Contest Of Skills: Paramedic and "The Golden Hour"

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by swordtart

My understanding was the golden hour was only applicable if some first aid was applied immediately (all servicemen carry field dressings).

One can slow down the effects of trauma; but in order to have any kind of certainty of saving the victim, he needs to be sent to a proper trauma unit (the kind with spare blood, lots of thread and needles, that sort of thing).

Of course: Up here at the local race track a couple years ago, a driver suffered a fatal heart attack -- as in "this guy was Legally Dead for three minutes" -- and was brought back successfully, so there's all sorts of variables....

Originally Posted by swordtart

Are we saying that our RR case left entirely alone on the field of battle to bleed out for 10 minutes can be recovered 50% of the time? Or are we assuming he is patched up with a paramedic within the 20 seconds anyway?

That's what the "overkill" value is for -- "how badly beat-up is the subject?". A character not wearing any armor [3 DP] who takes a direct hit from a 2d6 weapon [12 pts.] is unlikely to survive [12 - 3 = 9 "Overkill"]; add 15 minutes to that, and there's no saving him unless one has "Superman School" Paramedic skill. If the victim takes a hit from an ATG or BC, chances are he's Chunky Salsa to start with....

In the example I used: The victim was relatively fortunate -- he was wearing armor, which mitigated the "overkill" value he ended up with. Do note that in the example, the first Paramedic roll was only enough to cover the ride back to the Medical Bay; had the value been much higher, it would have taken much more effort to knock down the number far enough to get him ready for the ride ("stabilize for transport").