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Lieutenant Commander Patricia Montgomery
Name Patricia Montgomery M.D.
Position U.S.S. Enterprise Medical Officer/Counselor
Rank Lieutenant Commander
Character Information
| Age | 37 | |
| Gender | Female | |
| Species | Human |
Family
| Father | Conor Montgomery - Chief Surgeon, USS Jupiter | |
| Mother | Sinead Montgomery - Captain’s yeoman, USS Jupiter | |
| Sibling(s) | Declan Montgomery - 28 | |
| Spouse | None | |
| Child(ren) | None | |
| Other | None |
Appearance
| Height | 5'8 | |
| Weight | 135lbs | |
| Physical Description | On duty Patricia's uniform is kept immaculate and her hair pulled back into a bun. Off duty, she wears her hair down but is still careful of the clothes she wears as the woman knows that she has an image to uphold. Patricia's eyes hide everything, it takes a lot to be able to read anything from her expressions or in the green depths of her eyes. The only thing a person will be able to read is when the woman is angry. Her green eyes go a deep murky green, almost bordering on black. Patricia's skin is fair, with a slight brown coloring. An ever so slight limb is the only evidence to the fact that Patricia has a prosthetic from below her knee to her toes on her left leg |
Personality
| Personality Overview | While in no way is Patricia an imposing figure, when she enters a room she demands attention. Her body language and the way she presents herself radiates an air of confidence. Upon initial contact, the reaction people will have to her that she is cut-throat and takes no crap. Even though this is very true, Patricia has an understanding that people can be out of her control. When on duty she demands that attention is paid to their job and personal issues are left to off duty. If she feels that people are crossing the line, she will draw the line herself. Once people get to know Patricia, they will see beyond the initial impression, they will realise that the woman is very fair and approachable and a humour actually lies under the surface. Off duty, Patricia is very aware that she still needs to present an image as technically she is never off duty as a XO. She will mingle but normally stays away from relationships on the perception that intimate relations with someone on her crew is crossing the line. Patricia has always had very few relationships in her life by choice and circumstance rather than any other reason. Deep space missions and finding herself and ACMO and CMO soon after meant that there was never really a proper opportunity to develop anything more with a person to whom she didn’t either serve with or over. Career and medicine has always been her focus. Strengths & Weaknesses +Determination. Patricia strives to achieve what it is that she puts her mind too. She’s aims to be her best, do her best and give the task at hand her all to make it work. +Kean Mind. Once Patricia takes an interest in something, she delves in much deeper. There’s no better challenge in life that gain new insight and knowledge. +/- Hard Worker. Patricia isn’t afraid to put in the hours and days of work required for her position. It may mean an ultimate sacrifice of her personal life but to Patricia the ultimate goal is more important. -Pushes herself too hard. Patricia is a glutton for punishment as her father used to say. Her determination can lead her to a point at which she needs to give in but refuses to do so. It’s what lead her to ignoring the early signs of her heart defect but yet she still refuses to learn. It can also at times threaten that the woman will burn out. |
History
| Personal History | Born in 2402 to Conor and Sinead Montgomery, Patricia was born into a family where their roots and their core were focused on Starfleet. Her father was the Chief Surgeon of the USS Olympia and her mother was yeoman to the ship’s Captain, Captain Seamus Carroll. As a result, Patricia was raised amongst the stars. As an only child, Patricia was doted on by her parents and for all intensive purposes spoiled rotten. Sinead was 35 when she finally had Patricia, understanding that this was her only chance in life at having a child. From an early age, Patricia remembers running through ship’s corridors playing chase with the other children. Sitting in sickbay, watching as her father tended to his patients. Due to the nature of the ship, being a medical ship, Patricia also saw her fair share of natural disasters and death. She saw societies ravished by plagues and famine, planets destroyed by natural disasters as their cores ripped themselves apart from the inside out. She saw people become refugees and have nothing left but the bare clothes on their bodies. It was instilled in Patricia that she wanted to help in anyway that she could...weather that was psychological or physical, all that mattered was that she would be able to make a difference. At the age of 9, Patricia found the foundations of her world rocked with the