Coagulant auto-injector rule question

The text on the card is:

"In the most desperate situation, save the life of yourself or any adjacent Doomtrooper.

Effect: Recover one health. In addition, roll [two red dice]. For every hit, one additional health is recovered. You cannot go above the starting maximum. Discard after use."

Can you use the coagulant auto-injector after your doomtrooper takes fatal damage?

Example 1: my doomtrooper has 2 health remaining. An attack causes him to take 2 damage. I immediately spend the auto-injector to recover 1 health (plus some more based on a dice roll).

Since the card mentions you cannot go above the starting health, obviously you must be allowed to use the card when you’re not at the point of death. But, it also says you can use it to “save the life of yourself”, which suggests you can use it in response to a fatal wound.

A further complication: what about “overkill”?

Example 2: my doomtrooper has 1 health remaining. An attack causes him to take 4 damage. I immediately spend the auto-injector and roll 2 hits. Is my doomtrooper still dead (1 health, plus 3 healed is 4, but he took 4 damage), or does he come back to life with 3 health (the attack kills him, his health is now 0, and then he heals 3)? Or something else?

I do not think you can because it must be used during that Doomtrooper’s activation.

The way I understand this, unless specifically noted, cards can only be used by Doomtroopers during the current Doomtrooper’s activation. “Save the life of yourself or any adjacent Doomtrooper,” in this case, refers to using it to heal them when they are low on health, but haven’t yet taken lethal damage.

If you find your 'troopers are being killed too easily, you could always house rule it to work as a saving response, but even then, I would rule lethal damage as lethal, meaning you would have to use it after the initial attack roll, but before damage is applied, then apply damage to the modified health total.

But that is what the Medic Robot is for, or what ever it is called.

Saw this question on BGG.

Edit - Never mind, this is the answer on the FAQ page.

21. Can I use the coagulant auto-injector outside the Doomtrooper’s activation to prevent a lethal injury on them or an adjacent Doomtrooper?
No. The coagulant auto-injector has to be used during the Doomtrooper’s activation.

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Thanks very much. I could swear I checked the FAQ, maybe it was added after I asked the question.