Handwavium and medical technology

Blood Oranges

The Jason created these as a tribute to his mother and sister, both of whom are registered nurses. There are two varieties: the Sharon strain, and the Beth strain. There are characteristics common to both - they are dwarf orange trees, with very sturdy trunks and branches, usually growing no more than four or five feet tall, and can be grown in tubs. The branches have to be heavy/sturdy, because the oranges themselves are large when compared to normal citrus. Unlike normal citrus, the fruit are filled with fluid, not pulp - approximately one pint in a single orange. And yes, the oranges do contain human blood as one would gather from the name. A single tree can produce any of the normal human bloodtypes, and black markings on the orange rind tell what each fruit contains. If left on the tree, the blood will remain fresh and usable until the fruit falls from the tree. If picked, the fruit will need to be treated as a regular blood donation, kept refrigerated, and when the blood is unusable due to age, the markings fade to reflect this. Fallen fruit or picked fruit will eventually shrink and harden as the blood coagulates within until a large nut-like pod remains. This can be planted to start a new tree. The trees grow rapidly, most starting to bear fruit as soon as two or three years, though only a couple of fruit at a time until they mature. The trees are ever-bearing, with blossoms, developing fruit, and mature fruit all present on a tree at the same time. Only mature, usable fruit will show the bloodtype labels. The differences between the two varieties has to do with the presence of handwavium. The Beth strain was developed first, and contains enough handwavium within the blood to initiate an emergency biomod. As a warning, the rind of the fruit is a bright, safety-cone orange. One useful property of this type is that blood-typing does not need to be performed if the person receiving the blood does not have a biomod yet (though it's safest to do so unless it's an extreme emergency, since it's possible that exposure to handwavium might have created a minor biomod that has not been noticed). This will have the effect of shifting the person's blood type to the type used, unless the rest of the biomod is so extreme that the blood type changes to something exotic. The Beth variety will also occasionally produce an orange marked with an infinity sign instead of a normal blood type. These are rare - usually only one on a tree at any given time. The fluid contains handwavium, but is not normal blood; instead, the fruit is filled with a bright white liquid. Usage-wise, these are reserved for emergency biomodded patients, because when administered to a patient with an exotic bloodtype, the handwavium present doesn't act on the patient. It actually acts on the fluid, biomodding it to match the patient's bloodtype. It's still best for exotic types to store their own blood for emergencies due to the rarity of the infinite bloodtype fruits, of course. The Sharon strain, named for the Jason's mother, took longer to develop. This is actually a filtered variety - while handwavium is present in the tree proper, the blood does not contain any, and can be given to unmodded humans without triggering a biomod. To reflect this, the oranges are actually colored as normal blood oranges - citrus-fruit orange with a red mottling/blush over the rind. The blood is perfectly normal, and will need to be treated as any regular blood donation would be when administered to a regular patient. It can be given to any unmodded patient, and any biomodded patient as long as the biomod has not altered the patient's blood to an exotic. The trees do have several quirks/needs. The most obvious need is a requirement for an iron-rich soil, which will need to be supplemented with mineral/iron-rich fertilizer during the tree's lifetime. If this is not met, the number of fruit decreases, and any fruit produced will actually be anemic. Beth trees will actually need fertilizer that is rich in other metals as well, such as copper, in order to produce the infinity-variety fruit. The varieties share one quirk in common: both are afraid of needles. The sight of hypodermic needles will actually cause a tree to shrink back from the needle in fear, similar to the reaction of a sensitive plant though somewhat slower. Once the needle is removed, the tree will gradually relax, and return to its normal position. Due to the additional work needed on the Sharon strain to filter the handwavium from the fruit, that variety has a separate quirk; it needs at least one medical thriller or vampire story read to it a week to thrive. If a tree doesn't get its stories, it will stop blooming until the stories resume. Fortunately, books on tape or even computer-read stories are perfectly acceptable; there does not need to be an actual human reading the stories.

Handwavium and Medical Technology

When people discuss the relationship between handwavium and medicine, they're usually discussing the relationship between biomods and medical techniques. This relationship is difficult and complex.

