Golden Time

Chapter 58

Suhyuk’s mother put several 10,000 won notes in Suhyuk’s hands.

“I don’t need it as I stay only inside the hospital.”

“You still keep it,” she said, putting the money deep into his pocket.

“Do they serve meals? Can I prepare some food for you?”

“They serve good food at the hospital. And I don’t have any s.p.a.ce to keep food.”

It was a very small lodging with bunk beds. The refrigerator was small as well.

“I’ll come back when I have time.”

“Yeah, yeah, slow down while taking shortcuts…”

With her son going out the porch, she looked at him admirably.

It was just like yesterday that he protested and complained like a teen, with his room locked from the inside, but now he became an adult man. And also one where his profession was that of a doctor. All the people around her envied her, saying she had such a great son. She just smiled before she knew it because she was so proud of her son.

“I’m leaving now. Do not come out.”

“Call me when you have time.”

With a soft smile, Suhyuk thought to himself, while leaving the house, ‘Mom and dad, please wait a little bit. I’ll soon let you live in luxury.’

His gait to the bus stop was light.

It’s already been one week since he became an intern. He thought that he was going to be busy from the beginning but it was a misjudgement of his. He was not a.s.signed to training right away. Instead he was just told the upcoming curriculum. Seven days of adjusting time was given to him. He was only a little more busy than when he was a PK student. Even that was coming to an end as of today.

He had to visit each clinical department and spend time with his primary physician for intensive learning with no time to go to sleep. It was only natural, given that when they’re short staffed, it was the interns who had to fill the vacuum. In the course of the training, all the miscellaneous things should be handled by the interns. They also had to examine and report on the condition of the patients to the primary doctor. When they get a call, they have to rush immediately, brus.h.i.+ng their sleepy eyes, night or dawn. They had been prepared for this because they heard about this from their seniors and from the doctors.

If he could save a dying person, he would do anything.

Suhyuk, waiting for the bus, looked down at his own hands quietly.

Can I use these hands for the patient? As I’m only an intern, all I can do is just suturing or looking on, even with a sick patient before my eyes.’

He blew away such thoughts with a short breath.

Getting on board a bus, a medical law clause came to his mind. Article 5 clause 1, which goes like this: ‘A lawful medical person is someone who has majored in medical science with a MS degree, pa.s.sed the national medical exam and received the license from the Ministry of Health and Welfare’

Though he was an intern, he was certified to take care of the patient.

‘If a person was dying in front of me… I don’t have to hesitate or hide the medical knowledge I keep in my head, right?’

—–

After coming into the hospital lodging, Suhyuk began to unload his baggage.

There was nothing particular about the packed stuff. It was all clothes.

At that moment, Kwon Jaeik, carrying a c.o.ke, came in.

“You just got here?”

He was supposed to share the lodging with him.

Kwon squatted on the bed and sighed, “I studied like h.e.l.l to come to this point, but it’s only the real beginning from now…”

“From now on, just think about saving a person’s life…”

He shook his head at his words. Suhyuk seemed to think of the patient as his lover.

When they talked about routine topics, his eyes sparkled whenever there was any mention of a disease or a patient.

After drinking from the c.o.ke, he opened his mouth again, “Which department did you say you’re starting with?”

“Pediatrics.”

When they have done their training at each of the differents department every month, they will have completed one year of interns.h.i.+p. And after the exam at the end of the year, they can decide on their speciality.

Kwon looked at Suhyuk with an envious look.

“Oh, mine is the surgery department.”

The surgery department was a physically challenging one compared to other departments, as such it was called as a place where you can find the ‘3Ds’ – jobs that are dirty, dangerous or difficult.

In addition, it was an unpopular profession in which there were not many majors, so they were short staffed a lot.

Tearing his hair out, Kwon rose from his seat saying, “Let’s go.”

Suhyuk looked at him with a puzzled look, “Where to?”

“Don’t you know we interns were supposed to gather at the rooftops? From now on we’re so busy we can’t even see each other’s faces. Oh, I wish tomorrow would not come…”

Tomorrow was a Monday, the start of a full-fledged interns.h.i.+p.

Suhyuk stood from the seat, as if he were recalling what had slipped off his mind.

“Let’s go.”

***

Sky Park located at the rooftop of Daehan Hospital.

There were lots of patients and guardians there even at dusk. Among them were seen the interns wearing white gowns, who talked with a mixed feeling of expectation and anxiousness.

“I hear that the internal medicine physician is horrible. I’m afraid my life is as good as over.”

“I am with a surgeon.”

Suhyuk smiled a little at them. All of the PK trainees became interns like him, except only one did not.

Choi Suryon, suffering from a mental illness accompanied with Wilson’s disease, did not.. It was hard for her to be a doctor with that condition. How was she doing? Maybe she would be doing well.

“Cheers for our future!”

At his friends’ spirited voice, Suhyuk raised his soft drink.

The night that was not so long pa.s.sed and the morning was breaking bright.

Kwon frowned at the alarm sound.

“What time is it?”

Turning off the sound, Suhyuk said, wearing the gown, “It’s six o’clock.”

Interns gathered together for breakfast, and headed for their a.s.signed department, waving their hands just like separated families did, “Shall we go?”

Suhyuk got on the elevator. Getting off at the seventh floor, he crossed a bridge to move to another building.

