Dr. Shin Seonhan: The Doctor Who Sees The Future [EN]: Chapter 60

#60 Isn’t Thoracic Surgery a First? (8)

The protector [guardian or family member responsible for the patient’s care] was the one who grabbed my sleeve.

She was anxiously watching next to Tae-oh Lee when he raised his voice earlier.

“Oh my, doctor.”

“?”

“I’m so sorry… because my husband smoked without any sense. I’m really sorry. I’m sorry.”

The lady bows her head repeatedly, not knowing what to do.

I feel a little sorry for her.

The patient is the one who violated the rules and smoked, but the guardian has to apologize.

I raised the bowing lady.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to apologize.”

“Um… Doctor, is my husband really not going to be forcibly discharged?”

The guardian carefully asks, looking at me.

How should I answer?

It’s really hard to be cold to the guardian in this situation.

I thought for a moment and then answered.

“Actually, as you heard earlier, smoking carries the risk of postoperative complications…”

“Then does that mean you really won’t do the surgery?”

“The professor will decide the details.”

“Oh my, what to do.”

The lady looked like the world was collapsing.

“My husband worked hard to quit smoking for a month… I guess he couldn’t stand it for just one day.”

“Really?”

“Oh my, I swear to heaven, it’s true. He couldn’t stand it for just one day.”

The lady explains the situation.

All patients receive education before surgery.

However, this education can sometimes cause stress to the patient.

Because they get to know exactly what kind of surgery they will be receiving.

The vague fear comes right before their eyes.

“He said he might die during the surgery… I guess he was scared and his heart was restless. He said he had to smoke a cigarette before going to the afterlife. Oh my, foolish man.”

The guardian’s eyes are filled with tears as she says that.

“Doctors, can’t you just turn a blind eye once? We barely got the surgery date now, and it can’t be delayed any further…”

As the lady says.

If you’re going to do it anyway, it’s better to have cancer surgery as soon as possible.

For cancer patients, is like .

Delaying surgery means that the risk of cancer spreading increases.

What if the patient is discharged as is?

It will take time to reschedule the surgery.

Maybe a month or two.

I don’t know how the cancer will worsen during that time.

“I’ll talk to the professor about it.”

“Oh my. Thank you, thank you.”

The guardian bowed her head repeatedly.

I moved my steps.

As I headed to the station, I saw Ms. Song Yoo-joo, who was about to leave after writing something on the chart.

“Excuse me, teacher [term of respect for a senior colleague].”

Song Yoo-joo turns to me.

An impression like a wild cat.

It’s not easy to talk to her.

Should I say that I feel an invisible iron wall?

“What’s going on?”

“It’s about the patient from earlier. The guardian just told me…”

“Did she ask you not to postpone the surgery?”

Uh?

How did you know?

Song Yoo-joo steals the initiative before I can say anything.

“It’s obvious. She probably made excuses that she had been abstaining from smoking but smoked one cigarette today.”

“…That’s right.”

Is she a fortune teller?

I’m embarrassed because she’s so accurate.

It seems like this has happened more than once or twice.

“What was your name again? Was it Jin Ji-han?”

“It’s Shin Seon-han.”

“Okay, anyway, you.”

Song Yoo-joo said, moving her steps as if to minimize the waste of time.

“Don’t get caught up with the patient and the guardian. If the treatment policy changes because the guardian cries and asks, is that really right? Medical decision-making is based on facts, not emotions.”

Of course, she is right a hundred times.

However, I didn’t feel like backing down easily.

The expression of the guardian who grabbed my sleeve and begged me earnestly bothers me.

“Still, isn’t postponing the surgery more dangerous?”

“If that’s the case, tell the professor yourself at the meeting.”

What?

At the morning meeting?

In that place where not only thoracic surgeons but also radiologists and pulmonologists gather?

That’s like telling me not to say it!

How dare an intern babbling his opinion at the morning meeting…

“Why. Can’t you do that?”

Song Yoo-joo disappeared with an ice-cold expression.

Left alone, I fell into 고민 [worry/anguish].

What should I do?

* * *

7:30 a.m.

We gathered in the conference room.

It’s time for the conference meeting to start the day.

Soon the conference room was filled with people.

―Professor

―Fellow [doctor who has completed residency and is receiving advanced training]

―Resident

―Intern

―PA (Physician Assistant) Nurse

Etc…

The scenery of the meeting room where many people gather is not much different.

At first, it was unfamiliar, but now I’ve gotten used to it a bit.

Although it is full of people I see for the first time, I am not as nervous as before.

“Okay, shall we start?”

Under the lead of Professor Threshing Machine [likely a nickname], briefings of several patients are held.

From the very beginning, Tae-oh Lee’s data appears on the screen.

“This patient was scheduled to have VATS Left Lower Lobectomy (thoracoscopic left lower lobectomy) [minimally invasive surgery to remove a lobe of the lung] at 10:30 today, right? Is there any other issue?”

The professor asks.

Then Song Yoo-joo said as if she had been waiting.

“There were no special findings in the Pre-op evaluaton (preoperative evaluation) [medical tests and assessments done before surgery], but the patient smoked until today.”

“Smoked?”

“Yes. I smelled cigarettes on my hands during the pre-round today.”

“Aha.”

The professor clicked his tongue as if he was sorry.

“No matter how much you like cigarettes, you can’t stand that one thing before a big surgery… Your life is at stake. Tsk, tsk.”

The professor rubbed his eyes nervously.

