# The Healing Of A Space Marine?



## SGMAlice (Aug 13, 2010)

Evening All,

I have started writing a piece of fluff for the Random Planet tournament and have come across a detail i have no knowledge of, nor can i find an answer (Not that i have looked much  )

In either case, i figured i would ask the denizens of Heresy for an answer.
So:

When a Space Marine is injured and unable to fight, but is judged save-able by the Apothercaries, rather than needing the Emperors Peace; How are they healed?

For example:



> Space Marine A has his arm and a chunk of his person choppa'd off by an Ork. Said Ork is then cut down in a feat of Super Human awesomeness by Space Marine A.


Where does the Apothecary B take him to get his arm sewn back on and his ribs replaced or whatever? A Pod, a'la Guilliman? or... What?


Alice

Edit: Checked Lexicanum... Alright, so Guilliman is in Stasis rather than a Healing Pod thingy but you get the idea


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## gen.ahab (Dec 22, 2009)

Depends on the damage done to the severed appendage or the ribcage. If the arm is too damaged, a bionic is used. If too much of the rib plate is removed... the marine is probably dead, but if he lives I would imagine everything lost could be replaced by bionics faster than organ replacement.

EDIT: Other than that, I would assume the procedure wouldn't be too different from healing a human. Clean the wounds, stop the bleeding, close them up and bed rest. Perhaps they use something akin to a bacta tank, but I can't recall hearing of one. I don't really know if they need it though. If a marine is hurt too severely they usually go into a coma like state and take care of that themselves.


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## Commander Nemesis (Jan 28, 2012)

They do mention something in Know no fear when remus ventanus is attacked at the comm station and an Ultra goes down pretty bad and he mentions getting him to biotech conditioning granted it would take a couple months.


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## BlackGuard (Sep 10, 2010)

To my understanding -- Space Marine's regenerative capabilities are startling. Bones automatically knit back together, while internal bleed (assuming it does not exceed the body's natural abilities) is staunched. Therefore it stands to reason why we have never (at least I have never) heard or seen anything that relates to a paralyzed Astartes.

To answer your question -- the bleeding would stop itself within a few seconds thanks to the Astarte's Larramen Cells (I know its spelled wrong and it may even be the wrong organ). The arm would likely just be discarded, a bionic one is easy to graft and ubquitious for an Astartes. That is not to say that his arm could not be saved and that such arts exceed the Apothecarion's skills -- rather to an Astartes weather they have a flesh arm or a bionic one isn't of paramount concern and therefore battlefield and tactical expediancy is given a higher priority than the personal desires of a single Marine.

Should the fused ribs somehow be chopped off, likely a adamantium plate would be grafted along with a bionic shoulder and arm piece. 

All bionic replacements and augmentation would, of coarse, take place in the Chapter's nearest Apothecarion -- battlefield medical attention would be limited to pain suppressors, ensuring blood-loss was halted, and likely a slap on the back for actually making it.


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## Shattertheirsky (May 26, 2012)

I don't think you can heal in stasis. Guilliman isn't healing, he's dead, end of. (Expecting criticism from smurf lovers :/ )


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## SGMAlice (Aug 13, 2010)

So far, all your answers are in line with what i have found out myself about the specifics of the character i seek to write of, so expect some Rep coming your way.

My main concern right now is the intermediate care, the little healing stages inbetween all the major operations such as bionics and grafting. My aim is for the passages to be as descriptive as possible. If, however, nothing more presents itself then i will have to get creative.

Thank You all for your time and words. Any more is appreciated 

Alice


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## Shady ed (Sep 9, 2010)

I swear I read somewhere about a regenative "vat" type thing. Like in Starship troopers.


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## redmapa (Nov 9, 2011)

iirc on the final issue of the damnation crusade comic book the marine that's soon to be entombed on a dreadnought (Tankred) is put on a vat kind of thing (like the ones in starship troopers/star wars) before the actual entombment, I'd guess it was so his body could get used to the bionic implants that allow the synchronicity with the dreadnought so I suppose the same procedure goes for bionic implantation, though I'd say that marines wouldnt require to be put on a regenerative vat if it was to replace an arm because of their post-humanity..


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## Dicrel Seijin (Apr 2, 2011)

Here are some examples of fluff that could answer your questions:

In the epilogue to Graham McNeill's _Warriors of Ultramar_, 

Uriel Ventris has been poisoned and his body's response to the Tyranid venom is to clot all the blood in his body. He is actually dead at one point before anti-coagulants and blood transfusions are administered.


It's not explained exactly where he is, but he recuperates on a sturdy bed in a stone chamber with a vaulted ceiling. The apothecary enters through a nearby arch. He's been bandaged up and there's a drip-feed. The apothecary mentions he won't be going anywhere for a while (so the assumption is bed rest). There's not much more in the way of details.

In McNeill's _Dead Sky, Black Sun_, 

Pasanius has his arm cut off by a Savage Mortician wielding a buzzsaw. No anesthetic or anything. Once the arm is lopped off, Pasanius is left chained down as his bloody stump heals over. He actually is up and fighting within literally a minute of this as he makes his escape.


Granted he did not suffer a chest wound at the time (it was earlier, when he and the others were being taken prisoner).

There is also the time in _The Killing Ground_ when characters are healed by chirugeons and servitors of the Grey Knights. The tech is considerably more advanced.


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## Necrosis (Nov 1, 2008)

Isn't this why dreadnoughts were invented for?


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## Chompy Bits (Jun 13, 2010)

SGMAlice said:


> So far, all your answers are in line with what i have found out myself about the specifics of the character i seek to write of, so expect some Rep coming your way.
> 
> My main concern right now is the intermediate care, the little healing stages inbetween all the major operations such as bionics and grafting. My aim is for the passages to be as descriptive as possible. If, however, nothing more presents itself then i will have to get creative.
> 
> ...


