The two other main ones that come to mind would be hibernation sickness and Force manipulation. Hibernation sickness occurs when a person is frozen in carbonite for too long, causing a range of symptoms including memory loss, but these symptoms usually only last a day or so, which (correct me if I’m wrong) doesn’t seem to be what you’re looking for. Alternately, the Force can be used to manipulate a being’s memory, sometimes causing permanent brain damage by accident or on purpose. An example would be the use of the mind probe ability (also called Drain Knowledge).
I would say that a concussion is probably your best bet, definitely the most common cause of memory loss and likely the easiest to work into a story. A ship crash especially would be easy, because oxygen deprivation resulting from inhaling the smoke and fumes is pretty likely to cause short-term memory loss at the least. (Though, if you’d prefer something else, this also means that being Force-choked for too long is a definite option.)
I hope this helps a bit! Feel free to follow up if you need more information!
Medpac info and diagrams (from The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology). Transcript under the cut.
“Medpacs are emergency medical kits used in the field to treat minor injuries and stabilize badly injured patients until they can be taken to advanced medical facilities. These inexpensive kits cost only about a hundred credits each but carry a wide variety of medicines and emergency-care tools. Internal diagnostic computers offer the user complete descriptions of essential procedures, and so persons with no medical training can use them effectively.
“The Chiewab GLiS (General Life-Sustaining) is a basic medpac and carries supplies for treating contusions, broken bones, burns, and traumatic injuries. Its computer can store treatment procedures for one species at a time – typically humans – although program modules can be purchased for thousands of other species. Its limited diagnostic scanner allows the user to monitor a patient’s vital signs constantly.
“Standard medicines include coagulants to stop bleeding, healing salves and sterilizers used to treat burns, and antiseptic irrigation bulbs and disinfectant pads that cleanse wounds and prevent infections. Small bacta patches can be applied to promote the healing of traumatized tissues. Stim-shots and adrenaline boosters keep the patient alert and prevent him or her from going into shock, while painkillers and localized nerve anesthetics reduce discomfort. General-use antibiotics, countertoxins, and immunity boosters can be used to treat patients subjected to poisons, animal venoms, diseases, and infectious microbes, thus stabilizing a patient until he or she arrives at a health facility where more potent countertoxins can be administered.
“All medicines can be applied through patches or painlessly injected with a spray hypo. The GLiS also has a bone stabilizer and several spray splints that immobilize and protect broken bones; when the patient arrives at a hospital, bone fusers can repair the damage completely.
“More advanced and expensive medpacs such as the BioTech FastFlesh are designed for use by trained medics and include a much larger assortment of medicines. These medpacs are excellent for battlefield use, offering multiple spray splints, large supplies of stimulants and body boosters, and advanced synthe-nutrient replicators that sustain patients with vital nutrients. Specialized medicines can counter the effects of radiation, biological poisons, and nerve agents. The FastFlesh medpac also includes a canister of chromostring, which offers deeper penetration of healing agents without causing nerve damage. This medpac has several instruments for emergency field surgery, including a sonic scalpel, a laser cauterizer, and nerve and tissue regenerators.
“The FastFlesh diagnostic computer’s database covers five hundred different species and is linked to the unit’s remote scanner and a sample analyzer that can identify poisons, toxins, and unknown compounds. The computer automatically stores a record of the patient’s condition for later reference. This medpac costs five hundred credits and is widely used by emergency-care technicians, including many New Republic medics.”
It really depends on the specific injuries that the person has sustained. A good starting place, if you haven’t already checked it out, might be the medical terms section of my vocab list here. There’s a bunch of equipment and medicine listed there other than bacta, although bacta is normally a staple of medical treatment and is used in many other products.
If your character is bleeding to death, bacta will probably not be a first step in their treatment/stabilization. Although I don’t know what piece of equipment you’re referring to in the comics (you’re welcome to submit/message me a picture, if you like) I would guess that it may be some sort of tourniquet. Some tourniquets (such as the SGB-543) could apply micro-repulsor fields in specific places to stop internal bleeding, as opposed to various other bandages, coagulants and cauterizers, which stopped external bleeding. Depending on the exact type of wound, different methods would be used to do this; there are circumstances where cauterization is not appropriate, for example, and tourniquets are not necessarily always a good idea, especially if they must be improvised. I’m not a real-life medical expert, though, so you may want to take a look through @scriptmedic‘s blog, since they have answered questions on the topic.