“h.e.l.lo? You’re Lee Suhyuk, right?”

A woman physician turning over a chart welcomed him.

Her face looked small enough to think her black rimmed gla.s.ses looked larger than normal.

She laughed with a tired face and stuck out her hand.

“Pleasure to meet you. I’m Oh Heejin.”

She had seen him on the TV news three times, but it was the first time she saw his face in person.

Holding her hands, Suhyuk said, “I am at your service!”

“Oh, it’s me who wants to say that. You can just do what I tell you, and do not make any mistakes. How about it? Easy, right?”

How many times had interns caused troubles by making mistakes… Her head was throbbing painfully when she thought about it.

“Yes.”

She made an unbelievable expression at his reply. New interns always replied like that. When they were tasked with work, however, they were doing the wrong thing or she had a call without fail from those guardians whose patients were treated by the interns.

“Today is the first day.. Ah, Nurse Kim!”

Oh Heejin called out the nurse who was pa.s.sing by, and said, “Yes, doctor.”

“This is a new intern. Please take him with you today.”

“I’m fully tied up with schedules today.”

The nurse made an expression about to cry.

“Well, let me excuse you then…” When she left, the nurse sighed briefly.

It was a very annoying thing to take him over on a busy day like this.

“h.e.l.lo.”

At Suhyuk’s greeting she bowed her head slightly.

“I’m going to go to gather blood from a patient. Follow me, please.”

The nurse turned back abruptly, and Suhyuk followed her.

They did not move far because the patient’s room was nearby.

She approached a child. The five-year-old boy was in a good sleep.

The nurse asked for the consent of the guardian,

“Mother, I’ll take some blood, now” the nurse said to the boy’s mother.

“I think he is okay now. It seems his temperature went down more than yesterday.”

“Sure. He’ll be better soon.”

When the nurse took the syringe, the boy, waking up, began to show tears, and the mother comforted him, saying, “Yohwan, it will be quick. It doesn’t hurt at all. Right, Nurse?”

“Sure. Let me get it done quickly so you won’t feel pain.”

Even though she said so, she felt troubled at her heart.

Children’s blood is quite hard to take, because their veins are so narrow and thin.

Besides, the kid before her eyes was plump and beefy.

The nurse tied his arm with a yellow rubber band.

Meanwhile Suhyuk was checking the name of the kid’s disease.

“Meningitis.”

It was the disease that caused inflammation in the subarachnoid s.p.a.ce.

Suhyuk looked at the kid sadly.

He just felt bitter at the thought that a long needle was put into the spine of that little kid.

The boy, with a crying voice, burst into cries after all at the nurse’s needle.

“I put the needle in the wrong place. Don’t move, Yohwan!”

His mom caught her child’s moving arm.

And the nurse moved the needle one more time.

“Boohoo…” he cried.

Again she put in the needle beside the blood vessel.

“Hey, you’re doing it correctly, right?”

At the guardian’s question, the nurse was sweating.

“Sure. Wait a little. Let me bring a new syringe.”

So said the nurse, and she went out of the room.

It was an excuse. She was intent to bring the most experienced nurse, known for her skill in finding the blood vessels like a ghost.

Suhyuk walked to the crying child. His mom, narrowing his eyes, looked at him.

She already felt upset because the nurse left a couple of needle marks on her son’s forearm.

“Are you a doctor?”

Suhyuk nodded. It was true because interns were as good as a doctor.

“Did you feel a lot of pain?”

The child nodded with tears dripping.

“Let me blow my breath on it. Let me see.”

Suhyuk took his child’s arm lightly, and touched the area where his blood vessel was located, and soon he said, “I will collect blood.”

Surprisingly he located it by the touch.

“Please get it in just one go.”

She sharply looked at him. She showed an expression as if she would not sit idle if he did not do it right this time.

Whether he heard her complaint or not, he held a syringe calmly.

When the boy burst into tears, his mother covered her eyes and soothed him.

Suhyuk stuck a needle into his arm. The blood that pa.s.sed through the needle was being drawn into the syringe.

When the boy began to cry loudly, the needle was already out.

“It’s here.”

The nurse who had disappeared came back with a stout and heavy nurse.

Suhyuk said to them, “I am finished with the blood retrieval.”

They saw the syringe filled with blood in his hand.

“Oh, that’s good.”

Responding blankly, the nurse thought it was just luck.

Even a nurse called a queen of blood vessels got into a sweat when she came to the pediatrics department. ‘Now, this intern who just got here did it? Maybe he did it by sheer luck.’

Thinking so, the nurse who entered another room sighed a silent long sigh.

A child more plump than Yohwan.

It was certain that her pride would be at risk if she put the needle in wrong this time.

She just felt bad about the scheduler who set up her schedule like this.

She stared at Suhyuk standing in the back.

“Do you want to try it by yourself? Experience is important.”

Nodding his head, he took the syringe without hesitation.

“Hold on a second.”

At the same time the blood work was done in an instant.

The nurse’s face became blank. She made an unbelievable expression.

On that day, he just kept collecting blood all day long, and rumors began to circulate among the pediatric wards. He’s an intern with a one-shot-one-kill.

And his name, all the nurses knew about it by late evening. Intern Lee Suhyuk. It was the starting point of the legend that shook Daehan Hospital.