A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 103

The Martial Surgeon – Episode 103

Chapter 18: The Tipping Point (3)

Snikt. Snikt.

Jun-hoo used bandage scissors to cut away the blood-soaked bandages.

As the bandages were removed, the stab wounds from the dagger all over the patient’s abdomen were immediately visible.

Bleeding was stopped with pressure bandages.

Thanks to Jun-hoo’s pressure points, no blood was seeping from the wounds.

“Whoa. It’s worse than I thought? The guy who stabbed him must be crazy.”

“I know. I didn’t think it would be this bad either.”

Young-hwan and Jae-seok frowned at the gruesome sight.

But Jun-hoo was calmly analyzing the wounds.

Six stab wounds in the abdomen.

Judging by the length and depth of the wounds, two of them had reached the patient’s organs and blood vessels, causing life-threatening damage.

The stab wound above the navel.

It had penetrated the branch of the abdominal aorta.

The stab wound on the left flank.

It had penetrated near the pancreas.

The area where the knife was lodged was near the liver, so there were a total of three areas that needed surgery.

Today’s surgery was sure to be long and arduous.

“Jun-hoo, was it? You seem surprisingly calm? This must be your first time seeing a trauma patient like this.”

“I guess it’s because it doesn’t feel real.”

Jun-hoo gave an insincere answer to Young-hwan’s question.

In fact, Jun-hoo had seen so many stab wound patients that he was sick of them.

He had lived in the Murim world [a world of martial arts masters] for over 30 years.

During that time, he had exchanged swords with countless members of the Evil Sect and demonic forces.

But he couldn’t tell the truth.

“Anyway, it’s a relief. It would have been a problem if you were scared and stammering. Let’s remove the knife before the laparotomy [surgical opening of the abdomen]. Jae-seok, get ready.”

“But, Senior.”

“What?”

“Can we have Jun-hoo remove the knife?”

“An intern?”

Young-hwan tilted his head at Jae-seok’s suggestion.

Removing the knife was a simple but important procedure.

If his hand trembled.

Or if the angle of removing the knife was wrong.

Blood vessels or nerves could be damaged in the process of removing the knife, leading to aftereffects.

“Why are you passing on your work to an intern? Are you not confident?”

“I’ve heard so many rumors about how good he is. I thought it would be okay to let him handle it.”

“Hmm…”

Young-hwan stared at Jun-hoo and made a humming sound.

“Well, it’s not like an intern can’t do it… Seo Jun-hoo, can you do it well?”

“Yes. I’m confident.”

There was not a moment’s hesitation in Jun-hoo’s answer.

Jun-hoo was confident in anything he did with his hands.

“You answer well. But if you mess up, you’re dead. The patient dies, you die, and Jae-seok dies too.”

“…”

“Can you handle it?”

“Of course.”

Jun-hoo lightly gripped the handle of the dagger stuck in the abdomen with both hands.

No hesitation.

No fear.

No trembling.

No anxiety for Jun-hoo.

Calmness and composure honed on countless battlefields.

The will to save the patient.

He was burning with the desire to keep his promise to the guardian.

In terms of mindset alone.

Jun-hoo was already in the ranks of a renowned doctor.

“There’s a trick to pulling out the knife. It’s about pulling the knife out vertically…”

Before Young-hwan could finish explaining the trick.

Jun-hoo pulled the knife out with a whoosh.

Flowing Cloud Mountain. [a martial arts technique]

One of the techniques of the Cheon Family, he used the principle of quickly retracting the sword after stabbing with it to remove the knife.

Jun-hoo’s movements were lightning fast.

By the time the staff blinked, the knife had already been pulled out.

If a blood vessel had been touched in the process of removing the knife.

Blood would have gushed from the wound like a fountain.

The wound was fine.

The blood that had been pooling around the wound only trickled out between the cuts.

Jun-hoo grabbed three gauze pads in his hand and gently pressed down on the patient’s abdomen where the blood was flowing.

“Is this enough?”

Jun-hoo looked at Young-hwan and asked.

Young-hwan nodded with a dazed expression.

“Huh? Uh. Good job.”

* * *

As the bleeding from the area where the knife was removed stopped, the full-scale surgery began.

The start was a laparotomy.

Young-hwan made a 7-centimeter-long vertical incision from the patient’s sternum to the area below the navel.

The skin split.

