Infirmary, Joint Operations Command, Bungendore NSW
Australasian Triage Scale – Category 1 - Immediately life‑threatening conditions that are threats to life (or imminent risk of deterioration) and require immediate aggressive intervention
Category 2 - Assessment and treatment within 10 minutes - Imminently life‑threatening or Important time‑critical treatment or Very severe pain
Category 3 - Assessment and treatment start within 30 minutes - Potentially life‑threatening or Situational urgency or Humane practice
Category 4 - Assessment and treatment start within 60 minutes – Potentially serious or Situational urgency or Significant complexity or severity or Humane practice
Category 5 - Assessment and treatment start within 120 minutes – Less urgent or Clinico‑administrative problems
safetyandquality.gov.au website
An IV was started and then Doctor Ontavio Lugansky organised an x-ray and it showed that the bullet had been slowed by her flesh and had lightly touched one of her ribs.
"Could you remove it?", asked Joey.
"It is a much better option to remove it in a fully equipped hospital."
"Not what I asked, can you remove it without killing her."
"It's not that simple. There could be a number of adverse outcomes if it's done here."
"Look..."
Peta could see Joey become more and more agitated. Maybe some intervention was required?
Peta put her hand on Joey's shoulder. "Let me."
"Doctor?"
"Yes, Commodore?"
"Alexa here is supernatural. She can heal differently to most people. At this point, to do her healing thing, she needs the bullet out. Can you do it, now?"
"Can't she just heal then, without getting the bullet out?"
Everyone looked at Alexa.
With a sigh, then a grimace at the pain from sighing, Alexa puffed on her blue whistle.
Ontavio said, "Shallow breaths, we don't want to aggravate the bullet wound."
"Right, Doctor. If I shift into my animal form for about an hour, when I shift back most of the injury will have been dealt with. But if the bullet is not removed before I do that, my body will heal around the bullet. I will then have to go through a longer and much harder operation to get it out of me, or a painful six months or so while my body slowly ejects it. Makes sense?"
Puff.
Ontavio said, "I can sort of see that?"
Peta asked, "Is that because the bullet's silver?"
"Sort of? But only because silver is inert. If the bullet was lead, my body would be more likely to want to encapsulate it, because it's poisonous, and would be more aggressively expelling it. The silver bullet will eventually be ejected, but it would take longer than a lead bullet."
Puff.
"What if something goes wrong?"
"That's why I'm insisting on you only using local anaesthetic. Worse case, if something goes wrong, I can always shift and get instant healing. If I'm out of it, I can't shift. No one has asked about the hour yet, so I'll just volunteer the info. The healing is instantaneous, but it takes about forty minutes for my body to stabilise. So, we say 'about an hour' because people always rush things."
Ontavio was obviously having difficulty accepting everything. After a minute he sighed, and said, "OK, I'll do it."
Within twenty minutes, Alexa had been prepped and was being operated on. Shortly after, the bullet sat in the expected kidney dish.
"Doctor, lightly suture the wound, but don't put a dressing on it”.
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"But..."
"Remember I'm about to shift, and as I'm a bird shifter, the dressing can end up sticking to my feathers." Puff. "You may want to call the Commodore in, as I think she wanted to see me shift. Also, will this room be fine for my recovery over the next hour or so?"
"OK, OK, not OK. Let’s move you to the recovery ward.” Ontavio raised his voice and said, “We’re finished, Commodore, did you wish to see the Constable shift?”
Both Peta and Joey came in.
Ontavio asked, “Senior Constable, did you need the bullet?"
"Yes, I'll need the bullet. You OK, Alexa?"
"No, but I will be once everyone lets me shift! This is so frustrating!"
Puff.
Alexa was moved down the corridor to one of the recovery wards.
"I'll rest or even sleep for about an hour, then feel free to wake me up. Doctor, can you remove the cannula?"
Ontavio removed the needle.
"If you could assist me to take off this medical gown, I’d appreciate it."
Once Alexa was naked, she shifted into her eagle form, and using her beak, pulled the blanket and sheets into a nest shape, fluffing up her feathers and tucking her head under her wing, she settled down to doze.
During this whole process, Peta, Ontavio, some of the nursing staff and one of the paramedics from the Ambulance that had arrived, stood open mouthed. It has been one thing to talk about people changing into animals, but quite another to watch the process.
Ontavio started to talk, but Joey held up a single finger to indicate to wait and led him out the door.
Joey closed the door and said, "Right, everyone, we need to talk. All of you."