“Let’s see… He was a patient who had been smoking for quite a while, right?”

“Yes. It is recorded as 45 pack-year (the amount of smoking 1.5 packs a day for 30 years) [a measure of the amount a person has smoked over a long period].”

“It’s going to be a bit of a burden. Nurse Ryu, can you check our surgery schedule for next month? Is there any vacancy?”

Listening to the conversation between the professor and Ms. Song Yoo-joo, it seems that they are trying to discharge the patient as is.

“Um…”

I raised my hand.

Then everyone looks at me with suspicion.

The same emotions are on their faces.

What is it?

Suddenly, an intern raises his hand during a meeting.

Are you crazy?

Or did you eat rat poison?

That’s the expression they seem to be saying.

It’s understandable because the voice came out of the interns’ seats, which should be like air, where no sound should be heard.

“Intern, do you have anything you want to say?”

The professor asks.

…I’m nervous.

One word is important.

It’s like walking a tightrope.

If you cross the line even one step, you will be marked as a rude intern.

I, who had already been on the air [in trouble], might be marked as an attention-seeking intern for a month.

“I have a question.”

“Tell me.”

“I’m curious if a small amount of smoking also affects postoperative complications. For example, if you only smoked one cigarette early this morning…”

“Hmm.”

The professor smiled.

It’s an expression that seems to know what I’m trying to say.

“Did the guardian say that?”

“Yes. He claims to have been abstaining from smoking for a month.”

“Haha. Do you believe that?”

The professor laughed.

You can’t let your guard down just because it’s a laughing atmosphere.

Because it can be taken as a ‘rebuttal’ to the professor’s decision.

“Okay… Our intern seems worried about postponing the patient’s surgery? Shall we talk about the reason?”

At the professor’s question, I said in the most humble tone possible.

“When I was a student, I studied that if cancer surgery is delayed by about a month, the patient’s mortality rate increases by up to 1.6 times…”

Then the professor’s expression becomes strange.

Not only that, but a few of the fellows next to him also look at each other with strange expressions.

Why is that?

Did I make a mistake?

The professor asks again with a faint smile.

“Where did you see that? I wouldn’t have lectured on that in class.”

“I looked up the thesis [academic research paper].”

“Haha.”

The professor smiled, stroking his chin.

“The passionate attitude is good. But you didn’t seem to pay close attention to the author’s name in the paper?”

“Yes?”

“I wrote that paper a few years ago.”

“!”

“If you look closely at the study, there is no difference between surgery within 1 month and surgery after that in advanced hospital lung cancer patients.”

Ugh.

I bit my tongue.

Talking about the thesis in front of the author of the thesis.

It’s not just making wrinkles in front of a silkworm [a futile effort], it’s like doing somersaults in the air [extremely foolish].

“Haha, don’t be so embarrassed. It’s great that the intern is also looking up the thesis passionately. Is it because he’s an intern who appeared on TV news?”

The professor laughs.

Is that praise in the pure sense?

I wish it was.

He seemed happy to hear about his research and continued to speak pleasantly.

“Well, anyway, we’ll decide whether to discharge the patient or operate on him after the rounds. If you get surgery, it’s thanks to the passionate intern.”

Fortunately, it went well.

Did what I said have an effect?

The professor seems to be thinking more positively about the surgery.

‘Phew.’

I sighed in relief inside.

Then, suddenly, when I looked up, there were a total of three gazes looking at me.

Mr. Ma Dong-seop.

He seems a little surprised by my sudden question, but he is basically sending a friendly gaze.

It’s quite something? That’s the expression.

Ms. Song Yoo-joo.

She glances at me without any particular emotion.

I might dislike my words and actions, but there is no change in emotion at all.

Should I say that she is like a wild cat on a fence looking down on the human world?

I have no idea what she’s thinking.

And Ryu Myung-in.

Next to me, she is burning her eyes.

I can see too clearly what she is thinking.

Maybe she is feeling jealous of me being praised by the professor.

“The next patient is…”

The meeting continues.

After the meeting, the professor’s rounds began, and my hectic first day of thoracic surgery began.

* * *

One officetel [studio apartment] in Gangnam [affluent district in Seoul] that night.

A red mini is sucked into the underground parking lot.

The night when the whole city is asleep.

It’s time to finish the day for someone.

Beep, beep―

The sound of a dry door lock is heard in the dark.

After a while.

Song Yoo-joo dragged her tired body into the room.

Unopened 택배 [delivery] boxes are scattered haphazardly.

There is no special furniture in the room surrounded by grayish-white wallpaper.

It’s a room that I signed a contract with because it gets a lot of sunlight, but I’ve hardly seen sunlight in this room since I started thoracic surgery.

“Phew.”

Thump―

Yoo-joo was buried in the bed.

It’s a life that infinitely repeats home-hospital-home-hospital.

Still, should I say it’s better than the 1st and 2nd year when it was hospital-hospital-hospital?

3rd year of residency.

The burden of work is gradually decreasing, but the life with the evening still feels far away.

‘Anyway, there’s nothing to do even if I come home early.’

Song Yoo-joo stared at the ceiling for a while while lying down.

It’s not that I’m dissatisfied with my current life.

But…

Something seems to be missing in my life.

It’s like a wooden doll walking forward only by inertia with the clockwork missing.

At that time, I suddenly remembered what happened a few years ago.

The conversation with Baekui God [likely a revered mentor or figure].

That conversation made me who I am now.