48 Chapter 9: Magical Disease (1/2)
*Flashback*
”Go get me that concoction,” Shui called as he proceeded to make Bulut comfortable in his cot to the best of his effort.
Magnus quickly got into his role as an assistant and got the anesthesia that Shui required before he began the surgery.
He handed over the vial to Shui then got to work laying out the man's tools in an orderly fashion.
”Did you get the basin of water?” Shui asked once he finished administering the anesthesia for Bulut.
”Yep, it is over there,” Magnus replied as he pointed his head towards the general direction of the water.
Magnus was quite surprised that this world's medicine was not so backwater. If this was old medieval Earth then Bulut's hand would have already been amputated. There would have not been any of that nonsense of trying to treat it.
”Good,” with a nod of his head as he went over to the basin and washed his hands. ”Let's start with removing this thing off his arm.”
With that affirmation, both physician and his assistant got to the difficult chore of removing the faceless creature's head. It was long and gruesome work as they had to chop up the head into pieces since otherwise proved to be an impossible task.
Once that was done and the creature's head thrown away, they were at long last able to see the damage.
Magnus was thankful that his stomach was empty because seeing the bloody ruin of Bulut's arm made Magnus's stomach do a few backflips. There were plenty of teeth still stuck in his hand which had to be removed. However, what was worse was the torn apart mess those teeth made of Bulut's arm. He did not even know if his arm could be stitched together at all.
Also, there was the infection settling in, thanks to the immediate care that he did not receive as red, swollen lines crisscrossed all across his arm. Plus there were black veins covering his arm, which was something he had never seen. All that made the prospect of amputating his arm all the more favorable.
With all that stacked together; little chance for the large man's arm to be mended, infection setting in, and so forth. It made the possibility of him recovering the use of his arm all the more impossible.
As his mind slipped into a defeatist direction, Shui calm and orderly instructions cut through all the tumult of dismal thoughts. ”Stanch the wounds while I remove the creature's teeth stuck in his arm.”
”But,” Magnus said, in a hesitant tone. As he wanted to voice his bleak opinion, but couldn't find the words to do so, or even the heart, for that matter.
Shui turned to face Magnus, looked down upon him, and asked, ”Tell me, what have I taught you?”
”Stay calm, be rational, and make the impossible happen,” Magnus replied. Voicing the mantra that Shui always told him to hold on to as a doctor.
”Now, are you following that?” Shui simply asked.
Magnus sighed then shook his head in reply. It is a difficult guideline to keep in this stressful line of work, but he had to admit, it was a good standard to keep. Still, sometimes they had to be practical and now was it. Amputation was the best course of action and it would be the best path to save Bulut's life.
Then doing as he was told, he grabbed some clean cloth and put pressure on the large man's wounds. Still, the wound gushed out rivulets of blood, before he knew it the cloth was already soaked through. Not letting go of the one he already held in his hand, Magnus reached out for another one and placed it on top of the soggy wet cloth.
Time passed as Shui removed one tooth after another from Bulut's mangled arm. Each one that was extracted created an echoing loud clank in the otherwise silent room as they were dropped into the bucket near at hand.
Magnus wanted to raise the concern of all the blood loss, since he was at his third cloth now going into his fourth. Yet, he could see Shui was buried, deep into his work. He would only be distracting him and more importantly, he might derail the whole delicate process going on. Anyways Shui knew what he was doing, he was after all the expert and instructor here, while he was the student and beginner.
”All done,” Shui announced as he set aside his clamps. It was good timing as well since Magnus worry was now becoming perilous distress.
”How are his wounds,” Shui asked.
”Not good, he is losing a lot of blood, and pretty fast as well,” Magnus replied. 'If only they had been blood transfusion in this world,' he thought, 'this would not have been a major problem.'
”Well, all we have left to do is clean the infections and close up the wounds,” Shui said, as he was determined to get this done.
Magnus wondered if Shui even heard him, but as his duty was laid out before him, he had to get to it. Gabbing the ointment which was basically an antibiotic, he handed it to Shui who was cleaning the wounds with a wet cloth.
Once the wounds were cleaned up, both doctor and his assistant started to apply the ointment all over the arm. After that, Magnus brought over the needle and bladder which Shui would use to get to work on stitching up Bulut's arm.
In any event, his worry about the blood soon became an actuality as Shui was stitching up the arm, Bulut when into shock. It was so abrupt and sudden the only warning they was Bulut's breath hitching as his body started to jerk and twitch then went into full blown spasm.
Magnus immediately knew what it was; hypovolemic shock and it happens when somebody loses too much fluid and blood. And in Bulut's cause that was blood, and a lot of it at that.
Magnus knew that there was no time to blame anyone, that would get him nowhere at all. He had to come up with something, anything or soon it would be cardiac arrest for Bulut.
As Magnus looked around the medical bay frantically, looking for something to help Bulut recover his blood. He realized there was only one way that could happen, a blood transfusion.
”Try to stabilize him,” Magnus shouted to Shui who halted all of his work while he ran off. Magnus started to upturn everything in the medical bay, looking for something that could act as an IV line.
”Codex, is my blood type, still B+ or is it something else now?” Magnus asked. He knew of his previews body's blood types, but for this new body he had no clue what it was. He even started to wonder if these people had the same 8 blood types found back on Earth. This was a whole nother world so who knows.
”No! You have a different blood type,” Codex answered.
”Shit,” Magnus swore out loud, that would make everything that much more complicated. Though thankful he found something that could act as an IV line.
”What is my new blood? Or is it something that we do not know of?” Magnus asked with a sigh, wanting to get this over with.
”Thankfully it is one of the blood types back on Earth, AB+”
Well, that was good news. However, that now meant he could only give his blood to those who are AB+ like him. Well, here is to him hoping, as Magnus asked his question, ”What is Bulut's blood type then?”
”I do not know,” Codex replied. Then before Magnus could ask why, Codex got to it first, ”Unlike you, who I am literally part of. For others, I can only do a surface level scan.”
'Dang it,' Magnus thought. Now he has to figure out Bulut's blood type as well. Grabbing a few more other stuff, Magnus hurried over to Bulut's side. He knew how to find out a person's blood type. There were two tests needed; the first was an ABO typing then there was the RH typing as well.
Magnus was grateful for the personal education he gave himself. The public education system was never the best and was always lacking for him, so he took things into hands and taught himself all sorts of stuff from the web.
”What are you up to?” Shui asked as Magnus started to lay out everything he needed.
”I am trying to figure out his blood type,” Magnus replied as he took a bit of Bulut's blood, which there was plenty of. ”Also, I am going to do a blood transfusion,” Magnus continued with as he easily figured out Bulut's blood type in a matter of a few minutes.
Shui looked at him like he was speaking nonsense, however before he could say anything Bulut went into cardiac arrest as he stopped breathing.
”Give him CPR,” Magnus cried out to Shui as he poked vein in the elbow area. Fortunately, this was a medical knowledge that was known in this world as Shui started to pump Bulut's chest.
And was more Magnus realized how advanced this world was compared to its counterpart, medieval Earth. People in that time period would have been shitting themselves thinking that the person in shock is being possessed by some demon.
Poking Bulut veins in his elbow region with the other end of the makeshift IV line, blood started to slowly drain out of Magnus's body then into Bulut. Then suddenly, Bulut took in a deep intake of breath like he came out of the deep end of the pool.
Magnus sighed in relief as the ax-wielding man started to get his breathing back under control and eased his body. He was extremely lucky that he and the big man had the same blood types or it would have been the end of the line for him.