He'd added that last bit when a couple of the staff tried to slip away.
They found a room big enough and then Joey gave them a lecture on the required security, reminded them about the laws on patient privacy and told them that there were going to be retraining so that they'd know how to handle paranormals in the future. "This should all start within the next month."
Once the rest had left, Joey said to Peta, " I apologise for losing it in there. Thanks for your help. I don't think the outcomes would have been as good without you."
"Well, I need to apologise as well, as I'd thought something was wrong with Commander Carpenter, and if I'd taken the time to realise how twisted he was, Alexa would never have been endangered. Will she be alright?"
"She has assured me multiple times, that the shift will put everything 'back where it is supposed to be' and in an hours’ time she can shift back and all will be fine physically. No, she said that when she shifts back, she would be classed as a category 4 or 5. Doctor, does that sound right?"
With a laugh, Ontavio said, "No idea. But from what I saw, she presented as a Category 2 - life threatening but not immediately dying. Her continued blood loss was the biggest worry, plus the linked falling blood pressure. That was why she was on the IV. If her shifting 'puts everything back into place', then I wouldn't be surprised to find her as a Category 4 or 5 in an hour."
"What's the difference?"
"Category 4 is a potentially serious condition, but don’t need treatment immediately, so there is still something seriously wrong, but nothing directly life threatening. Category 5 is basically paperwork, immunisations, wound dressing, that kind of thing. It has to be done, but no-one is concerned. I'm probably going to insist on a chest x-ray and a couple of images of the wound, plus the normal blood pressure, etc. I suppose it depends whether the shift replaces blood. We'll see where we go from there. What I really want to know is where the rest of the mass goes."
The other Paramedic interrupted and said, “Yes, that’s right. So long as the patient’s heart is beating, they should completely recover if they are able to shift. So long as they have enough time to stabilise, the forty minutes that Alexa was talking about, when they shift back the most that they usually require is standard aftercare. Often something as basic as access to clothes.”
"So, an eagle's, what, about four or five kilograms? She looked like she was around seventy kilograms or more, so where's the other sixty-five kilos gone?"
With a laugh, Joey said, "It gets worse. I'm met a shifter who's a thirteen year-old girl, so 40 or 50 kilos? She shifts into a 500 kilo dinosaur."
"So, where does it come from and go?"
Everyone looked at the Paramedic.
“No one knows. The little research I’ve heard of has not come to any conclusions. The DNA of the shifter when they are shifted is not distinguishable from another specimen of the creature that is not a shifter. This is impossible, because the shifted animal still has at least human intelligence, but does not have the brain size or nervous system to support it. But it does anyway. I have heard of shifters who shift into a creature that weighs less than a 10-cent coin that still holds the intelligence of a human.”
Joey asked, “Shifter?”
The paramedic nodded.
Joey continued, "This is all still too recent. Our emphasis has been on getting through this initial stage. I'm sure that there are going to be a stack of universities doing research on all this stuff in a year." Joey checked his watch and said, "We'll wake Alexa in another forty minutes or so."
Peta suddenly realised what Joey had said, “Wait, did you say dinosaur?
“Yep.”
Ontavio said, "So, straight back to work for her?"
Joey answered, "A number of us are concerned with the longer-term mental issues. As a shifter could live twice or even three times longer than a non-shifter, the likelihood to develop something like PTSD would seem higher. This is just something we're all going to have to look out for. So, no, not straight back. I'm going to insist on at least a psych eval."
The male paramedic said, “OK, Doctor, are we released?”
The doctor looked at the paramedics and said, “Yes. Thanks for turning up.”
The two paramedics packed up and left. When they reached the Ambulance, the non-shifter looked at her teammate and said, “We’re going to have a nice, long chat.”
The male paramedic winced.
---***---
Joey pulled out his phone and texted Marty, from the Military Police, letting him know it looks like Alexa will be fine and that he was going to get something to eat and then he'd be down. He also updated his boss, Mary, who’d been keeping Alexa’s family informed.
"I'm going to get a bite to eat and then start processing our perps. Would you like to join me, Commodore?"
"You're a bit young for me."
"And you've got a wedding ring on. No, just inviting you in case you wanted some input into their fates."
"Yeh, good idea. I'll take you to the Officers mess. Now, what do you mean by dinosaur?"
Joey sighed as he walked away. It had been an intense and confusing 30 minutes. Going back over the time, he realised why. There had been three or more separate conversations happening, as each person was concentrating on what they saw as important. No wonder he was getting a headache.