"Oh sorry! Fifty-Seven, Red, my admit in 113. That's his actual name. She says she healed his broken ribs, and he really does look better, I think we should get an X-ray to check. Oh and if it's true then can I cancel the CT scan? Because she also said the head bleed is stable."

And she REALLY doesn't have time and will probably cry if she has to leave the unit again, but this is not a medical justification she can say out loud to the trauma surgeon who she has to work with for the rest of this week. 

Belrun looks up when she hears Leareth's name, and when they seem to be done she mindspeaks Alice, having received permission. :Yes, I really have telepathy:

Alice blinks and seems unsure how to absorb this. :Right: she thinks back. :And you can move things, and - you think you can save my patient?: 

     Dr Millinger is scowling at being left out, but apparently isn't comfortable consenting to additional mindreading. 

:Maybe. I'm not a clinician at home, I'm a microbiologist, but even relatively undirected Healing is pretty good and my Sight is well-trained so I can at least tell you where things are going wrong:

:Okay: This seems to be more comfortable ground for the overwhelmed-looking nurse; she grabs her report-paper. :Tell me what you're seeing, then?: 

The patient's blood is almost a normal amount of oxygen-containing, finally; his heart and lungs are also both still working but are only taking on about half the load right now, it looks like the external-nudge of drugs to make his heart work harder has been backed off, and the pressure of air into his lungs made a little less forceful and thus less damaging to the fragile air-sac tissues. His body is still way too full of fluid; it's leaking into his lungs and several pints of liquid are just sort of hanging out under the membrane at his lung-bases, and his extremities and face are visibly puffy and swollen with excess water. His kidneys are...maybe a tiny, tiny bit un-gunked? It looks like the reduced circulation was straining them as much as anything else, and they're not working well but there's a tiny trickle of urine leaking out. 

:The machine is helping. He's got a lot of excess fluid, especially hereabouts: she points, :might benefit from a suction tube like Leareth has, and I'm working on his kidneys and I think I'm getting somewhere with that. I've closed off a bunch of little bleeds here, here, here -: Point, point, point.

Alice flips the sheets up and examines the pee-tube emerging from his crotch area. "Whoa," she breathes, pointing at the still dark and miniscule, but definitely new, trickle of urine. "Dr Millinger, she says the pleural effusion looks bad - I bet it's worse than this morning, he's another litre fluid-positive from the pressors - figure we can do bedside chest tubes?" 

     "He'll bleed," the doctor points out gruffly. 

"She says she can fix bleeds." A helpless shrug. "And, I mean, what do we have to lose?" 

     The doctor is silent for a long time, then finally nods. "...This is way too X-files for me, but I guess why not, I don't want to be the one who has to talk to his wife. Ask our weird visitor if she can see any blockages in his coronary arteries?" 

Alice nods, and turns to catch Belrun's eye again. :Dr Millinger wants to know if any of the tiny arteries that feed his heart are blocked? His bloodwork this morning had some elevated troponin, that's a sign of a minor heart attack - heart muscle losing bloodflow and dying, that is - but we're not sure if it's caused by a real blockage we can try to address or if it's just the general stress on his body: 

:I'll look: Peek.

There aren't any fully-blocked sections, but there and there and there are all quite narrowed, with an accumulation of fatty plaque and calcified hardening on the inside of the tiny arteries, rending them less stretchy and resilient. It's not incredibly serious in itself - even in Velgarth she's seen older people with similar changes in their bodies - but the strain of his serious injuries and illness on the organ is about like running a continuous marathon for most of the last week, and with that, his heart is struggling a lot to keep up. 

:Nothing totally obstructed. Some junk in there. I can Fetch it out if that's going to be a particular problem for something you're doing but it trades off against everything else:

:Just arterial plaque and stuff?: Alice frowns. :Once he's a more stable and off the heart-lung bypass, we can take him to the cath lab and put stents in there. Can you fix enough of the everything-else that his heart will hold up until then?: 

:I don't know! Usually clinical Healers only call me in when they're shorthanded or they need the telekinesis part done! I can try:

:...Okay: Alice takes a deep breath. Nods. :Do your best. If he starts doing more arrhythmias then I'll ask you to try fixing the heart blockage first. If not, focus on the kidneys, and we'll get some drainage tubes in - oh, I told the doc that if he starts bleeding into his lungs because of that, because of the clotting issue, you could stop it. You can, right?: 

:Long as it's not huge, yeah. Though I'm not going to be good for that for all that much longer, I broke my ankle in my fall and also had to do some work on a cut I picked up and I've been working on Leareth too and I'm getting really wrung out:

:Okay. Well, do what you can - oh, and should we help with your injuries too?: Alice glances at the dried bloodstains on her clothes again. :I'm sorry, I should've asked - I guess I'm preoccupied. But we could get you some oral antibiotics and have someone bandage you up and do stitches if you need them: 

Across the hall, Leareth is starting to pull at the lifebond, distress leaking across again. 

:- something's wrong with Leareth:

:- I'll go see if I can figure out what he needs. He's probably due for suctioning again: Marian runs out. 

Leareth's O2 sats look beautiful, actually, all the way at 99% - but he's squirming restlessly around in the bed, grimacing. 

Marian puts her hand on his arm to get his attention, and to get in range for his telepathy. :Leareth, are you in a lot of pain? You look like you're hurting: 

His ribs aren't as bad - though it still hurts to cough, which he keeps doing involuntarily when he gags on the breathing tube - but the headache is pretty awful, he probably pushed Mindspeech and Thoughtsensing too far earlier today with all his attempts to communicate, it's generally ill-advised to use Gifts with a head injury but it didn't at the time seem like he had much choice. 

:Yes: he manages, though this makes him wince and try and fail to moan. 

(Across the hall, Belrun can notice relief and lessening-of-tension through the lifebond, though he's still pretty distressed.) 

:I'm not surprised! Hmm: She glares at his IV pump. :You're already maxed on your fentanyl - I could go back up on the Versed, you're only at 3 ccs an hour right now, but that's not really a painkiller, it'll mostly make you calmer and sleepier: 

:No: Leareth protests. (Ouch.) 

Sigh. :I'll go ask the doctor what I can give you. ...Sorry, I can tell it's hurting you to talk to me, I would just talk to Belrun instead but she's saving someone's life right now: 

(A burst of pride and warmth and love along the lifebond.) 

:Good. Tell her - keep doing that...: