User:Sirdog/Advanced medical concepts: Difference between revisions

{{Ambox|type=speedy|image=[[File:Red EMS Symbol.png|50px|link=]]|text='''No information on this page should be construed as medical advice'''. <br/>Use of medications in the real world require consultation with a licensed medical professional. Terminology and real world labels are used for immersion ''only''.<br/> Information is ''very likely'' not accurate to real world medical practice.}}{{Ambox|type=speedy|text=This is not a valid certification or qualification.}}[[File:Ace adv medical cheatsheet card.png|thumb|557x557px|A cheat sheet relating to ACE medical designed for medic use.]]

The basic training provided by the Endurance Coalition goes over the '''[https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=463939057 ACE]''' medical concepts strictly necessary for the average riflemen to play with the unit comfortably. This page will review certain concepts in more depth for deeper understanding.

{{Note|The bleeding indicator on the top right of the medical menu is only visible when assessing oneself.|type=}}

# Not actively bleeding; and

# Your blood loss indicator is yellow or grey; and

# You otherwise "feel" fine.

You can keep fighting.

If you are in the middle of a firefight and your character's pain is so severe that you cannot properly engage the enemy, use a morphine autoinjector. If you do not have one, '''call a medic'''.

If bleeding, tourniquet all limbs with wounds (if possible). Any limbs that cannot be tourniqueted that have wounds should be bandaged. Use '''Field Dressing''' or '''Basic Bandages''' for large wounds (Medium+) and use '''QuickClot''' for everything else. ACE applies bandages in order from the largest wound on the limb to the smallest, hence the suggested order of application.  

If bleeding stops, look at the above checklist again and, if you meet all criteria, return to the fight.   

# You see a ''lot'' of wounds in your '''chest''' or '''head''' (indicated by the limb being orange or red); or

# Your blood loss indicator is orange or red; or

Call a medic.

After the firefight has ended, you should bandage ''all wounds'' with the end goal of removing your tourniquets, and then '''alert a medic'''. Tourniquets induce pain after 5 minutes of use. The medic will speed up your bandaging and stitch your wounds so they cannot re-open. You should not assume that because you bandaged yourself, and your indicators are only yellow and grey, that you do not need a medic to review your condition.  

The medic may instruct you to remove your tourniquets near the end of your treatment. They don't do this for you because a tourniquet goes into the inventory of the person who removes it.

=== Fractures ===

Sometimes, a limb will '''fracture'''. This is indicated by a red diagram of your bone appearing in the relevant limb. Despite how scary it looks, it isn't fatal, nor does it within of itself incur bleeding. Arm fractures mess with your ability to aim and shoot. Leg fractures reduce your speed to a snail's pace. Use a '''Splint''' on the relevant limb to address fractures. '''If you have a fracture of any kind and have no splints, this is a valid reason to call a medic'''.

There are 4 medications.

 

Morphine reduces blood pressure (BP), reduces heart rate (HR), and suppresses pain. Morphine does not ''eliminate'' pain, and pain will return depending on the wound itself and the state of said wound once the morphine wears off (i.e is it bandaged, is it stitched, etc). Morphine generally wears off after 30 ''real world'' minutes. Due to morphine's affect on BP and HR, it is generally advised that {{Emdash}} unless in a firefight and it's required to engage the enemy {{Emdash}} morphine not be injected without a medic's go ahead. The morphine may cause problems with future injuries or treatments.

 

Epinephrine has a single effect, which is it increases HR. It stays in the player character for 2 ''real world'' minutes and reaches maximum effectiveness after roughly 30 ''real world'' seconds, raising the beats per minute (BPM) by upwards of 50. It is rarely used for this purpose, however, and tends to be used for it's special effect {{Emdash}} it dramatically increases the chance an unconscious player will awaken once stabilized. Because of how high it can raise BPM, however, it should be applied with caution if the unconscious individual's HR is already high.

 

Adenosine and atropine are rarely used by the Endurance Coalition, but in ACE they are regulatory medications in that they ''only'' lower HR. A HR meeting or exceed 200 BPM may result in ACE invoking cardiac arrest, and so a medic with adenosine could use it to stabilize the individual instead of using morphine which would ''also'' mess with the patient's BP.

A medic may sometimes ask someone else to perform CPR. This is because the effectiveness of CPR is the same regardless of who does it, however, medics are faster at bandaging and can stitch wounds {{Emdash}} thus efficiency demands they bandage while a laymen perform CPR. If asked, perform CPR twice in a row, then check heart rate. If there is no heart rate, or it's weak, repeat the cycle until it reads as strong unless told otherwise by the medic. Once it's strong, you may return to the fight unless the medic requests further assistance. 

 

ACE medical has 3 fluid variants {{Emdash}} plasma, blood, and saline. They all perform the same function, being to raise blood pressure and address blood loss. The variation chosen is preferential to the mission / scenario creator.

 

A healthy and normal blood level is 6 liters. Severity is based on how many liters of blood have been lost.

 

Medics usually have fluids on them in variants of 250, 500, and 1000 milliliters. 1000 milliliters is 1 liter. An individual with a ''stable'' (not necessarily ''healthy'') blood level is an individual with 5 liters or more. The greater the loss of blood, the more fluids which are required to correct it.

 

The reason 3 liters is fatal is because, to stabilize, the medic would need to dispense 2000-3000 milliliters of blood into the patient {{Emdash}} this would ''catastrophically'' effect their carried supply of fluids. So much blood loss also has implications on heart rate and blood pressure, which may result in cardiac arrest, and thus a level of attention from the medic that likely cannot be spared in a war zone.

 

[[File:Bandage effectiveness reopen.PNG|thumb|548x548px|A more detailed chart than is on the cheat sheet comparing wound types against the bandages.]]

Bandages in ACE have 3 important mechanics at play. The first is their efficiency at bandaging a particular wound (e.g how many of X bandage type is needed for a Y wound type of Z size), the chance the bandage has to re-open at all, and if it ''does'' re-open, the delay between the re-opening being triggered and blood loss resuming.

 

* '''Elastic Bandages''' will close any wound of any size on first application, ''but'' it's chance to re-open is ''super high'' and the delay before blood loss resumes is ''super low''.

* '''QuikClots''' take almost double or more to be consumed to cover a Y wound of Z size than the other 3 types, but it's chance to re-open is ''super low'' and the delay before blood loss resumes is ''super high''.

 

Elastics are favored by medics because the 2 major downsides {{Emdash}} the high re-open chance and low blood loss delay {{Emdash}} are ''entirely negated'' by the fact medics will stitch the wounds they close, which makes them unable to ''ever'' re-open. So, the fact they work quickly and will always fully resolve any Y wound type of Z size works tremendously to their benefit.

 

QuikClots are favored for smaller wounds since they are more likely to fully resolve it. This is also why basic training advises using Field Dressings and Packaging Bandages on wounds of Medium+ size before falling back on them for Smalls, since ACE applies bandages in order of largest wound to smallest wound. This helps reduce wastage of bandages which may save your life or someone else's life.

 

|<u>Proportional to wound size</u>

|Sharp object enters body (e.g knife).

* Fleff. "13th CORPS FIELD MANUAL - BASIC TRAINING (0.1)" Endurance Coalition. Accessed April 12, 2025. [[:File:Fleff_EDC_ArmaIII_Basic_Training.pdf]]