Don't know if this is what you're looking for, but in _The Purging of Kadillus_ a good chunk of the story follows the actions of a Dark Angels Apothecary during a battle with the Orks.

At one stage a marine does actually suffer a wound very similar to what you described in your first post, though it's a shell rather than a blade that rips off his arm. The Apothecary notes that it's important to save as much of the existing skeletal, nerve and blood vessel structure as possible if they want to give him a prosthetic later.

They also go into a bit of detail about the effects of the larraman cells. It states that sometimes the wounds actually scab over too quickly, causing air bubbles to get trapped in the blood vessels, possibly leading to necrosis and cell death if the marine doesn't receive proper medical attention. To that extent, the Apothecary used a thinning agent to slow down the effect of the larraman cells so that he could properly cauterize the wound, then injected anti-inflammatory and cell-growth drugs and finally used a compound that actually enhances the effect of the larraman cells, resulting in that the wound completely scabbed over in seconds. 

And after making sure everything else was fine, which included smacking the marine in the head to get him to snap out of a half dream state a malfunction in his catalepsean node had caused, he gave him a bolt pistol and told him to carry on.:laugh:

I can't recall reading about any healing vats or something along those lines. Closest thing I can recall is the use of stasis fields to store severely wounded individuals until they can receive proper treatment. In anyways, the marine's sus an membrane seems to fulfill a similar role, putting them, either conciously or as a reaction to extreme trauma, into a state of suspended animation where the energy in their bodies are diverted fully to survival and recovery. In this state they can survive for years despite suffering wounds that would normally be mortal. The one chaplain, Boreas, in that same novel, survives his encounter with an Ork Warlord and his retinue in such a manner.

Anyway, hope this helps.


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

There are medical facilities on planets or on their vessels. Apothecarian, medical bay, whatever.

It's more or less the same as a normal place of healing. Some examples can be seen in _The Emperor's Finest_, _Blood Reaver_, and _Prospero Burns_.

Post-op care seems minimal. After even the most grievous of injuries, Space Marines seem to just take a break from normal activities for a week or so and get back to work. We see as much with Maloghurst in _Horus Rising_.

So to your original question about having an arm chopped off, it probably wouldn't slow them down much. The wound would scab over and they would attach a bionic sometime later.

A Space Marine body seems to be amazingly resilient. In _Blood Reaver_ Huron Blackheart suffers from chronic pain. The pain is so bad he must have his pain receptors burnt out by his apothecaries. Even so, the nerves manage to regenerate in a matter of months and necessitates a repeat of the procedure.


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## Brother Lucian (Apr 22, 2011)

Near the beginning of 'Grey Knights', Alaric wakes up in a healing tank.


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## SGMAlice (Aug 13, 2010)

Excellent!

I think i have everything i need. This Fluff piece is disposable at best but i don't do things by half. Most of you should have recieved Rep for your help.

Thanks to you all 

Alice


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## Rems (Jun 20, 2011)

Whilst this topic has been pretty well covered i would add that i do recall one of the _Galaxy in Flames_ stories, featuring an apothecary. There they use some re-purposed Thunderhawks as triage stations and temporary med-bays. They're also used to transport the wounded marines into orbiting strike cruisers with their more equipped medical bays.


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## Over Two Meters Tall! (Nov 1, 2010)

Regarding the 'healing vat' and the discussion about entombment in a Dreadnaught, I would imagine this is the same kind of vat that princeps are eventually loaded into for control of the larger Titan models.


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## tabbytomo (Aug 12, 2008)

Can i just point out for the sake of awesomeness that Pasanius smiles as the arm is cut off, happy to see the xeno's thing go. Unless injuries stop marines moving, they will fight through pretty much anything, if they live, bionics, if they are beyond bionics dreadnought, if they are beyond instilling into a dreadnought, may the emperors watch their soul.


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## Veteran Sergeant (May 17, 2012)

Brother Lucian said:


> Near the beginning of 'Grey Knights', Alaric wakes up in a healing tank.


I'm fairly sure there have been other examples of this, but I can't recall them off the top of my head. It also seems reasonably likely considering all the other stuff the Imperium grows in a vat, lol.

I'd imagine that seriously injured Space Marines use their SusAn to shut down and that enhances the healing process too and their body's natural healing/regenerative processes kick in. Complete amputations may just be simpler and more effective to replace with bionics. Space Marines are nothing if not pragmatic in their thinking most of the time. Arm gone? Bolt me on a new one Doc. The Marines getting interred into Dreadnoughts are the ones who've been utterly mangled. That's why I've never liked the Venerable Dreadnought models with their "heads". While sure it can be argued that it's just for show and contains sensors and not the actual Marine, it defeats the aesthetic for what it would take to demolish a Space Marine and subject him to a dreadnought. Would he even have functional eyes and ears and such anymore? We're talking about grievous wounds here.


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Veteran Sergeant said:


> I'd imagine that seriously injured Space Marines use their SusAn to shut down and that enhances the healing process too and their body's natural healing/regenerative processes kick in.


While in a Sus coma they don't really heal. Everything thing is brought to a biological crawl. This includes (but is not limited to) dying and healing.



Veteran Sergeant said:


> That's why I've never liked the Venerable Dreadnought models with their "heads". While sure it can be argued that it's just for show and contains sensors and not the actual Marine, it defeats the aesthetic for what it would take to demolish a Space Marine and subject him to a dreadnought. Would he even have functional eyes and ears and such anymore? We're talking about grievous wounds here.


The Dreadnought's "head" does not contain the Space Marine's head. Everything that remains of the Space Marine is within the casket in the body of the machine.

They sense the outside world through sophisticated and comprehensive mechanical means directed wired into them.


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