Being Patient

The first thing to remember is that after a First Aid or Medical Tech roll is made, the patient still has to actually recover (this isn't a fantasy game where a magician can lay on hands and the gunshot victim springs up ready to tackle the next challenge). Each Wound State imposes certain limits on the character:

Light Wound: The patient is fully ambulatory; he can go about his business with a minor amount of pain.

Serious Wound: The patient is ambulatory, but will need his dressings changed once a day, and will be at -2 REF for all actions.

Critical Wound: The patient must spend at least half of his day in bed in order to regain any lost points of damage. Other activities must be limited at simple tasks, at a -4 REF to all actions. Dressings must be changed twice a day, and nursing care of some sort must be available.

Mortal Wound: The patient is bedridden. At Mortal Wounds 3 and above, he is probably comatose (50%) most of the time, and wired into all kinds of machinery for life support. He requires constant care during the entire process, although he will not have to make Death Saves (he's been stabilized).

A Sample Medical History

Ripperjack takes a gunshot wound (25 points total) to the gut, reducing him to Mortal 3. His partner has a high First Aid skill and makes a Stabilization roll to save him. So far, so good.

As soon as Ripperjack is stabilized, his partner calls in the Trauma Team™. Four minutes later, the AV-4 touches down. The Trauma Team™ Medic makes a Medical Tech check on Ripperjack. The roll is successful. The Team takes 'Jack to Night City General Hospital and checks him into Emergency.

As a Mortal 3 patient, it will take Ripperjack 13 days to recover enough to reach a Critical Wound state. During this time, he will be in a hospital bed, wired to life support, and out of it on drugs (when he reaches Mortal 2, the doctors can take him off the drugs and life support). At Critical, Ripperjack is able to hobble around the ward for a couple hours at a stretch, while the nurses look after him. In 4 more days, he's able to leave the hospital as long as he gets his dressings changed once a day. In 4 more days, he's nearly up to full function. It's taken him 21 days to get back on the Street. Now he can start earning enough money to pay off his medical bills.