The subcutaneous fat layer split.

The fascia split.

As the peritoneum split in order, the patient’s abdominal organs were revealed.

“…”

“…”

A cold silence gripped the operating table.

The patient’s abdomen was a sea of blood.

The blood pooling in the abdominal cavity sloshed like waves.

The fishy smell of blood stung the nose.

The staff’s faces turned pale at the unexpectedly horrific situation.

“I’ll secure the field of vision first.”

It was Jun-hoo who broke the frozen atmosphere.

Without anyone telling him to, Jun-hoo widened the incision with a fixed retractor. Thanks to this, the surgical view was much wider.

Cheee.

Holding suction devices in both hands.

Jun-hoo sucked up the blood in the abdominal cavity.

His hand movements and treatment were skillful.

It was thanks to simulating various situations in his head before entering the operating room.

“What? Seo Jun-hoo, were you an A-turn [top intern]? You should have said so sooner.”

“I’ve only heard rumors and this is my first time assisting in surgery. I didn’t know it would be this bad.”

“We could raise him properly at this rate?”

“I know.”

Jae-seok clicked his tongue and replied.

It is said that there is nothing to eat at a famous feast [an idiom meaning appearances can be deceiving].

Jun-hoo was the opposite.

He showed more activity than the rumors.

The skill with which he removed the knife was excellent.

His hands were so fast and accurate.

Jae-seok’s eyes and head couldn’t keep up.

Although he didn’t show it, even if Jae-seok had removed the knife.

He wasn’t confident that he could remove it as cleanly as Jun-hoo.

Not only that.

The sense to start hemostasis [stopping blood flow] with gauze immediately after removing the knife.

The timely timing of using the retractor.

The sense to use suction, etc.

Judging by the activities he had shown so far.

Even if Jun-hoo was said to be a 3-4 year resident instead of an intern, it would be acceptable.

“No. I’m still far from you two.”

“I like your humble attitude.”

Young-hwan, who had regained his composure, continued.

“Let’s take advantage of this momentum and keep going. I’ll clamp the blood vessels, so you two focus on detailed hemostasis. Mosquito [small hemostat].”

Ttak. Ttak.

Young-hwan clamped the upper part of the bleeding blood vessel with vascular clamps.

It was a treatment to prevent additional bleeding by preventing blood from flowing into the blood vessel.

Cheee.

Cheee.

Meanwhile, Jae-seok and Jun-hoo sucked up the blood in the abdominal cavity with suction devices.

They also added hemostatic gauze to the vicinity of the torn blood vessels and organs.

In the midst of the orderly movements.

The blood in the abdominal cavity, which had been pooling like a puddle, slowly decreased.

And the organs that had been submerged in blood gradually revealed their appearance.

‘What is this?’

‘Is he even human?’

While treating together, Jae-seok was surprised once again by Jun-hoo.

Jun-hoo was using his left and right hands freely.

He was using suction with one hand.

With the other hand, he was using hemostatic gauze to stop the bleeding in the abdominal cavity.

At the same time, he even helped Young-hwan and Jae-seok’s treatments from time to time.

By handing over necessary items.

Or by holding and fixing blood vessels.

Or by irrigating (washing) blood vessels or organs.

From some point on, Jun-hoo was involved in the entire surgical process.

Like a control tower.

So naturally that even none of the staff felt uncomfortable with Jun-hoo.

Perhaps thanks to Jun-hoo’s subtle performance.

The bleeding in the abdominal cavity and organs was cleared up faster than expected.

The organs in the abdominal cavity, which had been pooling like a puddle, now fully revealed their appearance.

The patient’s vitals regained stability.

The electrocardiogram graph also changed regularly.

“Seo Jun-hoo.”

“Yes. Chief.”

“Were you a surgeon in your past life? This is definitely not an intern’s assist?”

“Hahaha. Is that so?”

Jun-hoo, who suddenly met Jae-seok’s eyes, smiled awkwardly.

“Is there a special trick to assisting well?”

“How dare I talk about such things in front of the Chief?”

“Of course. I asked because I wanted to hear it.”

“I…”

Jun-hoo paused before continuing.

“When I assist, I try to see things from other people’s perspectives as much as possible.”

“Other people’s perspectives?”

“Yes. I think about what the attending physician needs now, and what the first assistant needs.”

