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Bits and Pieces from the NR Trivia Collection
#19: Trauma Team

by Jens Kreutzer

Trauma Team is one of those cards that never see a lot of play. After all, a resource that prevents meat damage doesn't make much sense: Usually, when a Runner takes meat damage, he or she has been tagged. Therefore, the Corp can just trash Trauma Team and then deal the meat damage. While this costs the Corp an action and two bits and provides an additional barrier of some kind, it seems that Trauma Team won't ever get to do much actual preventing. That is a pity, because the card has a really cool flavor. Taken from R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. roleplaying game, Trauma Team Inc. is essential for the continued survival of the average group of Cyberpunks. Let's look at the Cyberpunk rulebook, second edition, page 119-20:

"One of the most powerful Corporations of the Cyber Age is the Trauma Team; a bonded and licensed paramedical franchise operating throughout the U.S., Canada and parts of Europe. These crack ambulance units are specifically designed to get to the scene of a fatality within seven minutes (or your money back).

"Trauma Team's crews are made up of the best paramedical techs and staff available. The teams are usually made up of a driver, a senior Medtechie, an assistant and two security officers. They normally travel in a heavily armored AV-4 aircraft, supported by mobile tanker trucks and ground refuelling stations. A Trauma Team AV-4 contains the most sophisticated revivification and life support technology available, including a mobile cryotank to lower the body temperature to approximately 24 degrees F (the optimum temperature to prevent hemorrhaging, shock, and brain swelling).

"Trauma Teams can be summoned by dialing 911 on any phone, and are equipped to trace the origin of any phone call to its source. (You're billed from the moment you call, until delivery to the hospital.) You may also opt to carry a deadman transmitter, which will activate and automatically signal a Trauma Team the moment your brainwave pattern falls into a coma state. The most common transmitter is in the form of a plastic card, which is activated by bending the card in half, and has a range of 20 miles. Trauma cards can be transferred between members of a group as long as the card owner is present to to sign the charges off when the team arrives.

"There are usually a dozen or more Trauma Teams on call at any time in a major city. Immediately after receiving an alert, the nearest Trauma Team unit goes airborne, their sophisticated tracking equipment homing in on the last known location of the patient. The pilot (who is skilled enough to set his six-ton AV-4 on top of a parked car if need be) drops in as close as possible. If the firefight is still going on, the security team secures the area (using the AV's twin autocannon or their own portable weapons). The medtechs load the patient on board, shunting his life support on to the onboard heart-lung machines, plugging him into onboard biomonitors, and chilling his body down in the refrigerated tank for stabilization. Rapid surgery is performed on the spot for the most critical wounds, while the med specialist uses a combination of electroshock, drugs and manual resuscitation to get the patient on-line again. The pilot slams down the throttles, and the AV-4 rockets skywards on a pillar of exhaust, headed for the nearest emergency room. The entire process may have taken all of four minutes from start to finish.

"As a privately-owned concern, Trauma Teams are not under any obligation to transport a casualty to a hospital, although they are responsible for reviving and stabilizing critically wounded patients. Trauma Team fees are exceedingly steep ($100 per minute), the best method of offsetting their exorbitant costs is to either carry Trauma Team services as part of a Corporate group insurance policy, or to establish an account with TT International, paying a premium of $500 in advance each month for continued service."

In the card illustration by Mike Kimble, we can see a Trauma Team AV-4 in flight, swooping past two structures that bear the trefoil logo of Arasaka Corp, autocannons blazing. The French version of the card has a flavor text: "C'est pas la balle ou il y a marque mon nom qui m'inquiete, c'est la balle ou il y a marque 'pour qui de droit'."--Resident anonyme de Belfast. This translates to: "It's not the bullet with my name on it that worries me, it's the bullet that says 'for anyone appropriate'."--An anonymous resident of Belfast.