ASTERION- named after the point of convergence of three cranial sutures, is the brain child of the three academic clubs of KMC, Cutting Edge-The Student Surgical Society, Tempus Pretioso-The Emergency Medicine Club and Justitia-The Forensic Medicine Club, to bring forth an academic fest dedicated to Quizzing, Skills and simulation.
ER ESCAPADE – TEMPUS PRETIOSO
In the spirit of the theme of Asterion 2023, Video Games, Tempus Pretioso, the emergency medicine enthusiasts club of KMC Manipal, organized a fun-filled event, titled ‘ER Escapade’. The event was a multi-tier game where the participants were tested on their diagnostic skills, as well as their presence of mind in managing the cases.
The cases tickled the minds of the participants, covering subjects like Obstetrics, Ophthalmology, Cardiology and Endocrinology, testing their skills of interpreting investigations and picking up hints from clinical history. The participants engaged in the event enthusiastically, showing exceptional critical thinking skills, and gaining knowledge from the experience.
ENIGMA
With a zombie apocalypse on its way, deciphering hidden clues, and diagnosing mysterious
diseases, it is up to you to find a vaccine before time runs out! Such was the premise of Enigma,
the riveting mystery room event brought to Vedam by Cutting Edge, The Student Surgical
Society. The event occurred on two days, 1st August 2023 and 3rd August 2023 in the Interact
Halls.
The participants were divided into multiple slots of 5-6 people each working together to solve
the mystery room. The earliest slot started at 3:00pm and each slot went on for 30-40 minutes.
The participants gathered in an introduction room where they were given a brief overview of the
rules, followed by a sample station to understand the game better and an immersive
introductory video to set the storyline into action.
Inside the intricately designed mystery room, the participants had to travel across six stations,
labeled as six American states, at each of which they had to find clues disguised in the
decoration, riddles, and poems to finally reach a medical diagnosis at that station.
Navigating meticulously through the clues and scavenging every medical detail they could find at the
stations, the participants had one more mission to accomplish- finding the Grand Connect: the
mutated microorganism that was the source of the disease. The use of the internet was
permitted, and the maximum time given to solve the mystery room was 30 minutes.
On making it out of the mystery room, the team would be escorted into the ‘Betrayal Round’
where they would battle against each other in a game of medical Wordle. The winners would be
decided through a point system based on the number of correct answers and the time taken.
🥇Aditya Lochab, Umang Khatri, KMC Manipal
🥈Monikaa, Nikhil, Srinivas institute of medical sciences and research centre, Mangalore.
🥉Isha Saxena, KMC Mangalore
A truly enthralling event, where your puzzle solving skills and medical knowledge were put to a
test, any medical student would enjoy themselves thoroughly in Enigma as they battle against
time and think on their feet!
MEDISIM
The first segment of MediSim started off with Justitia, the forensic Medicine club of KMC Manipal. The participants were briefed with the case scenario which was basically a passenger shoots the driver, killing them and the car gets into an accident. The passenger is taken to the emergency triage, explained by Tempus Pretioso, the Emergency Medicine club of KMC Manipal, followed by Cutting Edge, the Surgery club of KMC Manipal.
Justitia started off with collection of physical evidence. They talked about the etiquette while entering a crime scene, barricading the scene, having the grid/spiral method of entering the scene and documentation of all the evidences, leaving no hair or fingerprints behind, elemental analysis of soil and tyre marks among other rules.
The next topic was blood spatter. The participants were informed about ways blood samples are collected and then how blood spatter patterns give away knowledge about the direction, speed and the height at which the gun shot was taken from. This was followed by Ballistics, talking about why and when its used and how it matters in India, with emphasis on home made firearms. They also showed an analysis of fingerprint evidence from firearms, The participants were then actually showed how fingerprinting is done and captured as evidence. After that, the club talked about wound analysis, how to differentiate entry and exit, different types of wound and how the area is examined to figure out the power and the murder weapons.
Carrying forward from Justitia, Tempus Pretioso, the Emergency Medicine enthusiasts club of KMC Manipal, conducted their segment of Medisim centred around the management of a hemothorax in the scenario of a Road Traffic Accident.
The team of Tempus Pretioso instructed the participants in the treatment of the case, with hands-on teaching experience in life-saving skills like Intercostal Drainage and Endotracheal Intubation, followed by the key diagnostic skill of Arterial Blood Gas assessment.
The participants showed an avid enthusiasm towards the workshop and concluded the segment equipped with various essential Emergency Medicine skills at their fingertips.
The Cutting Edge segment of MediSim continued to the management of the orthopaedic injuries of the car accident case. Participants were provided with hands-on experience in applying a Plaster Cast using Plaster of Paris rolls. Cast removal using a Plaster Cutter was also demonstrated. The enthusiastic participants were also taught to perform the Modified Kessler suture for tendon repair. Tendon repair was simulated using an innovative red-rubber catheter model.
This successfully concluded the second year of MediSim. A three part workshop teaching participants novel skills from forensic medicine, emergency medicine and surgery using inventive methods.
INQUESTIGATE
Inquestigate, an escape room, organized by the only student run club of Forensic Medcine in India, Justitia, laid down with various obstacles to reach the lost gold mine, situated in Arizona, which you can solve with your forensic medicine knowledge and wit.
It took place on 1st August and 2nd August 2023 and participants took part as a team of two.
They had to solve Room 1 representing Brazil and Room 2 representing Serbia with various riddles and extra questions within the stipulated time. The first half of the teams qualified with highest scores were allowed to enter Room 3 representing Arizona and look for the greatest force created by the scientist that remains hidden.