arrival of a brother. Sinead nearly died in childbirth; now at the age of 44 the pregnancy was high risk from the get go and the pregnancy was continued against the recommendations of her Doctors. Sinead and Conor had never thought that they would have another child and both agreed this is that they wanted. Declan was born into the world at 7 months of gestation and had problems from the get go. His lungs were underdeveloped due to the prematurity. His heart was also very week. Patricia’s brother spent the first month of his life in the ship’s NICU fighting for his life with his parents by his side as they waited for him to become strong enough for a heart transplant. While both parents took it in turns to stay with Patricia, Sinead was still very weak from the trauma of the birth. The young girl wasn’t used to not having her parent’s undivided attention and as a result started to act out against the people around her. Over the years, on several occasions Patricia found herself reprimanded for being in places she shouldn’t have been and for hitting other children just because they were in her way. No matter what her parents tried to do, there seemed to have been no curtailing their daughter’s behaviour. The change in Patricia’s life finally came at the age of 15, when Declan was just 4 years of age. Their parent’s were on duty with just their nanny, Fidelma, for supervision. Patricia was in her room, grounded after she tried to break into the shuttlebay to steal a runabout with one of her fellow classmates who enjoyed egging on Patricia’s bad behaviour. Patricia was alerted to something wrong when she heard a scream from Fidelma. Her first reaction was to ignore it because she was mad at everybody but something inside told her not to...that something was very wrong. Patricia exited her room to a scene that would never leave her memory. Fidelma was screaming and crying while holding Declan’s prone body; his chest not moving and his face void of all colour. Acting on instinct, Patricia hit the emergency call button in their quarters before rushing to Fidelma’s side and trying to evaluate the situation. She couldn’t understand what was wrong; only that he wasn’t breathing. Using what her father had thought her years before, the young girl could find no pulse and thus started CPR. All of this took mere second...what felt like a lifetime to those in the room. Seconds more the room flooded with people, yellow and teal shirts running around trying to grab Declan from Patricia but her refusing until she knew that her father was there. Through it all, Patricia continued with her CPR, only allowing people close enough to perform their scans; to gather the information their father would need. Seconds more, Conor materialised at their sides bending down as the people around him talked and tried to feed him information. Conor’s focus was on just two people...his daughter and his son. Taking command of the situation, Conor used the necessary medical equipment to jump Daniel’s heart back into a beat; only once asking Patricia to stop when he needed her to step back. The whole situation played out in mere minutes but the medical report makes mention that the only reason Daniel was able to be revived was because of the CPR carried out by Patricia. After that day, Patricia almost became a guardian to Daniel. They became almost inseparable as brother and sister as Patricia wouldn’t allow him far from her sight. At the age of 18, in 2420, Patricia found herself reluctantly dispatched to Starfleet Academy. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be there...it was more the fear of being away from her family. The previous three years had been spent repairing so many holes in her relationship with her parents and brother that, now the time had come to leave and forge her own future she was so uncertain. At the end of her 4years at the academy, Patricia found herself dispatched to Deep Space Nine as a medical resident, Patricia found herself involved in the clean up operation as Bajor was still struggling following the Dominan War. Bajor was in pieces after the war...civil unrest was still prominent as factions fought and tried to recover from years of oppression. Although the Dominan had retreated back through the wormhole, there was still remnants of what they had left behind that had to have foundations recreated and structures and communities rebuilt. Patricia found herself involved with the rebuilding of communities on both a medical and a psychological perspective. While the bodies were healed, the years of war and oppression have left deep scars on those who remained. It was through this work that Patricia truly found her career fall into place and at the end of the two years of residency, in 2426, the young woman graduated with a major in psychology and a minor in surgery, earning her rank as Lieutenant Junior Grade. In this same year, Patricia found herself dispatched to the U.S.S. Gladiator