If there is no significant bleeding (e.g., in the case of a lightsaber wound) but the character is still in critical condition, they would usually be kept in a bacta tank. Bacta is used as sort of a cure-all because it helps regenerate damaged cells, but it takes time to work and the character may need additional life support while they heal. Transporting someone in this sort of condition would be very risky, but could be made possible for short periods of time (for instance, until they got to a ship with a medbay) if there’s a medpac or medkit on hand. Since many ships, even small ones, could be fitted with decent medbays including a medical droid and/or diagnostic computer, that may be a good first stop for your characters. You can find a bit more detail on that in this post.
As for real-life medicine, there’s no reason you can’t revert to more simple, low-tech treatments in a pinch. However, many of these simpler treatments have different names or alternative versions in-universe, so taking a look through the vocab list and Wookieepedia may help.
Though they did have their own investigators with jurisdiction spanning most of the galaxy, when trying to track someone down the Empire was often known to employ bounty hunters. All of these sorts of investigations were carried out by the Imperial Office of Criminal Investigations. There’s a lot of information there, so I would suggest reading through that. Take special note of the Imperial Enforcement DataCore and the Imperial Peace-Keeping Certificates; this should all give you an idea of how the Empire does business with registered and unregistered bounty hunters.
I hope that helps! If you’ve got any follow-up questions, feel free to ask!
Sorry about the wait! Basically, blaster bolts may or may not cauterize the wound they make. There will certainly be burning, but they can still bleed. Due to the physics of a blaster bolt, blunt force injuries can also occur. (I discuss this in a bit more detail here and here). Most often, however, the wound is largely cauterized by the heat of the bolt. As a result, they are very difficult to treat without the regenerative properties of bacta, and thus the default treatment is application of a bacta bandage or, if the injury is serious enough, submersion in a bacta tank. The bandages must be changed regularly, and the patient may need surgery if the bolt has hit and burnt any organs, but if they can survive long enough to get treatment they often make a full recovery.
X-rays exist in the Star Wars universe, and appear to be used in much the same way as in the real world. They can be used in medical devices and security scanners, and sensors exist to detect them.
As far as we know, it appears that the New Republic, and by extension the Resistance, did not have medical stations like the GAR did, but they certainly did have dedicated medical facilities. A military force can’t function without them. Since the Resistance works out of ships and small planetary bases, that is where their facilities are located. They owned at least one modified Nebulon-C escort frigate, which they used as a medical frigate. The NR had more options, as a legitimate government, and though we don’t know of any it is possible that they could have had medical stations at their disposal. If they abandoned the idea, it would probably not be because of any risk associated with it (since any medical facility or vessel is going to be vulnerable to attack), but perhaps because they no longer needed them after the demilitarization and such a long stretch of peacetime.
It’s never really explained how kolto works, unfortunately, so there’s no way to compare the specific mechanisms. The big functional difference we know of is that bacta works better than kolto (though it may have been the opposite at some time in galactic history), and that’s about it. Sorry!
I don’t believe it’s explicitly said whether bacta can be used to heal scars. However because wounds healed with bacta can still scar, and because getting treatment faster increases the chance of full recovery and reduces the chance of scarring (implying that the bacta can only effectively heal that tissue which had not already scarred), I would say that bacta probably can’t heal existing scars.
This first post focuses on how medicine is practiced on the battlefield and within various military organizations. The next part will be about civilian medicine and common procedures.
I’ve included both Canon and Legends information, but I’ve distinguished the two where they can’t work together. From here, canon (lowercase) will refer to the new Canon (post-April 2014) and Legends combined. The most prominent and well-known militaries are included in this post; if you don’t see one here, it’s probably because not much information was available and it is a more obscure group. If you would like to know about one that isn’t here, feel free to send an ask.
The rest is under the cut. Sorry if it doesn’t work for mobile users!
Galactic Republic
Within the Grand Army of the Republic, there were several different kinds of medical practitioners. Clone medics and clone medical officers were bred and trained to treat other clones; while clone medics participated in battles with the other clone troopers, medical officers were stationed on Haven-class medical stations, capital ships, and at mobile medcenters, and they wore white uniforms rather than armour. Some medics trained to become a first aid specialist (sometimes abbreviated to FAS), a medic who treated and stabilized injured clones in the middle of a battle.
It is unclear exactly how medics fit into the command structure of the GAR. Some, like Sergeant Coric, had known military titles while others, like Kix, were referred to only as a clone trooper medic. In medical matters, however, medics were known to outrank their commanding officers.
