Muggle Equipment in Wizard Remedies

[Ginny Weasley Potter]

Hello!

I'm currently typing out a snippet where one of my characters is... let's say, not in the best of *their* health (sorry, I can't reveal much, it's all supposed to be a mystery).

Anyway, the person slips into a coma and the condition gets serious., Usually, when a person is comatose, you have a ventilator, spirometer, ECG, drip etc. in normal hospitals. So, what would these equipments be replaced by, at St. Mungo's? They can't sort everything out with potions after all, so I'm guessing that these equiments may be present as wireless equipments or modified magical instruments.

Any thoughts?

Thank you!

[Inverarity]

How about a magical critter attuned to the patient, that starts making noise if the patient goes into distress?

Kind of a vague idea, but I'm sure you can sketch in the details. Make it a bird that hops up and down and chirps if the patient stops breathing, or maybe a specially-trained Clabbert that sits on the patient's chest and starts howling and flashing its red "danger" nodule if it feels the person's heartbeat stop, etc.

[LucillaJoanna]

Hello, Pooja,

I think I know which story this is for.

I like Inverarity's ideas. It's quaint and humorous enough for JKR. Let me add that the Wizarding world seems fond of glass thingies. We have the prophecies, Sneakoscopes, lunascopes, and how can we forget the Remembrall? St. Mungo's seems to use globes a lot. Glass globes are clean, compact and can emit both sound and light to tell Healers the condition of the patient, and contain magic for maintaining/supporting life as per your imagination and specifications.

[Ginny Weasley Potter]

I think I know which story this is for.

You sure do . Do you know who the person is?

Pauie, Inverarity, thanks for all your help! But I think I should mention here that ECGs and ventilators are more of precautions, rather than alarms.

According to my knowledge, in a coma, a person may stop breathing at any point of time. It is, however, not necessary that this will definitely happen. There are comatose people who can breathe normally throughout their condition. The ventilator is just there so that the person will not, in any condition, stop breathing.

Similarly, an ECG is to monitor the working of the heart muscles. You get a P- wave, which shows atrial contraction, then a QRS complex that signifies ventricular contraction, and finally a T- wave which means ventricular relaxation. For us, doctors normally check these graphs to check the availability of oxygen to the heart muscles, strain, etc. A graph, if any of you is interested:



So, when you stop breathing, your oxygen supply decreases, and you can see that in the heart muscles too.

Again, I'm sure that ECGs are painless, because they merely touch these leads to various parts of your body. But ventilators give pain. Unlike those big oxygen-masks in movies, in actual, you have tubes inserted into your trachea (blegh!). Then they force you to take in breath and release it. It's horrible, in fact.

Plus the drips. Drips are because a person can't eat in a coma, anyway, so there has to be some glucose intake to keep the brain activities alive. They are horrible, too. They pain. I don't have first-hand experience in any of this *touchwood* but I know from a friend who was admitted into a hospital in November last year with typhoid plus malaria. She told me that drips make you cry. Her hand was swollen .

So... I'm not sure about the drip, but I think wizards could have a painless way for the ventilator. That's just too horrible.

Anything more, on the topic?

Thanks!

[Inverarity]

No, drips are not fun. They hurt, and they also keep your bladder constantly filling up, no matter how often you empty it.

For a wizarding world alternative, I suggest a botanical solution. Some sort of vine that crawls down the patient's throat and provides water and/or air.

Perhaps Aquaferns or Hydrogeniis?

[Azhure]

For a wizarding world alternative, I suggest a botanical solution. Some sort of vine that crawls down the patient's throat and provides water and/or air.

Ahh, that makes me feel squeamish! A vine crawling down my throat... *shudders* It's an interesting idea, though.

Hmm, maybe there could be something as simple as a charm that you can cast on the patient to help them breathe, or at least give them nutrients? I'm thinking that it would be a difficult charm to perform, though.

Yes, Azhure is not feeling very creative today... I'll come back tomorrow with some interesting medical magical inventions, though!

[bellaoc]

Originally Posted by Inverarity
For a wizarding world alternative, I suggest a botanical solution. Some sort of vine that crawls down the patient's throat and provides water and/or air.

urrg yeah that creeps me out a bit too!!!! I feel like you could get away with using regular medical equipment, with magical charms on it. After all, they use regular muggle things in Harry Potter, like brooms and water taps and basically everything Muggle, with just a magical twist or addition. It could even be something like the little machines that Dumbledore had in his office, where he tapped his wand on it and puffs of smoke came out of it. I don't know the exact page, but you could do something like that. I hope that helps and wasn't as confusing as I think it was....good luck!
--Bella

[OliveOil_Med]

Another thing that might work is ready other fantasy books where magical objects are a major theme, like The Golden Compass; or even movies (I shudder even as I write that). Insperation can come from the strangest places. Sometimes the most helpful advice is just to sit and wait for it to come to you.

[Ginny Weasley Potter]

Thank you, Inverarity, Azhure, Bella and Molly!

This is what I'm deciding on:

ECG: Maybe instead of leads, there can be Inverarity's vines touching the veins with a glass sphere (as suggested by Pauie) to show the polarisation and depolarisation of the heart walls.

Ventilator: Here, I've decided to use Azhure's suggestion of a charm... something that creates a cosy mask around the nose and mouth so that the patient doesn't have tubes running down their noses as in poor Muggles (like us). *shudders* Urrghh...

Drip: I can't think of anything yet. Maybe if I get nothing at all, I'll just put the person in pain and create some romance because of the pain. ("Oh, your hand is swollen, honey! Let me put something on it...") LOL.

Ooh, and if anyone else has anything more to say, please do!

Thank you!

[whatapotter]

I'm pretty sure the wizarding world would not use drips.

Whenever we've had glimpses of Madam Pomfrey at work she uses only potions and charms - although I admit that a school nurse is not going to use anything as specialised as an intensive care ward at St Mungo's. There has never been any suggestion of needles, however, and I don't really think wizards would go around cannulating people (far too messy).

I don't really have any suggestions, apart from charming nutritive potions into their bloodstream/digestive system, depending on the level of accident. (Rubbish ideas, I know. Creativity is low today...)

I would also like to point out, however, that if you're using a wizarding alternative to a drip, then you'll also need an alternative to a catheter. (Again, maybe just a spell like a vanishing charm would work here, to vanish urine directly from the bladder?)

I might be going seriously over the top in what you wanted to include here, but I thought I'd point it out in case you hadn't considered it - I don't know the reasons surrounding why your character is in a coma - Trauma/Infection/Metabolic/Vascular etc, but the reason will affect the other things you need to think about. For example, the wizarding alternatives to antibiotics, blood transfusions and electrolytes, or substitutes for scans such as MRI/CT/EEG. I don't know whether it's relevant to your fic, or whether you'd be interested in the investigations they would do, but I'd be happy to help out if you are.

They'd also monitor baseline observations - pulse, blood pressure, temp - continually, so you could have fun playing around with different ways to wizardise these! (Although, these are the sort of things a school nurse would measure on her patients too, so it shouldn't be anything too wacky, otherwise we'd have seen it in the books!)

Also, if they're in the coma for a long time, physiotherapy would be needed. I don't know if they have this in the wizarding world, but it might be useful for you.

Right, maybe that was OTT. *Shrugs*, you activated my medic brain!

Hope I helped,

~Rhi x