operation added to the game that tries to create some sort of random chance so that the player can't just repeat the same set of movements. That doesn't stop it from being easy - just watch the vital bar at the top to see if it fluctuates. If not, you're fine to finish.



We're sorry, ma'am, your daughter had a vagina inside her heart. There was nothing we could do.

"The operation was a success. She'll need about two months to fully recover before she can go back to school. But, after that, she'll be as good as new."

"That's good news... Oh, thank you so much, Doctor!"

"People are always worried by heart surgery - especially on children. But, modern medicine allows us to treat various conditions with a higher success rate than ten, even just five years ago. Young patients like your daughter face very little risk of permanent physical damage. To be honest, I'm more worried about the psychological stress operations like this might have on small children. Please take good care of her while she goes through recovery."

"Oh, of course... Elisa... We love you so much..."

(Modern medicine...)

(NEW Music: Anderson's Epitaph)



Doctor: "You have our condolences..."

Derek: "Mom... Why are you crying? Dad's okay, right? He's... gonna get better, right?! B-But... Why isn't Dad getting better?! You can fix him! You just gotta! He's my Dad!"

"...I'm sorry, son. No doctor in the world could save your father from this."

(..Things have come a long way.)



"So, you're willing to throw away your own happiness for this?"

"...I know about what happened to you in the past. I know that having superior skill will only result in more pressure, that everybody will expect me to have the answers no one else has. I'm sure your concerns are valid. The path I've chosen will probably cause me a lot of pain, but I became a doctor so that nobody would have to die from an incurable disease ever again."

"....."

"Diseases are painful, and losing someone to a disease is even more painful. It's hard for doctors to tell people their loved ones can't be cured. I'm going to make sure that they won't have to. Caduceus has already found ways to save thousands of sick people. If I can somehow help tread "incurable" diseases, then..."



Next time: Chapter 3: The chapter where I have to replace all the character portraits and it sucks.