as a medical officer which was undertaking a 5 year deep space mission. Her psychological attributes would be called into play during this mission more than her medical due to the intense pressure on the crew, being away from home over both a great distance and also mentally away from those they loved for such a long period of time. It was during these years that Patricia really truly begun to understand the impact that space and serving in the Federation actually had on the federation. To her it was second nature, she had grown up on a ship her whole life but for others who had grown up on planets, used to ground under their feet and being close to those they loved; the change in environment was so much more difficult. It was an area which interested Patricia so much that she undertook a thesis in the area of the effect deep space exploration had on the psychology of both human and alien races. The thesis took the entirety of the journey to complete but so impressed was Starfleet that they awarded the officer a promotion along with a redeployment to the USS Ophelia to serve as their new Assistant Chief Medical Officer in 2431. In 2433, Patricia was to find herself suddenly thrown into a further promotion in both rank and position when the Chief Medical Officer was killed during what should have been a routine mission. The USS Ophelia had been dispatched to a Research Station on Angels Three which was reporting an attack from the local population. The station had been established in order to review the agriculture of the planet as the local population had been experiencing a blight in the crops which was causing rationing to be implemented and Starfleet involving themselves by providing emergency aid along the lines of replicators and some of their most brilliant of minds to try and figure out what was causing the blight and how it could be controlled and cured. There was civil unease in the population as people went hungry and lay the blame at the feet of their local governments and of Starfleet for not finding a solution quick enough and felt that the time for action had arrived. Upon arrival an initial team of 25 marines had beamed to the planet in order to secure the area to allow Lt. McClean and four of his medical staff to beam down in order to establish casualties numbers and assist in their evacuation. It was during this phase of evacuation that a second wave attacked the research post. Although the crew’s weapons were more powerful, they couldn’t hold back the sheer number of militants and as a result the lives of 29 people were lost, this included the Chief Medical Officer, Lt. McClean. Patricia found that she settled easily into the role of a Department Head...enjoyed it even. The paperwork was the only headache but the hands on involvement with her staff, addressing and organising their needs as well as those of their patients. The direct involvement with the command crew and the planning and organising that went into the running of a medical department onboard a ship. She had only dabbled in it before, always having the fallback of Lt. McCloud previously, but this time the weight was on her shoulders and surprisingly it was a weight she felt comfortable with. In 2435, Patricia was once again approached by Starfleet with a new proposition. She had been getting exemplary reports from the USS Ophelia on her performance and as a result, a recommendation had been made by both the executive officer and commanding officer that the Doctor be allowed sit her her Command exams and in turn be considered for a position as Executive Officer. After giving it some thought, and some pushing by her colleagues, Patricia agreed. It was arranged that she would stay onboard the USS Ophelia for the 6 weeks her course would take and upon completion Starfleet would arrange for a transfer. It could be said that Patricia flew through the coursework and exams with flying colours but it wasn’t that easy. It put to the test her years of experience in both Starfleet and also working through the ranks. The bridge officer test was what caught her in the end...the decision to send someone you care about to their certain death for the good of everyone else. The first time around Patricia failed...unable to do this. It was only after when she evaluated her decisions and looked at the situation that the woman saw where she had gone wrong. She understood that Starfleet was about sacrifice for the greater good, even when it may have been close to heart...even when it went against the teachings of everything she had ever learned as a medical professional. Patricia requested that she be allowed a second chance. She needed to be able to do this...she wanted to be able to do this. Command and what it involved may not have been in her original sights but it was now...to take over a ship of people and manage each department. To be the person who made the choices, to be in control...to some it seemed power hungry