[Training] Healing Hands

Jigano nodded emphatically at the chance to save lives with the best tools to hand. That was, after all, why he had relied so heavily on magic over basic skill. Particularly with head injuries he would have preferred a swift and clean way to mend the damage before it had a chance to worsen, but if that wasn't available here...

Except, perhaps, it was? He tilted his head, eyes narrowing a little at her mention of someone with 'magical expertise for a diagnosis,' and then blinking at the reminder of her new eyes. He nodded agreement at their use, but raised a brow as she began to speak of internal surgery. That was far beyond his current ken - and Isla knew it, trailing off so that he grinned briefly before she delved ahead.

"So, keep them if they seem sick, whether or not it has something to do with the bump on their heads?" he confirmed wryly. "That makes sense, on several levels." He watched her putter about for a moment, uncertain of what to ask next, but at the mention of resuscitation he blinked and sat back a little. "Ah... in a general sense," he said cautiously. "There is... you hold their nose closed and breath into their mouth to force air into their lungs?" he was far from certain, though he'd heard it called 'the breath of life' and assumed there was a reason for it.

"Pretty much, yes," Isla said with a chuckle. "It seems like basic common sense, right?" Strange, how so many people were bereft of that very thing when an emergency arose. Their training turned to resuscitation, and Isla smiled and nodded at Jigano's rudimentary explanation of what she meant. "That's right, though there's a little more to it than that. It's difficult without a patient or a dummy to show you on, but I'll do the best I can to explain."

Clearing the small table, Isla stood up and motioned to its perimeter. "Imagine, if you like, that this is our patient. First you'll want to know whether or not they really aren't breathing. Try to rouse them, shake them by the shoulder, call them by name if you know it. If they don't awaken, you will want to try and check further." Isla leant down as if to put her ear and cheek where the person's mouth would be, her gaze directed down the 'chest'. "From here I can see if their chest is rising and falling, and listen and feel for their breath. If there's nothing, we know we need to try and resuscitate."

Isla paused, frowning as if thinking about how to show Jigano. "So first we need to tilt their head back and open their mouth, to make sure they aren't choking on anything - tongue included. That could solve the problem even before it begins. Are you with me so far?"

"If only common sense were as 'common' as it should be," Jigano agreed wryly, unconsciously following Isla's thoughts on the subject.

The bard tilted his head at her mention of a 'dummy', wishing he still had his illusion magics with a faint, wistful regret that he quickly pushed aside. As Isla cleared the table he hummed thoughtfully and instead gathered his cloak into his arms, folding it deftly into something roughly the size and shape of a torso and setting it down on the clear-table with an arched brow and a grin for his lovely mentor. "Now if only we had something approximating a head for our poor 'patient.'"

Isla's instructions to try and wake the patient were met with a nod of understanding, though his brow rose again in a bit of humor as he nodded at his host. "This could be potentially embarrassing if the 'patient' is just an Ascended trying to take a nap," he murmured, but stepped closer and let his humor fall away as Isla frowned in thought. "I hadn't considered someone choking in their tongue to be an issue, but... yes, I suppose it could happen. So, once you are certain their mouth and throat are clear... what would you do next?"

Isla could only grin in agreement, about uncommon common sense and their poor headless patient both. She let out a soft peal of laughter at his quip about the Ascended, shrugging her shoulders. "If the Ascended in question has decided to take a nap in a place where someone might mistake them for an unconscious person in trouble, they deserve what they get if you ask me!" She shrugged, turning her attention back to their 'patient' and his issue with being unable to breathe.

"So, if I can't wake them, they aren't breathing and their airway isn't blocked, now I can start giving a breath of life and chest compressions," she explained. "As you said before, pinch their nose and create a seal over their mouth with yours. You need to make sure their chest rises - if it doesn't, you might be breathing air into their stomach instead. Give two breaths, then thirty compressions. It's what I was taught, anyway."

To demonstrate, Isla straightened out her arms and locked her hands over one another, positioning them over the patient's chest area. "When I press down I need to make sure that the chest falls at least a couple of inches. It can crack ribs, but... it's better than death."

"Chest compressions?" Jigano asked curiously. "To... force the air in and out of their lungs? But isn't that what the breath of life is for?" He listened closely to Isla's instruction, humming his understanding of the mechanics, and quickly piecing together some of the information that seemed a little odd at first. "Ah, if you don't pinch the nose the air may escape that way, yes?" If the goals was getting it into the lungs, you wanted it to have only one way to go, but... "If you don't see the chest rise, and it seems to be going into the stomach, what can you do?"

He watched her pose the compressions with an arched brow, frowning faintly in thought. "Why must you press so hard? Isn't there a danger of a broken rib puncturing a lung instead?" Not that he was too worried about that; he wasn't strong enough to hurt someone with his hands alone, he felt, unless they were even weaker than he. Still, he moved to their patient across from Isla and mimicked her pose. Setting his hands next to hers, he practice the compression movement, looking to her for guidance and correction as he pushed tentatively down into the soft layers of the cloak.

"Not quite." Isla smiled to Jigano, motioning to their cloak-patient's chest area. "The heart and the lungs work together. The heart pumps blood around the body, carrying the oxygen breathed in by the lungs. With the breath of life we are acting as the person's lungs. With the chest compressions, we are acting as their heart." It was difficult to explain in rudimentary terms, particularly when it was already evident that people in the Hollowed Ground had wildly varying levels of medical knowledge.

Still, Jigano asked all the right questions, and Isla nodded to him encouragingly. "So if their chest isn't rising, it's likely due to the angle of their head. Make sure their head is tilted back and their chin is up before you begin. That way you should ensure that you are breathing into their lungs," she explained.

Her expression grew a touch grim, Isla nodding once more. "Yes, there is. But you must press hard enough to make their heart pump. Resuscitation is a last resort that is often unsuccessful. But any chance is a chance, until it is too late."

She glanced across at him as he mimicked her, seeming impressed. "That's perfect," she said. "Hopefully you'll not need to use it, though. So we've done sutures, head injures and resuscitation. And you are aware of how to set broken bones already."

"Ahhh yes, of course!" The bard sounded chagrined, feeling a bit dense for not immediately putting the pieces together. "You explain things very clearly, Isla." Still, he didn't feel like he was doing too badly, though having a general book knowledge of some medical techniques likely helped give him the basis for picking up more quickly on what he was being shown in person - and doing, at least in an easy, training sort of way.

He didn't miss how his friend's expression became darker, his own face sobering as he nodded in agreement. Some chance was certainly better than none, though in such a situation he knew it would be hard not to blame himself if the resuscitation failed. Still, at least now he had the tools to at least try!

"At least, aware of the basics," he agreed. "Or rather, the theory. Though I'm afraid that's another thing that would be difficult to practice without a real patient in here." He hummed thoughtfully, looking around the little treatment room before his eyes fell on his cloak again. Ruffling his hand over the fur lining he looked over at Isla with a raised brow. "I feel as though I have enough to practice and think about for awhile... perhaps I can keep you company for a bit, and learn by watching if any more patients come in tonight?" He smiled, settling his hip against a treatment table and giving his teacher a humble bow of supplication.

{End Thread}