Quick Reference
Authors: Antares and Shanahan
Last updated
Authors: Antares and Shanahan
Last updated
Assembled by the most excellent Shanahan, first of his name.
Advanced Medical can seem daunting at first, but it's actually quite easy to get a grasp of things with a bit of practice (and not being hit by mortars ;P ). Here's an easy overview, complete with printable cheatsheets that you can use to keep yourself in the action as a nonmedic.
Go to your ACE Options, and scroll down until you find "Use Medical Menu" and "Reopen Medical Menu." If you activate the medical menu (Default is H), it will bring up a detailed menu that makes ongoing treatment much easier to do than the interaction menu alone. In a pinch, you can use interact as well - I flip flop depending on if I know whether or not I'm safe. The option to reopen the menu upon successful completion of an action is up to personal choice, but it will save your place in self-interaction for the next time you press H. I haven't confirmed it saves for other players yet, I'll edit this section when I do.
If you Self-Interact to your arms or your head, you will now be able to take your heart rate with the "Check pulse" function. This measures the amount of times your heart beats per minute. The default pulse is 80 BPM, and this can only go up or down through a few ways - getting drugs, getting injured, or inaction. Running around won't raise your pulse significantly. To keep it brief: Heart Rate Chart Death to Coma: 0-20 BPM (If you go into a coma, you will slowly die unless someone can administer you epinephrine to bring your BPM back up) Low: 21-45 BPM (Heartbeat effect will play slowly under 60) Normal: 46-119 BPM High: 120-199 BPM (Heartbeat effect will play rapidly) Heart Attack: 200 BPM and above Blood Pressure is different from your heart rate; if heart rate is how fast the heart's going, blood pressure is a measure of how hard. Blood pressure is separated into two values, systolic (the number on the left, the pressure of your arteries when the heart contracts) and diastolic(the right number, the pressure of your arteries when the heart is at rest between beats). For the purposes of Advanced, systolic is the important one to watch - there's only one instance where diastolic comes in. The normal Blood Pressure is 120 systolic/80 diastolic. Blood Pressure Chart (Systolic) Death to Near Death: 0-20/- (You may not detect a pulse at all - use the CPR function on the Torso to potentially bring them back to 25 if they haven't hit 0 - it can take multiple attempts of CPR to work: I've saved an NPC after 14 attempts of CPR.) Low: 20-100/- Unconsciousness: 70/50 and below Normal: 100-160/- High: 160-260/- Heart Attack: 260/- and above There are also instances where both vitals play into each other, these are: Blood Pressure and Heart Rate Heart Attack: Systolic Blood Pressure is above 145 and Heart Rate is above 150 Heart Attack: Diastolic Blood Pressure is below 40 and Heart Rate is above 190
As a general rule of thumb, drugs are used to regulate heart rate, and IVs regulate blood pressure. Morphine is the only thing that touches on both. Drugs Morphine: Lowers Blood Pressure and Heart Rate (about 30-40 BPM), also treats pain Atropine: Lowers Heart Rate only (about 30-40 BPM) Epinephrine: Raises Heart Rate only (about 20-40 BPM) In general, it's good to apply epinephrine after using morphine if you can afford to - it reduces the safety period you'd need to wait between doses before chancing another. When dealing with too high of a heart rate, try to use atropine before using morphine - atropine doesn't touch blood pressure. IVs Saline, Blood, and Plasma are different from the autoinjectors in that there are different sized pouches you can administer (250ml, 500ml, and 1000ml), and they all take a bit more time than the autoinjectors for the effects to kick in. All of them are used to raise Blood Pressure. Pressures below are shown with recommended amount of IV substance to give. 45/30 - 4 liters 65/40 - 3 liters 85/50 - 2 liters 100/60 - 1 liter 105-110/70: 500/250 ml Saline: Does not need to be "refrigerated" (carried in a vehicle inventory or item crate), this acts as a temporary fix. Think of it like a buff - it lasts for a while and works in a pinch but the only real way to truly restore their HP is to give them blood or plasma up to a healthy volume. Blood and Plasma: Spoils if not "refrigerated" after a good 5-10 minutes or so, both seem to be pretty interchangeable - it's possible plasma may be a bit more effective; I'm still testing, but they seem very similar. This is the only way to permanently restore "HP" in the form of actual blood volume.