The winners of the event are:
🥇Samarth Reddy, Rakshith G Maiya
🥈Shreyas Pai, S Nikhil
🥉 Shivom Kakkar
Congratulations to all of them.
TREASURE HUNT
The Treasure Hunt, Cutting Edge’s most awaited yearly event began at the interact lecture halls. With more than a 100 participants the energy of the room was electrified. The hunt took participants around some of the most beloved spots of our sprawling campus, with cleverly crafted clues conveying both a medical diagnosis and the location of the next hint.
It was truly a challenge not meant for the weak of heart or mind. The triumphant participants that made it to the finish line, faced the final and most difficult of riddles. This was the first year in treasure hunt history that all the winners hailed from non- KMC colleges.
The team that bagged first place in a thrilling moment was Abdul Kareem Farooqui and Humaira Ahmed. In second place came Mohammed Arif and Muhammed Rayyan, followed not long after by Shreya Renukamurthy and Nischala TM in third place.
PACMAN MD
Pacman MD was an ambitious event organised by Tempus Pretioso, the Emergency Medicine club of KMC, Manipal, that emulated the classic game of Pacman in the Emergency Room.
Taking place over the span of two days, the event saw 64 enthusiastic participants in teams of two running between the 16 planned stations inspired by famous video games like the Walking Dead and Resident Evil. The organising team took great care to arrange the stations like a maze, similar to the iconic maze in Pacman, and created a lovely ambience using fairy lights, posters, music from the soundtracks of each station’s respective game, and unique decor ideas themed around gaming.
While participants scanned QR codes at each station and solved the emergency medicine centric cases like anaphylaxis and burns, appointed ghosts roamed the aisles of the maze to terrorise participants running from station to station with mundane and silly tasks. From making a heart sign with your teammate and making convincing racing car sound effects to booping 3 strangers on the nose and mimicking Mario and Luigi, the sounds of laughter and shenanigans could be heard echoing around the hall at all times.
Once participants solved a station’s case, they’d be directed to a seemingly random station afterwards, further adding to the effect of the maze, and earn a pixel from the stationmaster. If solved incorrectly, they’d be denied a pixel and asked to move on.
Unbeknownst to the participants was the fact that if their solutions to some specific cases was deemed unsatisfactory, they’d be guided to defunct stations, lovingly termed LOL stations, that asked them to retrace their steps and solve the previous case again, adding to the game-like setting of the event.
Towards the end of the game, a bell was rung and all teams were asked to gather at the centre of the hall where they were then briefed on a case and allowed to ask for investigations and examinations that served as clues. The catch was that the clues cost pixels, the same pixels they’d earned at each station.
While the first two places were awarded to those who solved the cases the fastest, the third place was earned by the team that solved the cases at the most number of stations.
The winners of the event were as follows:
Day 1 Winners—
🥇Katheeja and Rifath
🥈Poorvikalyani and Yaajna
🥉Aditya and Naziha
Day 2 Winners—
🥇Numan and Muskan
🥈Faisal and Afthab
🥉Vismaya and Nagavi
The event was considered a great success with participants evidently having a ton of fun while simultaneously learning more about Emergency Medicine.
Murder in the United Nations
Murder in the United Nations or MUN, as Justitia calls it, was an event centered around politics and debate. An impending water crisis which could be solved with a novel technology lead to power battles and quarrels that were moderated and steered to common ground by Justitia.
However, it wouldn’t be complete without a mysterious murder at a busy dinner party which followed the heated debates. Screams and hoots took over the place and pandemonium ensued. Thus, the second segment of MUN began. It saw the participants scramble towards clues which pointed towards the possible cause of death and the perpetrator as well. The epic debate between the delegates of the blocs led to blaming and defending. However, the candidates that shined the brightest were
Best Delegate- Nishitha
Outstanding Delegate- Pulak
Special Mention- Parth
Remedy Roulette
The fourth day of Vedam saw a collaboration between all the three academic clubs of KMC, Manipal—Cutting Edge, Justitia, and Tempus Pretioso. With each club dedicated to a different field of medicine, the event was a creative quiz that comprised questions from surgery, forensic medicine and emergency medicine.
Participants in teams of two took part in this thrilling life-size board game where medical knowledge became their ultimate power.
Remedy Roulette proved to be a blend of the classic board game Monopoly with knowledge, made all the more exciting with riveting medical twists and turns. With squares set up across two lectures halls in the Interact building demarcating easy, medium, hard and very hard questions from every category, as well as Challenge and Chance squares where participants were tested on their trivia and luck, this immersive adventure was the ideal game where learning met fun.
As participants progressed in the game and passed Go to collect 100, some who landed on a Challenge square could challenge any other team on their next question to earn twice the number of points if they answered correctly before the team they challenged. This led to an exciting final round as one team challenged those in the lead for a question and answered correctly, earning them both 400 points and the title of winners.
With fairy lights, posters and colourful decorations, the ambiance proved to be the right setting for an intense battle of wits. The winners of the event were as follows:
🥇 First Place: Kartik and Khushi
🥈 Second Place: Nagvi and Vismaya
Every single participant left the halls with more knowledge and memories of a fun-filled game.
Design: Vedam, KMC Manipal
Photography: Bhavye Bhatia, Anusha Srivastava, Manas Agarwal, Yash, Arnav, Shivansh, Samir Gulati (Associate Editor), Pranay Jain The Editorial Board KMC
Writer: Prakhya Gupta, Nivedita Pandey, Tanvee Walia, Ayeshani Mishra, Mariyah Haji, Rohita Mahesh, Vaishnavi Katiyar, Adish Joshi The Editorial Board KMC
Uploaded by: Alisha, Mihir, Medha, Sourabh Singh, The Editorial Board KMC