“…”

“And if I can add one more thing…”

“Keep going.”

“I studied the pocketbook and visualized the surgical process in my head. That was surprisingly helpful.”

The martial artists of Murim were able to vividly visualize the movements of the martial arts in their heads just by reading the martial arts manual.

The same was true for Jun-hoo.

So he was able to understand the pocketbook not simply as text, but as a moving video.

So it was only natural that he had a high understanding of surgery.

“You’re amazing. You too.”

Jae-seok shook his head as if he had lost.

From the attitude towards surgery.

From the attitude of studying.

Jun-hoo was already on a different level from ordinary interns.

Behind his extraordinary performance was extraordinary effort and mindset.

“Okay. Okay. Turn off the local broadcast and focus on what I’m saying!”

The attending physician, Young-hwan, reminded the staff of their attention for the first time in a while.

“Now that we’ve stopped the bleeding, the condition isn’t too bad. The operating room came in quite quickly, and the knife missed the major blood vessels.”

Young-hwan continued in a voice that suggested he was relieved.

“First, let’s clean up the microvessels near the abdominal aorta. Then, we can treat the pancreas and liver in that order. If we proceed as we are now, there won’t be any problems.”

“Yes. Senior.”

“I understand.”

With the staff’s energetic answers, the surgery headed towards Act 2.

* * *

The surgery was going smoothly like a sailboat meeting a favorable wind.

Suturing or cauterizing the ruptured microvessels in the abdominal aorta.

Removing or draining some of the necrotic pancreatic tissue.

Restoring the hepatic portal vein and surrounding blood vessels, etc.

The surgery had regained stability. The tension that had been overwhelming in the early stages of the surgery had largely disappeared.

In Jun-hoo’s view, the attending physician, Young-hwan, was a skilled surgeon.

In the beginning of the surgery, Young-hwan’s personality was not serious, so Jun-hoo was worried about his surgical skills.

That was Jun-hoo’s prejudice.

As a 2-year trauma surgery fellow.

Young-hwan did not lose his composure throughout the surgery.

He calmly assessed the patient.

He knew how to use the staff in the right place.

Jae-seok was also an excellent first assistant.

He actively assisted in the surgery without waiting for Young-hwan’s instructions.

The only hole in the operating room was…

The scrub nurse located across from Jun-hoo.

Perhaps because she was an inexperienced newbie.

The scrub nurse often handed over the wrong surgical tools, or hesitated for a long time before handing them over.

“Nurse. I’m just staying still because it’s me. If you assist professors like you do with me, you’ll be in big trouble.”

Young-hwan said a word when the scrub nurse Ga-yeon handed him a Bovie (electrocautery device) instead of scissors.

“Ah. Yes. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry. No one is good at it from the beginning. But.”

Young-hwan added a condition.

“It would be good to improve your skills quickly. Everyone is sensitive in the operating room.”

“I understand. Doctor.”

Ga-yeon nodded.

It was around that time that the surgery was coming to a smooth end.

Click.

Click.

Jun-hoo’s gaze, who was only assigned the simple role of cutting the suture knots with scissors, lingered on the spleen.

The spleen is also called the spleen.

It was one of the most important lymphatic organs in the human body.

The problem was during the surgery.

Jun-hoo had the feeling that the spleen had become more enlarged.

Even using the Eye Skill, Fierce Falcon Art, which amplifies eyesight.

Jun-hoo had been carefully observing the changes in the organs throughout the surgery.

In preparation for a possible secondary hemorrhage.

So it was difficult to dismiss the discomfort he felt now as a simple feeling, illusion, misunderstanding, or misunderstanding.

A sudden feeling of anxiety.

A creeping sense of tension.

When Jun-hoo felt this way in Murim.

He was invariably caught up in bad events.

“Doctor. I’m sorry, but I have something important to tell you.”

“What is it? Do you want to go to the bathroom or something?”

Young-hwan raised his head and asked at Jun-hoo’s question.

“It’s not a bathroom problem, but I think the patient’s spleen…”

Jun-hoo couldn’t finish his sentence.

Ring~ Ring~

Just then, the phone located at the entrance of the operating room rang.

“I’ll take the call first and then tell you.”

Jun-hoo hurriedly left the operating table and answered the phone.

Jun-hoo’s expression gradually hardened as he listened to the nurse’s notification.

“What? Why now of all times?”