but to her it was a progression in life. These positions opened up so much more in life for her beyond the walls of sickbay. She knew she could do it...she wanted to do it. This time around Patricia passed and earned her rank of Lieutenant Commander and earned the chance at being an executive officer but after the first fail, Starfleet had second thoughts. Determined not to give up, Patricia worked hard with her command crew in order to gain more experience in bridge duties and the leading of away teams. She threw herself into building her experience and to not have let all her work have been for nothing. After a year, Starfleet reapproached Patricia with the offer of the executive officer position on the USS Liberation, a Defiant class. Although small, the Doctor knew this was her chance to prove that the Federation’s decision was not wrong...that she would have what it took to be an executive officer. The next six months were tough...if Patricia was to be honest with herself she found it even harder than her time under residency earlier in her carer. The readjustment to management of not just one department but many, the responsibility of a larger number of people than your standard sickbay...the rules and regulations that surrounding being in command rather than being a senior officer. The woman found herself feeling like she was back at school again and learning everything new from scratch. During these six months, Patricia found also that her personal health started to fail. She felt more tired...an issue which she attributed to more hours spent on the bridge and study than ever before. There was also the soreness in her chest, an inability at times to catch her breath. As this wasn’t periodic, Patricia put it down to the smaller ship and readjustment to their environmental controls in a far more enclosed place. There was also the biggest problem of all...her commanding officer. The Defiant was built as a warship and her CO was of the same mind set. He seemed to resent Patricia and Starfleet over the bare fact that he’d been assigned a raw necked Doctor who’s ideas centralised around peace and negation instead of aim and fire. They locked horns more than once. Her CO’s attitude caused Patricia to hide what was happening to her. She knew that is she gave him ammo, he’d do all he could to try and take her down. She could do the scans herself but when was she meant to have the time...to let someone else do the scans would be a sign of weakness...as XO she had an image to uphold. As weeks turned into months, the exhaustion threatened to overwhelm her duty. The occasions on which he was only just ontime for duty. The confusion at times when caught in a difficult situation and her brain didn’t seem to work as quickly as her commands demanded. It was noticed...she was pounced on at every turn and her record slowly started a downward spiral as discommendations begun to appear on her records as her commanding officer strived to get her removed from his ship. It was early 2437 and the USS Liberation had been dispatched on an escort duty of the USS Olympia who had been dispatched on humanitarian duty in the Demilitarised Zone between the Cardassian Union and Starfleet territory after a Starfleet civilian carrier had crashed landed on Dorvan V. It was a risky but Starfleet didn’t want to risk sending the hospital ship alone given the hostility between both organisations. During this mission, while on bridge duty Patricia collapsed and went into cardiac arrest. The minimal medical crew on the USS Liberation were unprepared to deal with this emergency. Their scans showed the woman was in cardiac failure. They discovered that the woman was suffering from Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy...otherwise referred to as an enlarged heart. A congenital heart defect just like her brother had had at birth. The left ventricle, the outlet for blood to the rest of her body, had become constricted and the flow was down to a trickle. If they didn’t act now, they were going to lose her. Transferring Patricia to the USS Olympia, the surgeons onboard were able to replicate and replace the damaged ventricle but it didn’t come without it’s own knock on effects. As the flow of blood to the body had been restricted for so long, the blood circulations to Patricia’s arms and legs had been restricted. This resulted in a blood clot forming in the woman’s left leg which went unnoticed in the rush to try and save her heart. The blood clot resulted in blood flow to the leg from below the knee to the toes becoming non-existent. Over a short period of time, the tissue in Patricia’s lower leg begun to deteriorate leaving amputation as the only option. What was to follow was two years of upheaval and rebuilding as Patricia found her life torn to pieces and the aftermath harder than any other period in her life. Recovery was hampered by numerous issues with the prosthetic Starfleet was issuing her with. The