Golden Time

Chapter 77

Jang Kitaek was quietly looking at the sofa Suhyuk had been sitting on after he left, and then he let out a dumbfounded smile.

Asking to see the patients? It was just ridiculous, given that he’s only an intern.

Still, there was no choice for him but to accept, because it involved the future of his son.

“Emergency room…”

After thinking about the right candidate to pa.s.s him onto, Jang contacted his secretary.

“Contact Prof. Kim Jinwook and tell him that I want to see him now.”

“Yes, sir.”

Prof. Kim was gentle to interns and residents usually, but resolute as far as teaching was concerned. It was not just a couple of times that he expelled residents from the surgery room. He felt that Prof. Kim was the right person to handle Suhyuk.

“Did you call for me, sir?” asked Prof. Kim.

Jang offered him a chair when he came in.

“Do you know intern Lee Suhyuk?”

Kim’s eyes opened a bit wide. He was surprised that his name came out of the director’s mouth.

“Yes, I know him.”

“Okay, he’s going to be a.s.signed to the emergency room as of today. He’s going to see the patients. Can you pay attention to him? As he is an intern, I’m afraid he might cause troubles.”

Actually an intern could give the wrong prescription, and with further trouble, it could bring about medical law suit.

When Kim’s eyes became wider, Jang let out a silent sigh, saying,

“I know you’re busy, but for this time only, let me ask of you a favor like this.”

“Okay, sir.”

Jang was surprised at Kim’s short reply. He expected that Kim would rebuke him at his crazy suggestion that an intern would see the patients.

“Any thing else you want to say to me?” asked Kim.

Jang nodded his head, saying, “He won’t be there for very long. So, I hope he is in good hands.”

Jang thought that Suhyuk would be exhausted after a few days in the emergency room, even though he was full of enthusiasm to see the patients. So challenging and demanding a place was the emergency room.

“Okay, then…”

Kim’s smile became more and more thick as he left the office.

—–

Oh Byungchul was tilting his head sideways. By now this Alien intern who should have been busy with all kind of stuff at the Neurosurgery Department, Suhyuk, was standing before him.

“What brought you here again?”

Suhyuk smiled.

“I was rea.s.signed to the emergency medical department.”

“What are you talking about…”

Oh could not continue. Suhyuk was already seeing a patient with a wry frown, who was just taken into the emergency room. He looked like he was in his late 20s.

“In which area do you feel uncomfortable?” asked Suhyuk.

“I was stabbed.”

Suhyuk lay the patient down slowly on a bed.

“Did you say you were stabbed? Speak again slowly.”

“I fell down inn the construction site, and I was stabbed by an the iron core embedded in the ground.”

“Let me check it.”

Suhyuk rolled up the man’s upper clothes. The blood was sticky on the lower part of the right collarbone, making it difficult to visually confirm the wound. Suhyuk wiped off blood with a disinfected gauze right away.

“Uh……”

Suhyuk opened his mouth at the patient’s moaning.

“Please be patient a little more. It’ll be done quickly.”

Soon he cleaned off the blood, and the wound was clearly visible to his eyes.

Every time he breathed, the chest wall went in and out repeatedly.

In order to prevent air from entering, he put a tape on the hole first, and he attached a cable to the body of the patient quickly. In so doing he looked at Oh standing in the back.

“Can I do the same as I did before?”

Suhyuk’s eyes were s.h.i.+ning. Oh nodded his head. As he had done it before, there was no reason he could not do it now. He could ask Suhyuk later why he came to the emergency medical department.

After checking the patient’s vital signs, Suhyuk urgently pushed the stretcher carrying him and disappeared. Oh did not ask him why, because he would come back soon.

He was right.

Coming back to the emergency room, Suhyuk opened his mouth,

“Symptomatic thoracic swelling was seen. The auxiliary muscle does not show the signs of use, nor does the jugular vein show signs of swelling. Avoiding bradykinesia, airway deviation, as well as decreasing right breath sounds.”

Suhyuk opened his mouth again, checking the patient’s tomography.

“As you can see, skin defects and air pockets due to the stab wounds on the right chest wall were observed. Signs of pneumothorax.”

Oh nodded his head.

“Chest tube insertion should be performed.”

Oh just kept nodding, “Contact the surgery team.”

“Yes.”

Fluttering his white gown, he turned back. Looking at him, Oh murmured, “He’s started it again…”

Yes, just like before, but he could feel something was different about Suhyuk this time. His confidence?

Yes, that was it. That kind of att.i.tude was confirmed in his moving around.

“It’s liver laceration. I think ERCP will be helpful.”

Watching him, with his feet frozen like a stone statue, Oh opened his mouth, “Uh… yes.”

He was just absent-minded.