The Bandages At a glance, reference the linked chart and you'll see how different bandages are useful on different wounds. As a rough rule of thumb: All bandages are great with treating Scrapes and Bruises, Quikclot is only slightly less effective. Quikclot is moderately effective at all types of wounds except Avulsions - however, using it causes pain. It's best to use it as a supplemental bandage when you run out of others for specific wound types, or when you're trying to conserve types overall. Packing bandages are the best for Velocity Wounds, but are also the only kind effective at treating Avulsions; use these carefully if explosive threat is likely. No other bandage can treat Avulsions to any reasonable degree. It might be best to save one or two just in case of Avulsions, and use Quikclot instead. Elastic are your best bet for treating Punctures - Basic and Quikclot are only middling at best treating them. Elastic are the best for Cuts, Lacerations, and Crush type wounds. When you take fragmentation, these are the go-to. Basic bandages are best used as supplemental bandages for Crush Wounds, Tears, and Puncture wounds if you run out of those respective bandages, otherwise - save them for Bruises and Scrapes so you're not using more valuable bandage types on those wounds. Tourniquets are not mentioned - but they are extremely useful and everyone's got at least one: they can stop all blood loss on the limb they're put on. This is particularly useful if you have multiple heavy injuries to one or two limbs - you can seal off the worst-wounded limb and then take more time in treating it. However, if you leave a tourniquet on for more than 5 minutes, it will cause you pain. Removing the tourniquet returns it to your inventory. In general, packing and elastic bandages will be your best friend - as they cover the gamut of bullet wounds, explosives, and fragmentation that will make up the bulk of your ARMA injuries, supplemented with Quikclot. Prioritizing Injuries Avulsions Velocity Wounds Cuts Tear Punctures Crush Scrape Bruise Avulsions are the worst wounds, with extremely high pain, extremely fast bleedout, and only one bandage type good at treating them. Get these handled first. Velocity Wounds are the next worst, with extremely high pain, and medium bleeding depending on wound size Cuts and Tears have only light pain, but their bleed rate can vary from slow to medium depending on size Punctures have light pain and slow bleedout Crush Wounds have light pain and extremely slow bleedout Scrapes not only have extremely light pain, but also extremely slow bleedout Bruises have light pain, but no bleeding
Learn how to toggle on and use the Medical Menu, as it's a much better way of doing treatment when you're settling down to heal - if you gotta do it fast, stick with the interact functions. Keep an eye on your pulse and how many drugs you've got in your system - one morphine every 10 minutes is cutting it close - being able to tell the medic those things can help them treat you faster. Focus on how to prioritize your wounds, and how to effectively use your bandages for each wound type and the tourniquet for making treatment faster and better on your health. Once you get used to it, you can start coordinating your triage with medics more effectively. Also learn what bandages are second and third best for your wounds, so you're not wasting bandages if you run out of a given type. Understand that you won't often be able to treat all your wounds at once like in Basic - focus on the worst wounds, seal off the rest with a tourniquet, then fight it out until you can get a medic to look at you. You have a lot more "blood" with Advanced - if you handle the wounds with the worst bleedout, you can last for a while. Take it slower - reel back on your pace and take your time with advancing more than you have before. Suppression has never been more daunting - grenades have never been more harmful; things that would leave you dead in Basic will leave you alive in Advanced, but may take you out of the action all the same - keep the medic alive at all cost and have means of withdrawing to fallback points for triage. When a fireteam member gets injured, stabilize him. If your CFR can get him fixed up completely, good - if not, report it to the medic, leave him and keep up with your mission. Unlike Basic, people aren't gonna be ready fast if injured for the most part. They're a casualty until the medic can get to treating them. Stabilize, report, then keep on with the mission - they'll catch up when they can. In instances of mass triage, you may have to pick and choose who to stabilize based on your mission and the amount of medication you have available. It's the rough reality of simulated war - and an awesome moment for glory. Weep for your fallen brothers and hold their hands as they pass, then turn around and spew sweet vengeance. Do all you can within reason, but know that with Advanced - sometimes you can't save everyone. The squad medic is no longer backup SL, and the CFR is no longer nearly as expendable - they're probably the most valuable people on the team with Advanced. Keep them alive