Medical treatments

Spoiler Alert! This page may contain plot details relating to Sunrise on the Reaping or unintentionally spoil elements of the book.

A list of medical treatments used throughout The Hunger Games trilogy.

Medications

Burn ointment

During the 50th Hunger Games, Maysilee Donner took a first aid kit off of Loupe after killing him which contained burn ointment. Maysilee told Haymitch Abernathy that the burn ointment had kept her from going crazy after the volcano eruption.

A jar of burn ointment.

On the fourth day of the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen received her first sponsor gift, which contained burn ointment. She used it to treat her burnt hands and calf. She also used the ointment on her tracker jacker stings to little effect, and later, she used it on Rue and on Peeta Mellark's infected leg wound.

Charcoal tablets

Haymitch Abernathy's grandmother used charcoal tablets to treat her indigestion when she overate. She once told Haymitch that the tablets were good for whatever ailed a person's belly, "fire, wind or poison."

Tablets of charcoal could be used to treat poison. During the 50th Hunger Games, Haymitch's backpack contained the tablets as a hint to the arena's poisonous nature. After ingesting poisonous water, Haymitch used a large number of the tablets to counteract it. Although Haymitch was sick through the night, he survived.

After realizing that Lenore Dove Baird had eaten a poisoned sweet, Haymitch frantically asked if she had any charcoal tablets at home, but she didn't think so.

District 13 injections

In District 13, York wrote a note for Katniss to the hospital, either requesting or recommending treatment to speed up the healing of her bruised ribs. Katniss received a series of 24 injections around her ribcage, and she endured a terrible, burning pain for days afterwards. She couldn't alleviate her suffering with a painkiller because mixing this medication with morphling had dangerous side effects.

Morphling

Main article: Morphling (drug)

Filling a syringe with morphling.

Morphling was a powerful and highly addictive drug that could be taken orally or intravenously. It was administered as a painkiller, sedative, or mood stabilizer, and people such as victors abused it in order to cope with severe trauma.

Poison antidote

A poison antidote was an antidote used to treat poison. One known kind of antidote took on the form of a syrupy substance.

President Snow poisoned allies that he felt threatened by, but he drank the poison as well to avoid attracting suspicion. Even though he took antidotes, the poison caused permanent sores inside his mouth that never healed. As a result, he always wore a genetically engineered rose, which covers the scent of blood stained on his breath.

After poisoning Incitatus Loomy for his incompetence in the Chariot rides before the 50th Hunger Games, Snow took an antidote that he carried in his pocket.

One of the items included in some of the tributes' backpacks for the 50th Hunger Games were bottles of antidote for the arena's poisons. Hull got one and the Careers got at least one as well which ended up in the supplies of either Panache Barker, Barba, or Angler.

Although some of the Newcomers ingested the arena's poison, Wellie quickly recognized what it was, and they survived thanks to the antidote in Hull's backpack.

Haymitch Abernathy and Maysilee Donner found the Careers' bottle of the antidote while going through their supplies. After the attack by the porcupine mutt, the two used it to treat their own injuries and in a vain attempt to save Hull's life.

Skin ointment

After surviving the poisonous fog in the 75th Hunger Games, Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick Odair were able to leach out the poison by submerging themselves in salt water. Later, they treated their scabbing skin with a tube of "thick, dark ointment" they received from a sponsor. It relieved their itching and healed their skin beneath the scabs, but it had a strong, unpleasant scent of tar and pine needles, and it stained the affected skin gray-green. In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, they received no ointment; instead, it was sufficient for them just to leach out the poison.

Sleep syrup

Main article: Sleep syrup

Sleep syrup was a common medication in District 12 that Katniss had seen her mother use many times. Katniss drugged Peeta using a vial she got from a sponsor, masking its distinctive sweet taste with berries. She sedated him so he wouldn't be able to stop her from going to the feast.

Snow coat

Main article: Snow coat

A coating of snow and herbs was used to treat Gale Hawthorne's lacerated back after he whipped by Romulus Thread. The mixture was meant to numb the area and relieve pain. Katniss also received a snow coat for the mark on her face.

Tracker jacker leaves

Katniss, having been treated with tracker jacker leaves by her ally Rue.

The people who worked in District 11's orchards carried around a certain type of leaf that could be used to treat tracker jacker stings. Rue used them to treat Katniss's stings in the arena, and Katniss recognized the leaves as something her mother used. Katniss later used them to draw out the infection in Peeta's leg.

Unknown antibiotic

Katniss fought at the feast in order to claim a small orange backpack, which contained a box with a hypodermic needle. She injected the unnamed medicine into Peeta's arm; presumably, it was some sort of antibiotic. This proved effective, bringing down nearly all the swelling in his leg. In The Hunger Games film, the medication was a topical ointment that Katniss applied to Peeta's leg. Peeta then insisted on using some on a cut on her head. Both of their injuries healed overnight.

Other medications

• After being bitten by snake mutts, Clemensia Dovecote immediately received an injection of black fluid from a hypodermic needle.
• Sejanus Plinth was prescribed sleeping pills and morphling by a Capitol doctor after his breakdown.
• Coriolanus Snow was given a metal can of powder for his heat rash, and he was advised to keep it dry.
• When Katniss spoke of Mrs. Everdeen's period of debilitating depression following the death of her husband, Mrs. Everdeen replied that she could have treated herself if she'd had the medicine that she now had. However, it is unknown what kind of medicine this was, if it was something she took regularly, or if it was something she only took as needed.
• Katniss once mentioned that her mother used homemade wine as cough medicine.
• On top of all the other remedies, Katniss tried to combat Peeta's infection with fever pills from a first-aid kit she salvaged from Marvel's possessions. Mrs. Everdeen occasionally broke down and bought these when home remedies failed.
  • The first-aid kit also contained bandages and nausea medication.
• In an early version of the script for the first film, Katniss gave Tygart Blanken two purple berries as a sleep aid for his wife, Corrina Blanken.
• The District 12 apothecary sold rubbing alcohol.

Other medical technology

• According to Capitol Couture, Porter Millicent Tripp sustained a spinal injury in the final showdown of the 38th Hunger Games, so she wore a halo brace throughout her Victory Tour.
• Katniss administered a tourniquet to Peeta's leg after he was badly bitten by a wolf mutt.
• While recovering in the hospital after the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss realized that the doctors had repaired her hearing, as she had gone deaf in one ear inside the arena. She also noticed that all of her scars, both new and old, had vanished.
• Katniss received skin grafts after the City Circle bombing.

Beetee in his wheelchair.

Mobility aids

• Peeta walked with a slim metal cane when he was first getting used to his new prosthetic leg. After he was revived during the third Quarter Quell, Finnick made him a walking stick.
• At eighty years old, Mags Flanagan needed a cane to walk, so she also received one from Finnick during the Quell.
• After the events of the Quell, Beetee Latier made use of a wheelchair.
• Katniss also briefly used a wheelchair. She was unable to walk because her leg was injured in the District 8 hospital bombing, and she was suffering from the residual effects of a concussion.

Trivia

• The tributes in the 10th Hunger Games received inadequate medical care. After the Capitol Arena bombing, they were only treated by a veterinarian, and her requests to have Panlo and Sheaf admitted to a hospital were denied, resulting in their deaths.
• Katniss's parents met because Mrs. Everdeen worked at her parents' apothecary shop, and Mr. Everdeen sold her medicinal herbs he'd collected in the woods.
• After the Second Rebellion, District 12 closed its coal mines and planned to build a factory to make medicines.

See also

• Healer
• Health conditions