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Author Topic: Science: some observations on infection and death  (Read 3289 times)

Sutremaine

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Science: some observations on infection and death
« on: February 14, 2014, 04:38:34 pm »

I did 42 runs with a dwarf who had a lot of injuries, and found out some interesting things.

The first 14 runs were done with a hospital with access to the following: thread, cloth, soap, splints, and a traction bench. Overall, the dwarf died 8 times and recovered 6 times. Data for these runs is rather patchy and inconsistently taken.
The second 14 runs added water washing, applied via bucket brigade. Overall, the dwarf died 8 times and recovered 6 times.
The last 14 runs added a table for surgery. Overall, the dwarf died 6 times and recovered 8 times.

Dwarf injuries, 18th Obsidian
Red: Right Upper Arm, Left Lower Arm, Right Hand, Left Hand, Right Upper Leg, Left Upper Leg, Right Lower Leg, Left Lower Leg, Right Lung, Left Elbow, Right True Ribs.
Yellow: Upper Body
Brown: Left Cheek

Max blood count: 4440
Blood lost or gained per day: 70
Lowest blood count: 30

Blood count changed at approximately 4am, not as the day started. Some of the dates are wrong, but a few of them being one day out doesn't bother me. All dates are as originally recorded, and infection counts are all for 1st Felsite.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Survival rates by number of infections:
1 infection ---------- 2/2
2 infections --------- NA
3 infections --------- 3/3
4 infections --------- 13/16
5 infections --------- 2/9
6 infections --------- 0/4
7 infections --------- 0/7

I'm not sure if the next batch of statistics is really helpful, but I'll throw it in anyway.
Survival rate by washing:
No soap, no bucket -- 0/2
No soap, bucket ----- 1/6
Soap, no bucket ----- 6/12
Soap, bucket -------- 16/22

Other observations:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

------------------
So, what can we draw from this?

1. Bucket brigades (or a loop of screw pumps) might or might not be useful. They may interfere with diagnosis, with the diagnostician reading a water-covered dwarf as clean when they really should be getting a nice soapy bath. If the water can be applied after soaping, it might or might not help. Further testing required.
2. Blood loss and blood gain happen at the same rate for the same dwarf.
3. Changes in blood level are decided about once a week, starting at the 1st of every month.
4. Infections can appear at any time. Data not provided in this post shows that they can occur after suturing. Whether they can occur after dressing is unknown. Further observation required.
5. Changes in blood level appear to be percentage based.
Test dwarf: 70/4440 a day = 1.576...% a day.
Other dwarf: 110/7020 a day = 1.566951...% a day.
Further observation required, however, as there are only two data points for this.
6. Tables are really, really useful for mangled dwarves.
7. Not within the scope of this, as testing was cut short as soon as an increase in blood count was observed, but dwarves may or may not be able to relapse once they start to recover.

Based on #3 and #5, each dwarf has at least ten rolls of the die before they die. A dwarf who is Faint has already failed five of them, and a dwarf who is Pale has failed seven.
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smjjames

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Re: Science: some observations on infection and death
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2014, 11:26:09 pm »

Reminds me of this miner that I had in this fort which, along with another miner, fell to the bottom of the main stairwell, landed on top of the first (now dead) miner and managed to survive with a great many bone breaks and ended up with many (or all?) wounds infected Didn't have any soap at the time, but I don't think soap and water alone would have saved him, the miner would have needed modern antibiotics. He fought on for a bit and then succumbed.

Also, the wiki specifically says that tables are required for the surgery bit, though I've seen dwarves do surgery where the patient is resting.
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wooks

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Re: Science: some observations on infection and death
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2014, 12:56:52 am »

I wonder if you could mod the raws to make a liquid like gnomeblight help cure infections? It would be needlessly complicated to apply, but interesting none the less.
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Sutremaine

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Re: Science: some observations on infection and death
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2014, 05:07:45 pm »

Where's it say in the wiki that tables are required? I checked under Surgeon, Table, and Healthcare, and didn't find anything.

There's no way of curing infections directly, I think, but you could create a syndrome that boosts an affected creature's Recuperation and then find some way of applying it. I'm not sure how the HAS_BLOOD token interacts with syndromes. NO_CONNECTIONS_FOR_MOVEMENT might allow a creature to get up and soap themselves even if every bone in their body is broken, but I don't know if post-infection cleansing helps any.
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I am trying to make chickens lay bees as eggs. So far it only produces a single "Tame Small Creature" when a hen lays bees.
Honestly at the time, I didn't see what could go wrong with crowding 80 military Dwarves into a small room with a necromancer for the purpose of making bacon.

XXSockXX

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Re: Science: some observations on infection and death
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2014, 05:20:14 pm »

Where's it say in the wiki that tables are required? I checked under Surgeon, Table, and Healthcare, and didn't find anything.
In the "Setting up a Hospital" section of the Healthcare article:
Quote
Build at least one table (b-t) for surgeons to perform surgery on. You may perform surgery without tables; it will be more messy.

    Place the tables right next to the beds, or you may get "cancels surgery, patient not resting" spam, as moving the sleeping patient more than one square from the bed to the table wakes up the patient. Bug:2773
    Multiple dwarves may undergo simultaneous surgeries on the same table.
I build a table next to every bed in the hospital and I think I got that from the wiki. Seems to work for me.

Doesn't really say they are required for surgery though, right.
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PaleBlueHammer

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Re: Science: some observations on infection and death
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2014, 07:30:00 am »

Not sure if I glossed over it or not; was the water *clean*?  It may not make a difference at this level, but I always try to plop a well down in the hospital with pumped water beneath it (or a cistern).
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Sutremaine

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Re: Science: some observations on infection and death
« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2014, 08:35:43 am »

Clean water, yes, taken from a source two levels deep.
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I am trying to make chickens lay bees as eggs. So far it only produces a single "Tame Small Creature" when a hen lays bees.
Honestly at the time, I didn't see what could go wrong with crowding 80 military Dwarves into a small room with a necromancer for the purpose of making bacon.