Equipment
Clone medics carried backpacks filled with medical equipment when they went onto the battlefield. They were known to be equipped with two vibroscalpels, two laser cauterizers and a laser scalpel, as well as bandages and various bacta products. Some sources suggest that they carried medpacs, meaning they could also have had medisensors, synthflesh, kolto, spray bandages, hypos, irrigation bulbs, coagulants and various medical drugs on their person. While these supplies allowed the medics to perform basic procedures, medcenters and medbays were relied on for more complete treatment. As a result, on long campaigns or in situations where evacuation could not be provided, medics may be forced to leave badly injured clones behind.
Medical droids were also available to help treat patients. The meddroids used by the Republic during the Clone Wars could be found at any permanent or makeshift medical facility, and sometimes were even set up near the front lines at small mobile aid stations, but they were not generally brought into the actual fighting like the clone medics were due to their restricted mobility. The 2-1B surgical droids and FX-series medical assistant droids were popular models within the Grand Army, and they often worked together with the FX-series as the assistant to the 2-1B. Both could work in tandem with a clone medic/medical officer or a Kaminoan, or perform a medical procedure by themselves. IM-6 meddroids, on the other hand, were able to move into the middle of a fight and drag injured soldiers away for treatment. They were much smaller than the 2-1B and FX-series droids, and hovered on repulsors rather than walking or rolling. They were also very popular in the GAR and could be stationed on anything from Star Destroyers to gunships and walkers. (See links for more specific information on these meddroids).
If a clone survived the initial injury and could be recovered from the battlefield, he was brought to a Republic Mobile Surgical Unit (RMSU). RMSUs were small mobile hospitals, able to be set up or taken down in under an hour, that were located near the fighting and were equipped to either completely heal the injury or keep the clone stable until he could be brought to a medical station. They were staffed by surgeons, medical officers and medical droids, and were theoretically capable of dealing with any injury, as they included equipment such as bacta tanks, antisepsis fields and even cloning tanks to grow replacement organs. However, in reality, they often experienced critical shortages of personnel and supplies.
The injured clone could then be brought by medical frigate to a Haven-class medical station. The Republic commissioned twenty Haven-class medical stations at the beginning of the Clone Wars, one for each Sector Army. They were stationed in space near battlegrounds and could treat nearly 80,000 patients at once. There is little information on what these stations were equipped with in terms of equipment and supplies, but they were staffed by clone medical officers, medical droids and, in at least one case, a Jedi and a Kaminoan.
Two common medical frigates used by the Republic were the MedStar-class and the more heavily armed Pelta-class frigates. These ships often accompanied the rest of the fleet into battle and were equipped to both treat and transport patients, and were staffed by medics and, occasionally, Jedi healers. The frigates were also commonly used to transport supplies between medical stations, larger bases and RMSUs.
In other cases, clones were brought to a medical station by their Star Destroyer. This could be the better option following a battle in space, where injured pilots or crewmembers could be stabilized in the SD’s medbay and transported on one large vessel instead of needing several frigates.
Injured members of planetary defense forces fighting along with the Republic military would likely be dealt with differently, but it is not specified how in canon.
Trade Federation/Separatist Droid Army
The droid army did not employ medics, though they did use the MED-47 and AK-25-MED models of medical droid when dealing with organics. These situations usually involved torture of the opposing side’s soldiers.
Galactic Empire
The medical treatment of Imperial stormtroopers and other soldiers was often very similar to that of the Republic’s clones. Imperial medics and 2-1C medical droids worked in medbays, field hospitals and directly on the battlefield. Medics who were attached to the army, or were currently planetside, wore armour similar to that of an Imperial Army trooper, while those attached to the navy or serving on a ship wore the Imperial Navy crewman’s jumpsuit with backpacks and a hip pack for medical supplies. Those working with the Stormtrooper Corps often wore stormtrooper armour and were called stormtrooper medics, stormmedics or stormsurgeons.
Equipment
A lot of equipment left over from the Republic when it became the Empire continued to be used, including the Republic Mobile Surgical Units (renamed Imperial Mobile Surgical Units), some Pelta-class and MedStar-class medical frigates, and 2-1B and FX-series medical droids. While it is unknown what happened to the surviving Haven-class medical stations after the war, it is possible that they continued to be used as well. In addition to the ships left over from the Republic, the Empire used E-2T medical shuttles, and a variant of the Lambda-class T-5a shuttle called the T-5 Deliverance. The former was used to transport up to twelve Human patients, and the latter would deliver shipments of medical supplies directly to the battlefield.
As a result of the Empire’s tendency to build increasingly massive ships and battlestations, many non-medical vessels also had large medbays. Medics and meddroids alike could be found serving on these ships. However, because it was a large military without a need to be constantly on the move, longer-term medical care was likely conducted primarily in planetside medcenters and other large, permanent facilities. Many temporary Imperial facilities, such as prefabricated garrisons, also housed medical facilities and personnel.
