Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 93

93. We’re Doctors, Aren’t We?

“Is our Princess Seri feeling refreshed?”

“Yes. Mommy, it’s so refreshing.”

“Oh my, my pretty puppy. Who did she take after to be so pretty?”

“She’s pretty because she looks like Mommy.”

“Excuse me… I’m sorry to bother you.”

The receptionist approached a young mother and child who were adjusting their clothes in front of the main entrance.

“Oh, yes.”

“Are you by any chance SeriSera?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

The young mother, who was wearing a baseball cap, nodded with an embarrassed expression.

“Oh my, what a surprise! I was hesitant because the child was wearing a hat. I’m a subscriber.”

The child, who the staff member was looking at with fascination, was one of the stars of a popular kids’ channel on YouTube.

“Is that so? Thank you. Seri, this lady here is a subscriber to our channel.”

The girl, wearing a matching hat with her mother, greeted kindly, leaving the receptionist flustered.

“You’re Seri? You’re so cute. How can you be so cute?”

“Thank you.”

“Are you here for a hospital visit?”

“No. I just stopped by the restroom because of my child.”

“I see. Do you live in this neighborhood?”

“We moved here a month ago.”

“Really? I hope to see you often… Oh, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t say I hope to see you often at the hospital. But didn’t Sera come with you?”

“Ah, Sera is at home taking an art lesson.”

“I see. It would have been nice if Sera had come too.”

“I should get going now.”

“Alright. I asked you so many questions because I was excited to see you. Goodbye, Seri.”

“Yes, goodbye.”

The receptionist went back inside the desk with a beaming face.

“Young, who was that? Some kind of celebrity?”

“No. It’s that kid from the kids’ YouTube channel I showed you last time.”

“Oh, that kids’ channel that’s all the rage these days?”

“Yes, they’re as popular as celebrities. They have over 500,000 subscribers.”

“No wonder the kid’s mom was decked out in designer brands from head to toe. I’m jealous. But I remember the other kid being really pretty when you showed me last time…”

“That’s right. Sera is the one who made the channel famous. Here!”

The receptionist found a picture of the child named Sera and showed it.

“Yes. That’s the kid. Is that photoshopped?”

“Why would they photoshop kids? Sera looks exactly the same in the videos.”

“All kids are pretty and cute, but she’s really too pretty.”

“Exactly. People are saying she has a complete face already [meaning she has perfectly balanced features for her age].”

“I’m here to pay.”

The staff, who had been engrossed in the YouTube conversation, quickly stopped talking and began to attend to the patient.

“Yes, you saw the emergency room doctor, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

* * *

“How’s the surgery prep? Did you contact Dr. Jung?”

Taekyung was being moved from the emergency room to the operating room for an emergency surgery.

“The patient is being moved after finishing the tests, and Dr. Jung went into the operating room right away. You’re the only one left, Doctor.”

“Today is a record-breaking Friday.”

“I know. Patients are pouring in, there was a stabbing, scheduled surgeries, and emergency surgeries. I’m so busy I can’t even go to the bathroom.”

“I guess it’s because our Turtle No. 1 [referring to Lee Chanhee, who wished for rain] worked so hard to make it rain.”

As Lee Chanhee had hoped, it did eventually rain, but instead of reducing the number of patients, it added accident victims, leaving them without even time to use the restroom, just as Taekyung had said.

“So, is Turtle No. 1 confirmed for duty?”

“Let’s see how he works first and then decide…!”

Taekyung suddenly stopped talking and turned toward the main entrance as he walked down the hallway.

“Doctor! Why are you going there?”

Nurse Lim Jungsook wondered why he was acting so naturally, as if he were going to pick up a delivery of jajangmyeon [Korean-Chinese noodle dish]. But Taekyung went past the main entrance and even outside.

‘The smell!’

The fifth vital sign was detected. It was a faint smell, like a lingering warmth on the body or a dissipating mist, but it was definitely there.

