IC - 3 - Medical Clinic - Nicole, Jojo, and Virgil

[Mephistophilis]

Day 1
11th March 2189
12:45 Earth Central European Time
Barnard's Rest Colony, Titan

After dropping Isabella off at the apartments, Tyson proceeds on to the medical clinic where they are greeted by Nurse Steve Richards. He is a fresh faced man in his early twenties, dressed in green medical scrubs. He seems relieved to see them as Tyson announces them as 'Dr Johnson, Marshal Favre, and Executive Officer Steinmann' before he drives off.

The medical center is a relatively small, cramped area, befitting its penal origins. Unlike the metal bulkheads of the rest of the colony, the medical bay is covered in off-white plastic fixtures and fittings, presumably someone thought it looked more clinical.

There is a single examination room, a computerised office, a refrigerated supply closet, a small surgical suite and a recovery room with five beds separated by paper curtains. There is also a cold storage 'morgue' connected to the surgical suite. Adjacent to the medical center is the doctor’s apartment. Richards tells you that his accommodation is with the administrative staff. Overall, the medical center is prepared to handle most common injuries one would encounter in a prison or industrial environment, but not much more.

'I'm glad you're here Dr Johnson, I've not been too comfortable being responsible for the whole colony's health by myself.'

[Starspawn338]

Upon arrival, Jojo makes a cursory inspection of the clinic before turing to Nurse Richards.

'I'm glad you're here Dr Johnson, I've not been too comfortable being responsible for the whole colony's health by myself.'

Jojo nods.

"I'm sure you weren't, although I'm sure my talents will be wasted on runny noses and broken bones." He continues, "It is my understanding that you found Dr. Holzer. Please describe what you found, omit no details as they may be relevant." He holds up his hand. "And don't bother telling me it's all in the report because it's never all in the report. Reports are tedious and people only end up putting in the facts they consider to be relevant when in fact everything is relevant."

[Raiko]

This should be interesting.

Nicole wanders casually around the medical bay while observing how Nurse Richards responds.

OOC,Might as well roll for psychology. Psychology(60%): [dice]0[/dice]

[Mephistophilis]

Richards looks increasingly nervous at Dr Johnson's brusque manner. 'I didn't find him, I mean, like I said in my report, uh, um, I mean when he wouldn't answer his door I contacted Sergeant Montrose, he let us in to Dr Holzer's quarters. We found him in bed. He'd been dead for a while.'

Nicole,Richards seems quite scared of Dr Johnson. As far as you can tell he is telling things as he recalls them but seems to be holding something back

[Raiko]

Ambling across to Nurse Richards, Nicole give her friendliest smile.

Charm - Extreme Success,Charm(60%) [dice]0[/dice]

"It's okay Steve, we're all on the same side...

"But, you look as though there's something that is bothering you about this. Maybe something that's not in the report?"

She gestures to her companions and smiles again, "We're here to help."

[Mephistophilis]

Richards is clearly uncomfortable but Nicole's easy charm relaxes him somewhat. 'Me and Montrose took a look at the body but it's not what either of us usually do, I take care of the living, not the dead. We didn't find anything suspicious. Maybe Dr Johnson could conduct an autopsy, Holzer's body is still in the morgue until the shuttle returns to Ganymede.'

His face becomes more serious, 'Okay, so what's not in the report, well, the last few weeks before he died, he was different, more distant, he looked drained, like he wasn't sleeping, maybe something was on his mind. I wondered whether he was dipping into the abusable medications, the narcotics.'

He seems to relax, 'That's it, that's all I know.'

Jojo,Knowing Henry Holzer it comes as a real surprise to you to hear talk of him abusing medication, he was always very clean living and did not even drink alcohol the last you saw him

[aine]

Vigil just nods at Nurse Richards and gives him a small smile of encouragement.

[Starspawn338]

"I see." Jojo replies, his visage still stern. "Did you check to see if any of the narcotics were missing to substantiate your theory?"

Turning to the others, he continues, "It appears an autopsy is in order."

[Raiko]

"That would certainly help to clarify things," Nicole nods to Jojo, then looks back to Nurse Richards.

"Thank you Steve. Can you remember, approximately, how many weeks ago since you first noticed the difference in Doctor Holzer's behaviour?"

[aine]

Virgil looks a little uncomfortable with the mention of an autopsy.
"I'll just look over the report now if I may, Nurse Richards."

[Mephistophilis]

Again, flustered by Jojo's icy manner, Richards says 'As far as I can see the narcotics are all accounted for but what do I know? This is a mining colony, we see a lot of injuries. Look, I'm only qualified two years, I didn't sign up for this shit.

'He died about a week ago. The two weeks before that I really noticed a difference but, well, maybe in retrospect it was going on for a month or more.'