As soon as a patient was taken into the emergency room, Suhyuk immediately began seeing him, rushed to the imaging room for a clear diagnostics and came back. Moving around more comprehensively than before, and identifying the name of the disease exactly without any error. He was just like a medical device.

When there were fewer patients, the nurses spoke to Suhyuk,

“Sir, take it easy.”

“Yes, please. You’ll be exhausted soon if you’re busy like this.”

It looked like he was running a marathon. He kept moving his body without any letup or rest.

“I’m okay.”

Suhyuk was wiping off the sweat running down his forehead…

Then he heard, “Mr. Lee Suhyuk.”

He turned his head at a man’s familiar voice calling his name. He was Prof. Kim Jinwook.

“I hear that you’ve been rea.s.signed to the emergency room. Did you speak to the hospital director about it directly?”

When he nodded with a smile, Prof. Kim also smiled.

Prof. Kim was not curious about what kind of conversation went on between him and the director. He just thought that the director appreciated Suhyuk’s talent. He thought it was so. What’s important to him was that Suhyuk was now in his medical territory.

“Why did you say you wanted to come to the emergency medical department?”

Kim only wanted to know this reason.

“I like this place,” Suhyuk answered shortly.

This was the place where he could first see the patient whose life was at risk. With a swift response, he could save the patient’s life. This was the very place he wanted to be in.

Looking at him with a satisfactory expression, Kim opened his mouth,

“How long did you say you wanted to work here?”

“For one month.”

If he had his way, he wanted to see the emergency patients, and even do the surgery directly when needed. But it was only his wishful thinking, and all he had to do was to transfer the patient to the relevant medical team. They cast a suspicious eye on him, and there was no chance that they could let him do the surgery. That’s because he told the director that he wanted to come to the emergency room. Such as it was, it was where he could first see the emergency patient whose life was in critical condition. He should normally have been a resident to do such things.

Then he heard another voice calling him.

“Mr. Lee Suhyuk!”

He was Prof. Lee Mansuk.

“I heard the news. Did you tell the hospital director to send you to the emergency room? Is it true?”

Suhyuk nodded his head, saying, “Yes, I wanted to see patients directly…”

“Hey, you can see the patients enough at the neurosurgeon department.”

That was true. But he shook his head in his heart.

Prof. Lee seemed to confine him to his own office often.

He appreciated Lee’s intention, but at the same time felt it a burden and an oppression of his heart. He would rather see the patients during that time.

Did Prof. Kim notice Suhyuk’s thinking like this?

Kim, talking over the phone on the sidelines, opened his mouth,

“I just heard that a patient with aortic aneurysm was being taken to our hospital from another one. Do you remember observing the surgery from before? How about coming with me?”

Suhyuk nodded his head without any hesitation, “Thanks.”

Kim said to Lee, “As you see, I’m afraid we have to go to the surgery room soon. See you later.”

Suhyuk also bowed his head. So both of them pa.s.sed by Lee.

Lee’s eyes were looking at Suhyuk disappearing. He was casting a regrettable gaze at him, full of glaring eyes. He then thought very hard about what Suhyuk really wanted, and what he wanted to possess most at his age. After thinking about it quietly, he began to walk fast and caught up with Suhyuk. Pa.s.sing by him, Lee asked, “Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No, sir.”

Nodding his head, Lee walked ahead of him.

***

Dressed in a surgery gown, Prof. Kim asked Suhyuk,

“Do you remember the aortic aneurysm surgery you have observed from before?”

He nodded his head. The number of his surgery observations was only a few. How can he not remember it?

“Do you mean the surgery that requires replacement by artificial blood vessel?”

Before he came into the surgery room, Suhyuk had already checked with Kim and the patient.

Kim nodded his head with a satisfactory expression.

“Right, it’s a surgery that partially removes the swollen aorta and treats it with artificial blood vessels.”

Though Kim said that casually, Suhyuk knew how dangerous such a surgery it was. For it was a surgery that required supplying blood constantly with the heart put to rest during the operation.

“Let’s go.”

They went into the surgery room. There Suhyuk found the most medical staff he has ever seen on standby. Aortic aneurysm surgery required many expert hands that could catch even a minimal change in the patient’s condition.

“Let me start the anesthesia.”

At the anesthesiologist’s words, Suhyuk approached the patient. For he saw the patient’s eyes overshadowed by fear and burden of surgery rather than his face frowned with pain.

“Don’t worry. Just take a sound sleep and then wake up. It’ll be over soon.”

Suhyuk smiled, and the patient’s expression showed he was calm and relaxed.

Suhyuk’s words were heard in his ears as if the surgery was nothing. Thanks to him, the patient could close his eyes comfortably.

Kim closely watched the medical staff’s handling of work to monitor even the smallest mistake.

Fortunately, it did not happen. After confirming it, he talked to the resident next to him.

“Just for today, can you take a break as the a.s.sistant on the right?”

Then he looked at Suhyuk.