‘It’s the smell of feces.’

But the smell was somewhat ambiguous.

It wasn’t just one smell. Usually, if other smells are mixed in, they tend to be mixed in stages.

Until now, the smells had followed each other in stages as the patient’s condition worsened. But there was another smell mixed in.

There had been a similar case recently, but it was a little different.

Lee Gochul, who had surgery for thyroid cancer metastasis, also had the smell of sulfur following the smell of formaldehyde, which was stage 4.

It was strange because it was a smell that had never been smelled from a patient before, but in the end, the reason for the sulfur smell was that his life was in danger. Of course, it’s difficult to be certain with just one case. But from experience, it’s likely that sulfur is the next stage after the formaldehyde smell. Taekyung came up with a new hypothesis that the closer the patient was to death, the more the smell of sulfur would emanate.

In the end, the fifth vital sign from the patient has a connection to each stage.

But this time, there were completely unrelated and mismatched smells mixed in.

‘What kind of combination is this?’

A fragrance that didn’t match the stage 3 smell of feces, like something from a candy house at an amusement park or bubblegum sold in front of schools when he was young.

It was sweet and warm, and it also felt clean, pure, and untouched.

‘What is it?’

He turned his head left and right to check the front yard and benches, but there wasn’t a single person there.

‘No. That person too… that person isn’t it either.’

The person who was just catching a taxi and the person who was making a phone call near the hospital were not the source of the smell.

“Doctor!”

Nurse Lim Jungsook called out with a strained voice.

“Did you see someone suddenly collapse or something?”

“I guess so. I must have mistaken someone tying their shoelaces.”

Taekyung, wondering what to say to excuse his sudden behavior, made an excuse using Nurse Lim Jungsook’s words and turned back.

‘Did the person come into the hospital?’

Taekyung thought with regret.

‘Or did they leave?’

When you’re in the hospital, you smell things hundreds of times a day. Most of the smells disappear with appropriate treatment by the medical staff, but sometimes they are felt unexpectedly like this.

Moreover, even if the intensity is weak, the body reacts first to smells that cannot be easily ignored, as it does now.

Especially after experiencing Pueong’s husband, Lee Gochul, Taekyung reacted more sensitively than before.

That’s why he vowed never to send back a patient who felt the fifth vital sign again.

“Doctor, are you okay?”

Nurse Lim Jungsook asked, seeing Taekyung’s expression, which was serious to the point of being grave.

“Of course. I’m fine. I was just thinking…! Nurse Lim? Could you check the restroom for a moment?”

Taekyung, who was heading back to the operating room, stopped again because he smelled the smell again. But he couldn’t enter the place with confidence.

“The restroom?”

“Yes, I thought I heard a sound from the women’s restroom just now. Hurry!”

He asked Nurse Lim Jungsook with ridiculous words because the smell was coming from the women’s restroom.

“Yes, I understand.”

Although it was sudden, Lim Jungsook went straight to the restroom because patients sometimes collapse in the restroom.

Knock, knock-

Knock, knock-

When she knocked on the two locked stalls, one responded with a knock and the other responded verbally.

“Someone’s in here.”

“Excuse me. I’m a hospital nurse, and I heard a sound coming from the restroom. I’m knocking to see if anyone is sick.”

“That’s not me.”

“Oh my, I guess it’s me. I’m sorry. My things that were hanging on the hook fell, and it made a loud noise.”

“Okay. Excuse me.”

Nurse Lim Jungsook quickly finished checking and came out.

“Doctor, you have really good hearing. There’s no one sick, it was just the sound of something falling.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Again, he couldn’t find the source of the smell this time.

“Our doctor is acting a little strange today.”

“I guess I’m just sensitive because I’ve seen a lot of patients today. But do you smell anything good?”

“A good smell?”

“Like a fruity or candy-like smell, or something like that.”

“Those are smells that make you feel good just hearing about them, but I only smell the hospital smell.”

