A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 325

Chapter 62. Flying in the Sky (5)

Thud!

Like the head of a villain falling.

The hematoma [a localized collection of blood outside blood vessels] attached to the surface of the subarachnoid membrane [the space between the arachnoid membrane and the pia mater of the brain] was cut off.

It rolled around on the subarachnoid membrane.

The scalpel precisely cut only between the hematoma and the subarachnoid membrane.

There was no damage to nerves or blood vessels, even under close inspection.

Jun-hoo’s swordsmanship was like a sharp wind, leaving no trace.

Sizzle.

Since the root supporting the hematoma was cut off, the hematoma was lightly sucked into the suction device.

“I barely made the time. I wanted to cut it off at exactly 9 minutes.”

Jun-hoo’s voice was refreshing after solving the problem.

Beep, beep, beep.

The timer was beeping loudly, like a child crying for milk.

However, Ji-hye, who was out of her mind, didn’t even think about turning off the timer.

Sung-min was also in the same state of shock.

He just stared at Jun-hoo with wide eyes.

“Everyone, wake up! The surgery isn’t over yet.”

Jun-hoo turned off the timer himself.

“Seriously, he succeeds in everything he’s told not to do, so I can’t say anything.”

Sung-min muttered in an absurd voice.

Even considering that the hematoma was a special case.

Jun-hoo’s knife skills were too dangerous.

Many arteries, veins, and nerves pass through the subarachnoid membrane.

If the scalpel had slipped even a little.

A terrible disaster could have occurred.

In the worst case, Jun-hoo could have ended up dissecting the brain.

“Does Dr. Jun-hoo operate like this in neurosurgery too?”

“No, not really.”

“Then are you doing this because you think we’re easy to deal with?”

Ji-hye’s voice was sharp as she asked the question. The knot in her heart, twisted because of Jun-hoo, was still tight.

“I did it because this was the only way to save the patient. If you were me, Dr. Ji-hye, would you have had another way?”

“That… that’s….”

“The willingness to take responsibility even if the surgery goes wrong, the willingness to do my best for the patient, and the belief in my abilities. I only operate with these three things in mind.”

Jun-hoo stared at Ji-hye.

If Ji-hye was fire, Jun-hoo was water. The temperature difference between the two was stark.

“Is there anything wrong with these three things? If there is, I’ll fix it.”

Ji-hye lowered her gaze at Jun-hoo’s question.

“Honestly, I… I didn’t like how confident you were. It keeps reminding me of someone.”

Hearing Ji-hye’s voice, which was quickly becoming tearful,

Jun-hoo realized that Ji-hye had a hidden story.

“Tell me after the surgery who that person is.”

“Yes.”

After calming the chaotic atmosphere,

Jun-hoo soaked three or four gauze pads in physiological saline solution. He covered the incision on the scalp with the wet gauze.

The patient’s intracranial pressure [the pressure inside the skull] was currently 20 mmHg [millimeters of mercury, a unit of pressure].

Slightly higher than the normal intracranial pressure of 5-15 mmHg.

Considering that the intracranial pressure needed to be lowered and cranioplasty [surgical repair of the skull] would be needed later,

There was no reason to close the incision right away.

In fact, there was no time to do so.

“Dr. Sung-min, shall we switch?”

“Okay. Is it finally my turn?”

Sung-min raised his arm high as if he was full of enthusiasm and then lowered it.

He switched places with Jun-hoo.

Only 10 minutes had passed, but the patient’s abdomen was a little more swollen than before.

It felt like it would burst even if touched with a finger.

It was like a time bomb.

In fact, Jun-hoo had not forgotten that the hematoma removal was just an appetizer.

The main course was the abdominal cavity surgery.

The patient’s life depended on Sung-min’s hands, and at the same time, on Jun-hoo’s hands, who was helping Sung-min.

“Doctor, what is the success rate of the surgery?”

Jun-hoo’s voice trembled faintly as he asked the question.

“I don’t know exactly either. But one thing is certain….”

“One thing is certain?”