Richards hands them a datapad with his report on it, in addition to what he has already told them it has the post-mortem examination conducted by Richards and Montrose:

"Surface examination

OOC,Richards, Spot Hidden, 40% [dice]0[/dice]

Unremarkable

Internal examination

• Radiology
  OOC,Richards Medicine 30% [dice]1[/dice]
  Pulmonary fluid evident on MR imaging
  
  Macroscopic pathology: Not performed
  Histopathology: Not performed

Biochemistry and toxicology screen

OOC,Richards combined Computer Use 40% and Medicine roll [dice]2[/dice]

Unremarkable except for presence of fentanyl on toxicology screen"

[aine]

“But how did he actually die?” Virgil looks at the datapad confused.

[Mephistophilis]

Richards looks exasperated, 'Well that's for Dr Johnson to determine.'

Jojo,You know these results are consistent with an opiate overdose, whether deliberate or accidental, with the fluid in the lungs secondary to respiratory failure. There are other explanations possible including drowning. However, you are really shocked at the idea that Holzer would have abused opiates, perhaps he had an injury and needed them as painkillers. It is likely (but not necessary if you don't want) that a doctor would want to conduct the autopsy themself, both because they don't trust a second year nurse to be able to do it to their standards and because he didn't attempt to examine the internal organs. Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid.

[Starspawn338]

Jojo studies the report before turning to Virgil.

"This report indicates that the Doctor likely died of fentanyl poisoning but as I suspected, there are a lot of details which are not present in the report. We are going to need to retrieve the Doctor's corpse for a proper autopsy." He pauses for a second before continuing. "I knew Doctor Holzer personally and for him to die of an overdose of narcotics is very suspicious. I did not know the Doctor to use any drugs unless it were medically necessary."

Turning to Nurse Richards, he nods curtly. "Thank you for your assistance. Do you know if the Doctor suffered any injuries after being posted here and can you tell me what protocols are in place regarding the control and dispensation of narcotics on the base? I'm curious if the Doctor would have to conceal his personal usage of narcotics from anyone in the base or just in ordering from corporate."

[Mephistophilis]

Richards brings up the pharmacy inventory on the datapad.

OOC,Roll Accounting or Medicine to assess the records

'I'm not aware of Dr Holzer suffering any injuries although he might not have shared his medical problems with me. We have the usual protocols for narcotics, usually it would require both Dr Holzer and myself to dispense them and we keep a record of what comes in, what goes out, and what is wasted. There is a specific controlled drugs cupboard that only he and I had access to.'

Jojo,Holzer's body is in the attached morgue cold storage as Richards told you earlier. It'll take about 3hrs to perform a post-mortem, Richards can assist you and he can roll Medicine to reduce the time it takes since he is familiar with the body, you'll need a successful Medicine roll yourself to get full details from the examination. You can also put Holzer's body back through the MR scanner (Medicine roll again) and re-run the toxicology (no roll needed as your medicine is so high - takes 30mins)

[Raiko]

Nicole glances at the data, but assumes that Virgil or Jojo will probably make more sense of it.

Accounting,Accounting(05% lol): [dice]0[/dice]

"Could you show us the controlled drugs cupboard Steve? And..."

She indicates Jojo, "As Doctor Johnson considers it unlikely that Doctor Holzer was taking narcotics, have you noticed similar any changes in behaviour in any other staff over the last few weeks?"

[Starspawn338]

Jojo takes the pharmacy datapad and pulls up the records.

OOC,Medicine 80 [dice]0[/dice] That's an extreme success!

After reviewing the data, he turns to Nurse Richards.

"Please bring Doctor Holzer's body in here. We are going to do a full autopsy."

Looking to Nicole and Virgil, he continues, "I should have the complete results in 4 hours.:

[Mephistophilis]

Richards shows Nicole the controlled drugs cupboard. It is an unremarkable metal cupboard mounted on the wall with a physical key hole. He unlocks it and inside can be seen stacks of medication boxes and a separate refrigerated section. There is a physical ledger for recording what has been used and Richards explains that is uploaded to the computer every evening.

Jojo,Dr Johnson can easily see the records have been doctored; a significant quantity of fentanyl is missing and its absence covered up in the inventory records.

Richards looks uncomfortable being questioned about the behaviour of other staff and he looks repeatedly at Dr Johnson before saying 'I can't tell you about anyone else's mental health history, that would be confidential.'

Richards goes to the morgue and returns wheeling a body inside a body bag, clipped to it is an ID badge that reads 'Dr Henry Holzer'. Richards gets changed into a splashproof oversuit and asks 'Will anyone else be observing?'

OOC,What will the others do while the autopsy takes place? Observe, search more in the clinic or doctor's apartment, or go somewhere else?

[aine]

Virgil finishes looking at the datapad,

Accounting,55 [dice]0[/dice]

I, er, I’m happy to leave it in your capable hands; you can fill me in later. Nurse Richards, could you direct me to the doctor’s apartment? I’d like to continue the investigation there.
He pulls out his own datapad and writes:
Note nurse did not confirm no strange behaviour which suggests other colonists are affected.

[Mephistophilis]

Virgil,Looking through the electronic records and comparing them to the paper ledger it looks to Virgil like a significant quantity of fentanyl is missing and its absence covered up in the inventory records.