Imperial medics were known to carry medpacs, though it is not known what brand or make they were or what was in them. They likely included vibroscalpels and/or laser scalpels, bacta, laser cauterizers, and bandages, like the clone trooper medics carried. These medics stayed away from the front lines when deployed on the ground. As for meddroids, the 2-1C medical droid was the preferred model of the Empire, as it was designed to operate independently on the battlefield. Though its name suggests a relation to the 2-1B surgical droid, it was actually in the line of FX-series medical assistant droids and had a similar appearance.
Naturally, treatment of Imperial troops followed the same basic process as that of Republic troops. As a general rule, a soldier injured planetside would be given first aid, then brought to a mobile hospital or aid station, then transported to a better-equipped medcenter or a capital ship for recovery, wherever was convenient. Pilots rarely survived to have their injuries treated, as standard TIE fighters did not come with shields.
Alliance to Restore the Republic
Medicine was practiced very differently in the Rebellion, especially in its earlier years. Because it was a highly mobile fighting force, injured soldiers and pilots were often treated on large hospital ships such as the Redemption, a modified escort frigate. It was not uncommon for ships to be modified to make room for medical facilities, and Alliance ships that were designed for medical use were often stolen from the Empire. These ships were staffed mainly by medical droids, as organic medics were usually more valuable on the battlefield. Many planetside bases also had medical facilities, though the hospital ships generally had more equipment available.
Equipment and treatment procedure
The Alliance Navy included several modified EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigates, such as their primary medical frigate, the Redemption, that served as mobile hospitals. These ships could hold and treat 745 patients at a time, and were fitted with state-of-the-art medical equipment including fifteen bacta tanks, multi-species operating theatres, intensive care units, recovery wards, and facilities for non-oxygen breathers such as ammonia chambers. They also had their own blood banks, laboratories and morgue, as well as dedicated space for storing medical equipment and up to 6000 tonnes of medical cargo. Patients were treated by a complement of thirty 2-1B surgical droids and eighty medical staff, and the ship’s main medical computer timed and monitored treatments. It is also possible that at least one Nebulon-B2 frigate was modified for use as a hospital ship. Most patients were treated onboard ships like these.
Sprint-class rescue craft, also called med runners, were used to transport the dead and wounded and respond to distress signals in deep space. They could hold forty patients and were staffed by five medics. The E-50 Landseer, a Corellian shuttle, was repurposed for use as an ambulance ship that could be used to transport medical and repair supplies on the battlefield. Other models of starship, such as the stolen Imperial cruiser Mercy which could treat around 5000 patients and had 4250 bacta tanks, could also be converted to hospital ships. In fact, the majority of Alliance medical craft were repurposed, stolen, or both.
2-1B surgical droids were the best-known medics in the Rebellion. Organic beings did serve as medics, and could be found anywhere the droids could, but they tended to work directly on the battlefield and in other places where the droids couldn’t go. 2-1Bs were seen everywhere from capital ships to personal medbays to planetside bases.
New Republic (Canon and Legends)
When the Alliance was reorganized into the New Republic, remaining medical equipment continued to be used. The philosophy that their personnel were non-dispensable also remained, and so the acquisition and maintenance of medical equipment was given great importance. In both Canon and Legends, not much is known about field medicine in the New Republic, but it can be assumed that it functioned more or less the same as in the Alliance. However, the Legends New Republic spent a lot longer fighting the Imperial Remnant than the Canon New Republic, which then maintained peace for perhaps as long as three decades. Without any known major conflicts between the Galactic Civil War and the First Order-Resistance conflict, and due to the New Republic’s demilitarization efforts, field medicine likely did not play a big role under the Canon New Republic for most of its tenure.
Resistance
As a splinter group of the New Republic military, the Resistance likely did have some access to hospital ships, but acquiring large vessels was very difficult. Most equipment they had was quite old, left over from the days of the Rebellion. Supposedly, medcenters on bases and the medbays of capital ships were the Resistance’s main medical facilities. Like its predecessor, the Rebellion, the small number of personnel meant that high priority was placed on being able to save and heal their troops, suggesting that there existed some sort of battlefield medic within their ranks. If they employed medical droids – likely, given that they employed a large number of other droids in order to keep the organization functioning – they may have used 2-1Bs like the Rebellion.
First Order
Nothing is known specifically about medicine within the First Order, but it can be assumed that they had access to advanced medical technology and facilities due to the size and capability of the rest of their forces.
That’s all for this post! Any terminology used here that isn’t already included in the Vocab List will be added shortly, and the next post will be up as soon as possible.
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