He wondered if the smell was the fifth vital sign, but it wasn’t for other people.

‘What’s the connection?’

Taekyung headed to the operating room with a lingering feeling.

‘What was that candy-like smell?’

* * *

-Did you hire a lawyer?

“I don’t know. The patient came to the hospital all night complaining of pain, accompanied by a guardian, and threatened me, asking what happened. How could I be in the right state of mind to do that?”

In a corner of the emergency room, where the sounds of busy medical staff and patients were mixed, a woman was covering her mouth and talking on the phone.

-What about the clinic?

“It was a night shift, so I had the nurse clean up and close the door. I was just starting to get settled, but I’m worried I might have to close down.”

-Don’t say unlucky things. You took the patient to the hospital, right?

“Yes, I came to the hospital you told me about. But shouldn’t I have gone to a university hospital?”

-What are you talking about? Do you think professors will come out at this hour? It’s just the on-call doctor anyway. The director there is very skilled. He’s very famous in that neighborhood.”

“Really? Tell me his name again.”

-Kim Taekyung. He’s younger than you think. Anyway, tell him to take good care of the patient. He’s a doctor too, so he won’t say anything.”

“Okay. I think he’s coming. I’ll contact you again.”

The woman hung up the phone and hurriedly followed Lee Chanhee, calling out to him.

“Excuse me, Director?”

Turning around, the woman realized that Lee Chanhee was not the director and asked again.

“Where is the director?”

“Who are you?”

“I’m the director of XX Internal Medicine in OO-dong [fictional neighborhood name].”

OO was a neighborhood with many apartment complexes about 30 minutes away from here.

“Oh, hello. Did you come because you’re not feeling well?”

“No, it’s not that…”

The woman looked around, searching for someone, and continued.

“Doesn’t the director come to the emergency room?”

“The director? He’s in surgery right now. Are you an acquaintance?”

“No, I’m not an acquaintance. Actually, it’s because of the patient lying there…”

Lee Chanhee’s gaze followed the woman’s hesitant finger and landed on bed 12.

“Are you talking about bed 12?”

“Yes. The 80-year-old woman.”

“Did you come as a guardian?”

Lee Chanhee, who was about to see the patient in bed 12 anyway, asked.

“No. I performed a gastroscopy on that patient yesterday. Her symptoms have worsened since then.”

The woman said quietly with an anxious expression.

The patient who had undergone the endoscopy yesterday had returned to the hospital with her guardian, complaining of pain.

The local director, the woman, had examined the patient and then came to our hospital with the patient’s guardian.

“Oh, I see. I’ll take a look at the patient first.”

But the internal medicine doctor grabbed Lee Chanhee’s sleeve as he was about to go to the patient.

“……!”

“Excuse me, Doctor?”

Anxious, nervous. Those were the words that could describe the internal medicine doctor.

“Do you have something to say?”

“I, I… Please take good care of her.”

You can tell just by looking at that expression.

‘I know what kind of favor you’re asking.’

That ‘please take good care of her’ means to take good care of the patient so that she gets better, but it’s not just that.

It also means to take good care of her, considering that she would be in great trouble if a medical accident occurred after the endoscopy.

The internal medicine doctor is probably worrying the most in her medical career right now.

She’s probably afraid that something bad will happen to her. People can be like that.

Perhaps all doctors have that kind of feeling to some extent.

But as a doctor, the patient’s well-being should come first. Also, if you’ve done something wrong, you have to take responsibility, and if you haven’t, you have to reveal it as it is.

“At least our doctor would have said that.”

“Yes!?”

The internal medicine doctor questioned Lee Chanhee, who had unknowingly muttered to himself.

“No. I will do my best.”

Of course, that best was for the patient, but the internal medicine doctor, who misunderstood, clung on even more desperately.

“Thank you, Doctor. You know what I mean, right? Please take good care of her. We’re doctors, aren’t we?”