“The patient is holding up better than I thought. The vitals are stable compared to the expansion of the abdomen. There hasn’t been a cardiac arrest [sudden stop in effective blood circulation due to failure of the heart to contract effectively] even once after getting off the helicopter.”

“……”

“If we can reach the hepatic portal vein [a major blood vessel that carries blood from the gastrointestinal tract and spleen to the liver] quickly, there’s a good chance of success.”

There was no shaking in Sung-min’s eyes.

It was a trustworthy look.

While preparing for the second battle with the abdominal cavity, Jun-hoo suddenly recalled what the patient had said during the terminal lucidity [a paradoxical phenomenon in which a person with a terminal illness experiences a sudden return of mental clarity or alertness shortly before death].

-Doctor, I want to live… I miss Hye-in and Hye-in’s mom… and Gaeul. I think I did something stupid for a while….

Perhaps it wasn’t just the medical staff who were struggling.

Even though he was unconscious,

The patient was desperately fighting against death, wanting to reunite with his family.

Even though he became an assistant, Jun-hoo did not lose his focus.

He disinfected the patient’s abdomen with cotton soaked in povidone solution [an antiseptic used for skin disinfection before and after surgery] and covered it with a surgical drape.

During his internship,

He had trained in gastrointestinal surgery.

He still remembered the basic surgical routine.

“Number 10 blade.”

With the scalpel handed to him by Ji-hye,

Sung-min cut the patient’s abdomen vertically.

Sung-min’s knife skills were urgent because the lack of time was closely following him.

Swoosh.

With the first cut, the skin, subcutaneous tissue, and fascia [a layer of fibrous tissue] were cut off.

Jun-hoo bent his waist slightly and held retractors in both hands. He widened the incision to the left and right with the retractors.

Impatient Sung-min made a second cut in the middle.

The fat layer and abdominal cavity were vertically divided.

But that was exactly when.

A sudden situation broke out.

Fwoosh!

The blood that had been pooling inside the abdominal cavity gushed out through the incision due to the pressure difference.

The fountain of blood covered Jun-hoo’s face exactly.

“Aaaaaah!”

Ji-hye screamed.

Sung-min’s face turned blue.

Unlike his colleagues who were embarrassed and worried, Jun-hoo’s face was calm.

Jun-hoo tilted his head to the side to avoid the blood.

For Jun-hoo, who had been a martial artist, this level of reflexes was a piece of cake.

The blood that had burst out of the abdominal cavity soon stopped.

The operating table was covered in blood.

Blood dripped from under the operating table, and the fishy smell of blood vibrated everywhere.

“Ah… I’m sorry, Dr. Jun-hoo. I was in such a hurry that I couldn’t explain that blood could gush out.”

“Why are you being so unlike yourself, Doctor? It’s not like it’s your first time doing abdominal cavity surgery.”

“It’s been so long since I’ve encountered a case like this….”

Sung-min was embarrassed and gave orders.

He assigned the intern to clean up the operating table.

He assigned Ji-hye to do the abdominal cavity suction.

He assigned Jun-hoo to squeeze the blood packs.

Jun-hoo approached the IV stand and squeezed the blood packs with all his might with both hands.

The patient’s blood flow had become unstable due to the massive bleeding a moment ago. It was necessary to supply more blood as quickly as possible.

Every time Jun-hoo squeezed the blood pack, the remaining blood gurgled out.

That’s how strong his grip was.

I haven’t given up on the patient. So please don’t give up on yourself either.

Staring at the unconscious patient,

Jun-hoo shouted desperately in his heart.

* * *

4th floor lounge.

Jun-hoo, Sung-min, and Ji-hye were sitting side by side on the sofa, drinking canned coffee.

“Dr. Jun-hoo, you especially worked hard. The patient transfer and the surgery went well thanks to you.”

Sung-min said, putting his hand on Jun-hoo’s shoulder in a friendly manner.

The way he had been prickly with Jun-hoo from the first meeting had completely disappeared.

“Is it something I did all by myself? It wouldn’t have been possible without the two of you.”

