Medical technology in the Terran Federation has come a long way, but it’s primary uses are in long-term healing and age extension. Sometimes, for combat medicine, the usual means simply are not fast enough.
Healing Gel isn’t actually a gel at all, but a paste made entirely of nanites and a ready, easy power source for them. When placed onto a wound, their main purpose is to scan the injury and make it functional again in the quickest method possible… to alter themselves to become replacements for the damaged cells and place themselves into the proper structure. By using Healing Gel, open cuts can be closed in minutes, broken bones in hours, and nerve damage in as little as a day.
Of course, this comes with a cost – you are not so much repairing existing parts of your body as you are replacing them with the machine. This doesn’t bother most people, but there are some that refuse to allow them to be used, unwilling to chip away at their humanity and replace part of themselves with something artificial, no matter how natural it looks. Most people look at those objectors like they have lost their minds.
John Drake's Stories 