The Ship: Why couldn't they cauterize the wound?

[JirinPanthosa]

So the Dominion lasers have anti-clotting agents. Still, taking a torch to that wound will do the trick. Also, same question, Change Of Heart?

Is this handwaving by the writers or is it another of those '24th century doctors don't know what a splint is' moments? I suppose the writers could have gotten the same effect by having Dominion weapons leave blood toxins instead of anti-coagulant. Did the writers just not think of it as an option they should have had?

 

[JD5000]

I'm glad they didn't think to cauterize the wound, whatever that Ensign's name was (Ramirez? Rodriguez?) was so obnoxious. I hated the dialogue and 'relationship' between the Chief and the Kid, it sounded so forced and contrived. Like what people who have never been in a war romanticize what actually happens in a battlefield situation. I thought Jake's experiences in triage in the battle against the Klingons, I forget the name of the episode, was much better done.

The episode would be one of my favorites if they had thought to cauterize his mouth.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

The short answer is Muniz was going to die. If it made a difference, the writers could have added something about acute liver failure or unidentifiable internal bleeding. From what I can tell, unprofessional cauterization when major organs may be involved is tricky. Given that mid-nineties dramas would not push the agony and gore of surgery very far, such a scene would have wasted time.

 

[Anwar]

Isn't there something in Dominion weapons that make it impossible to cauterize the wounds?

 

[pteal1979]

Did the writers just not think of it as an option they should have had?

Because the writers wanted him dead

 

[Grant]

Isn't there something in Dominion weapons that make it impossible to cauterize the wounds?

Yes, it's obvious it couldn't simply be cauterized.

It's implied the weapon causes internal bleeding not just at the wound site.

If it was just the wound site a super tight tourniquet could cut off bleeding in an extremity.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Did the writers just not think of it as an option they should have had?

Because the writers wanted him dead

Yeah but if they want a character dead they should find a way to make it credible. It might be that the weapon also does that sort of damage to internal organs but if that's the case they should toss in a throwaway line making it clear that obvious options the audience might think of wouldn't work.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Along with the loss of a team in the Runabout, so the cost of the Feds getting one of the Dominion's ship basically came at a high price. Then there's the drama of a ticking clock of needing to get him back to the station, Sisko not being able to without finding out what's so special about the ship, and the Vorta not just letting 'em have it.

Although... if it had been O'Brien hit, a way would've been found I suppose! What was Muniz's first name again?

 

[Timo]

Wasn't Muniz hit in the stomach? Supposedly, death rays don't just cut or char your skin, they create damage inside as well, to some unknown depth. How would you go about cauterizing something, anything, in the stomach area? The cure would be worse than the injury...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tosk]

What was Muniz's first name again?

It was Enrique, but I wish it were Frankie.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Muniz was hit in the stomach and very lucky the burst of super-heated plasma didn't go straight through him. With the medkit lost when T'Lor was killed, the survivors had no way to treat the internal injuries, so even if the outer layers of tissue had been cauterised he'd still have been bleeding internally and ultimately died.