issues never lay directly with the instrument itself but rather with what remained of the nerves left in Patricia’s leg which communicated her commands to the prosthetic itself. During amputation, nerves had to be severed and shut off in order to aid with recovery in numbing the area while skin grafts were given time to heal. While the whole process only took weeks it was the long term repercussions that interfered with Patricia’s recovery. It was found over time that the information required for full prolonged movement of the prosthetic wasn’t being maintained resulting in mid stride, Patricia’s leg giving out from under her. It was ruled out that the issue lay from within the brain communication and instead was isolated to the interface between the recondition nerves and the prosthetic itself. Medical blamed engineering and engineering blamed medical. Either way it was another setback in Patricia’s recovery and one that stalled her Starfleet career until a resolution was found in early 2394. Mentally recovery over the two years was more strained than the physical effect of all that had occurred. Patricia had always thought herself better in that...she’d work and trained so hard in psychiatry perhaps she’d taken for granted that someday the tables would be turned and she would be the one needing help. If she was to be honest but for two friends...she wouldn’t have been sure she could have made it as far as she had. While her and Katherine always maintained contact over the years when possible, during the two years of recovery that contact was better maintained. They spoke at least once a week when Kat’s placement would allow it and wrote to each other in the interim. It’s how Patricia managed to keep her sanity...to be able to be herself...to let the raw emotion out when needed and know she had that friend there always. The second friend...Petty Officer 2nd Class Cathal Dundrody. He was Patricia’s assigned psychotherapist. From the date of her admittance to the date of discharge there wasn’t a day in which the two people saw each other if not for a few hours than a few minutes. It was Cathal’s job to push her...to push Patricia beyond her boundaries and thoughts of defeat. To never let her fall without forcing her back up and marching her on again. The attraction between them was unpalatable but there was one part of Patricia’s old self she managed to maintain..Cathal was there to help her get back on her feet...that wasn’t a line that could ever be crossed. There was times they came so close...it became a joke in their circles that they would make the perfect couple but Patricia never let it happen. She was able to hide the pain and tears and feelings of defeat from him but she could hide the true depth of her feelings. It would be early 2439 when Starfleet Medical would finally declare Patricia fit for duty once more. The task at hand to get back on her feet would be finally complete and that Patricia would look once more at what would next be thrown at her in life. That she could finally start to move forward with her life and make right her career once again. |
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| Service Record | 2420-2421 - General Studies (Interspecies Ethics, Interspecies Protocol, Early Starfleet/Federation History, Exobiology, Federation Law, Prime Directive - Theories & Application, Basic Trauma Medicine and Earth History) - Starfleet Academy (San Francisco Campus). 2421-2422 - Medical & Administrative Studies (Ancient Philosophies, Anatomical & Forensic Pathology, General Medicine - Humanoid, Anatomy 101, Forensics, Administration - Theory and Practice and Applied Medical Techniques) - Starfleet Academy (San Francisco Campus). 2422-2423 - Intermediate Medical Studies - Starfleet Academy (San Francisco Campus) 2423-2424 - Advanced Medical Studies - Starfleet Academy (San Francisco Campus) 2424 - Graduated Starfleet Academy. Admitted to the Starfleet Medical Academy's Residency Programme. 2424-2426 - Ensign - Medical Resident - Deep Space 9. 2426 - Graduated from residency as a fully qualified Medical Doctor, majoring in psychology and minoring in trauma medicine. Received promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade. Transferred to the USS Gladiator. 2426 - 2431 - Lieutenant JG - Medical Officer - USS Gladiator. 2431 - Redeployed to the USS Ophelia. 2431 - 2433 - Lieutenant JG - Assistant Chief Medical Officer - USS Ophelia. 2433 - Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant alongside raised to Chief Medical Officer. 2433 - 2435 - Lieutenant - Chief Medical Officer - USS Ophelia. 2435 - Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. 2435 - 2436 - Lieutenant Commander - Chief Medical Officer - USS Ophelia. 2436 - Promoted to position of Executive Officer 2436 - 2437 - Lieutenant Commander - Executive Officer - USS Liberation 2437 - 2439 - Medical Leave 2439 - Lieutenant Commander - Chief Counsesllor - Project Longshot |