“You’re being humble at times like this?”

“Don’t you have a distortion in your memory? I’ve never been arrogant even once?”

“Hmm….”

Sung-min tilted his head as if that couldn’t be true.

Sung-min felt that Jun-hoo was the arrogant type.

“Maybe you felt I was arrogant because I was assertive, unlike a second-year resident?”

“Now that I hear it, it seems right. But it also doesn’t seem right.”

“Please don’t misunderstand, and don’t go around spreading strange rumors.”

“Well, I’ll see how you do in the future.”

Sung-min jokingly added a condition.

Sung-min’s throat was parched, so he gulped down the coffee he was holding.

Coffee after surgery always tasted like honey. The caffeine also woke him up.

When the conversation stopped and silence fell,

Sung-min glanced at Jun-hoo.

Jun-hoo, who seemed like he had never known anything difficult, was surprisingly bold and strong.

He threw himself off a cliff.

He held the patient in his arms and ran to the helicopter alone.

His senses as a surgeon were also excellent.

Jun-hoo made the judgment that it was better to perform the hematoma removal before the abdominal cavity surgery based on medical evidence.

At a moment when every minute and every second was precious,

However, he did not throw out empty promises but also diligently put what he said into practice.

Because he finished the hematoma removal in just 10 minutes.

Even considering that the skull was fractured, the speed and accuracy were amazing.

Looking at Jun-hoo,

Sung-min couldn’t help but be ashamed of his second-year self.

“Ah, right, Dr. Ji-hye.”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t we have an unfinished story earlier?”

When Jun-hoo changed the subject, Ji-hye looked far away as if looking at a distant mountain.

“Well, it’s not a big deal. You don’t have to know.”

“If it’s not a big deal, isn’t there no reason not to say it? Even if I’m hated, I need to know why I’m being hated to sleep soundly.”

When Jun-hoo persistently asked, Ji-hye sighed as if she had given up.

“That’s… actually….”

Ji-hye continued to speak hesitantly.

“My grandmother on my mother’s side had disc surgery in the past. The doctor in charge said it wasn’t a major surgery, that it was a surgery that everyone gets, and that it would end without any problems, right?”

“……”

“But after the surgery, my grandmother’s back got worse.”

Ji-hye bit her lip with a resentful expression.

The coffee can she was holding was crushed.

“He was so confident, but do you know what he said after the surgery when my grandmother’s condition worsened?”

“……”

“Well, he’s making excuses that my grandmother’s condition was too bad from the beginning. I was so angry.”

“……”

“From then on, I started to be suspicious of people who were full of confidence. And that nasty doctor overlapped with Dr. Jun-hoo, so….”

“You had a good reason. Don’t worry too much about it. I don’t care at all.”

Jun-hoo shrugged his shoulders with a nonchalant face.

Originally, it was difficult to distinguish between bluff and skill.

And villains used that boundary very cleverly.

Also, Ji-hye’s criticism was not 100 percent wrong.

After losing so many colleagues in the Murim world [a fictional world of martial arts and chivalry, often found in Chinese and Korean stories], Jun-hoo went crazy when he saw a patient.

He didn’t care about anything.

Whether it was good luck or good skill, the current combative treatment method could one day cause trouble.

Bzzzz.

The pager rang at that moment.

He took out the pager from his gown pocket and checked the number, and it was a ward call.

“You’ve both worked hard. I should go up now.”

“You worked hard, Dr. Jun-hoo.”

“I’ll be calling you often in the future, so keep that in mind.”

As Jun-hoo left, only Sung-min and Ji-hye remained in the lounge.

“Dr. Jun-hoo is a person who makes me admire him in many ways. Dr. Sung-min, what do you think of Dr. Jun-hoo?”

Ji-hye looked at Sung-min and asked.

She was curious about the opinion of Sung-min, who was the most picky in the trauma surgery department, so his nickname was Kkandol [a Korean slang term for someone who is stubborn or picky].

“Dr. Jun-hoo?”

Sung-min smiled and continued.

“He’s the best among the residents I know.”