Biomodification as a one-time-only medical procedure

If you're dying slowly, and you are not currently biomodded, and you manage to ingest some handwavium, you're almost certain to wind up as something that isn't dying slow. This is pretty significant. Just about any doctor worthy of the name who lives in a 'wave-friendly society is going to keep a supply of the stuff on hand, in the bio-friendliest strain he can find.

Biomods as medical protection

Some biomods deal with some medical problems all by themselves. If your biomod makes you naturally regrow limbs and damaged organs, then there's certain branches of medical science that you just don't have to worry about.

Biomods as medical complications

Fenspace doctors simply cannot be prepared in the same way that normal doctors are. If your blood is now copper-based, there's no way that they'll have your blood type in the freezers unless you yourself put it there. (However, Blood Oranges help to mitigate this lack.) If you no longer have the same organs in the same places doing the same things, their ability to come up with a diagnosis will be hampered, and their ability to perform surgery productively (if that's what's called for, and they figure it out in time) will be basically shot all to hell.

Medical wavetech

If a given medical establishment happens to have a device labelled "solve problem 'foo' just because - play Barry Manilow for at least 1 hour per 24" then that particular problem isn't a problem, so long as the stereo holds out. At least, if that's the correct label. Thankfully, wavetech devices tend to work with biomods quite well. This can help a rather lot on the previous issue, depending on the equipment in question, but never gets rid of it entirely. Also thankfully, "keep random lifeform alive and reasonably stable" is something that handwaved equipment does pretty well, so once you've got them in the medical center, you generally have some time to scratch your head and be confused while you're trying to figure out what to do next - so long as you don't run out of beds.

Mundane medical technology

The amount of daneside wealth flowing into Fenspace is pretty low, given the population. (Unless you're with Rockhounds, Hephaestus, or one of the other mining consortiums, who basically seized control of the metals market, or with Stellvia or another company that does major business with the 'danelaw.) This means that the amount that flows into the medical community and can be used for things like Extremely Pricey Medical Devices (or prescription medication) is also pretty low. A lot of the things that the daneside medical community takes for granted aren't necessarily available, and most of the sorts of things that you'd normally send patients to another hospital for, or send for from another hospital, are entirely absent.

Space is big

Remarkable percentages of the fenspace population live in tiny enclaves that are pretty far away from everybody. Folks die out in space and no one knows about it until later. Handwavium can stabilize you pretty effectively if they get you to a care center, but they have to get you there first. By the same token, with the percentage of biomods out there, and the fact that so many of the fatal accidents happen far away from home, organ donation in space is really pretty rare - and you can forget about pulling something up out of the gravity well. You might be able to keep someone stable on a trip back into the gravity well for a transplant, but you might not. Most unmodded patients who would normally get a heart transplant or a lung transplant or whatever back daneside take the guacamole instead. For the biomods, well, the chance of something going Terribly Wrong is usually too high to risk a transplant anyway - if you're lucky, your mod will save you.

In short...

All of this means that it's probably pretty common for people with dangerous jobs out space-side to stay deliberately unmodded - with almost the same degree of paranoia that they use on their environmental seals - and keep a slug of guacamole in their suit, just in case. If they come out of it with a mod that doesn't seriously improve their survivability by itself? Well, that's just God's little way of telling you that it's time to find some other line of work. Likewise, most of the people who are actually in the medical community who find out about the effects of biomods through some means other than personal experence will probably be keeping themselves clean, just in case - and urging their friends and family to do the same.

In response...

The Banzai Institute, particularly, is concerned with the medical implications of 'wavium. There are a respectable number of 'dane doctors on the Global Frequency. At least two medical personnel working directly for the Institute, the senior of which is married to BBI #1138, Sensei, who serves as the CIO of the organization and works out of the American headquarters. Guacamole is considered by the Institute one of the major issues that the 'danes have with 'wavium, and it has priority as a research subject.

'Wave-positive dirtside areas get much of the best of both worlds on the medical side of things; the best-known example is the Leonard H. McCoy Memorial Medical Center in Hobart, Tasmania. This has some interesting implications in terms of people hopping on planes to go get medical attention... but is something that Fenspace feels the 'danelaw should resolve.