A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 40

Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts-Episode 40 (40/540)

Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts Episode 40

Chapter 8: Emergency Medicine (2)

‘I’m going to die of frustration. Seriously.’

Sung-min resisted the urge to smack Jun-hoo on the back of the head while he was examining a patient.

He held back because there were a patient and a guardian present.

The patient clearly had a cold.

There was no past medical history, the symptoms were mild, and the presentation of the symptoms was typical of a cold.

To put it simply, he was just one of the many patients who visited the university hospital emergency room as if it were a neighborhood clinic.

But look at Jun-hoo.

He’s been examining a simple cold patient for over 5 minutes.

If he spends this much time on a cold patient, how is he going to handle seriously ill patients?

‘Life is really a practical matter.’

‘Even if you enter as the top student in the school and graduate with all A+’s, things are like this in practice?’

Sung-min thought Jun-hoo was a typical bookworm.

‘Why are there people like that?’

‘People who are only strong in front of desks or documents but incompetent in practice.’

So Sung-min judged Jun-hoo to be a good person to exploit.

He thought it would be okay to pass his chores on to Jun-hoo.

“Have you been to the mountains recently, patient?”

“How did you know that?”

“I just had a feeling you did.”

“I went to my parents’ graves a week ago.”

The conversation between Jun-hoo and the patient was quite a sight.

‘Oh my!’

‘Are you going to start flirting with patients now?’

‘What a great and kind intern.’

“First, let’s do a simple blood test and X-ray, and then we’ll see each other again.”

“Is the test really necessary? I think it’s just a cold…”

The patient said what Sung-min wanted to say.

But Jun-hoo stubbornly issued the test order and sent the patient and guardian to the waiting room.

“Wow, you’re finally speaking up. Seo Jun-hoo, are you crazy? You wasted 5 minutes on a cold patient? And even ordered tests?”

“…”

“Are you doing this to kill time?”

Sung-min clicked his tongue at Jun-hoo’s reply.

If he had said that he was carefully examining the patient because he was nervous about his first consultation, he would have tolerated it.

‘What? It’s not a cold?’

‘What nonsense is he talking about.’

“Then does the patient have pneumonia?”

“It’s not pneumonia, it’s scrub typhus.”

Jun-hoo replied calmly.

Scrub typhus.

An infectious disease caused by being bitten by mite larvae.

After the incubation period, the patient complains of symptoms such as fever, headache, and nausea.

Symptoms improve rapidly with timely treatment.

If not, symptoms persist for more than 2 weeks.

In severe cases, the patient may die from meningitis or systemic infection.

“Hey, there’s a scrub typhus patient in February?”

Sung-min asked with a snort.

“It’s not as common as in the fall, but there can be scrub typhus patients even in winter. I also saw a black scab on the patient’s wrist.”

“You saw a scab? Are you sure? You didn’t see it wrong?”

“Yes.”

Sung-min frowned at Jun-hoo’s words.

If there was a scab on the patient’s wrist that Sung-min didn’t see, then the patient was likely to have scrub typhus.

In the case of scrub typhus patients.

A necrotic scab forms as the mite bite heals.

‘-Have you been to the mountains recently, patient?’

Sung-min realized belatedly.

The meaning of the question Jun-hoo asked earlier.

Jun-hoo wasn’t just having a casual conversation with the patient, but was questioning him in anticipation of scrub typhus.

‘First day of internship.’

‘And on the first day of working in the emergency department, he must be busy being nervous.’

‘To show such discernment?’

Soon after, Sung-min checked the patient’s test results with Jun-hoo.

There were no abnormalities in the chest X-ray findings.

However, abnormalities were found in the blood test. Leukopenia [low white blood cell count] and thrombocytopenia [low platelet count] appeared.

Surprisingly, the patient did have scrub typhus.

“I’ll use tetracycline as the antibiotic.”

“Huh? Uh.”

Sung-min replied with a dazed expression to Jun-hoo’s confident answer.

In the end, Jun-hoo’s diagnosis was correct and his diagnosis was wrong, so he had nothing to say.

‘Ha… Damn it.’

‘This is hurting my pride?’

* * *

Jun-hoo, who faced the patient again, explained scrub typhus to the patient and handed over the in-hospital prescription.

“Doctor, so you’re saying I don’t just have a cold?”

“Yes. But you don’t have to think too seriously about it. If you take the antibiotics steadily, you’ll get better within two days.”

“Thank you. It was worth waiting for over an hour.”

“Doctor, have a drink of this.”

The guardian suddenly handed Jun-hoo an energy drink.

Jun-hoo accepted the drink because he couldn’t ignore the sincerity.

“I’m really sorry for earlier. I ignored you too much…”

“It could happen. I would have been the same if I were the guardian. Then go in carefully.”

Jun-hoo looked at the departing patient and guardian with a happy expression.

The decisive reason why Jun-hoo caught the patient’s scrub typhus.

It was thanks to the observation skills he had honed in the world of martial arts.

When fighting a real sword fight, the important thing was to know the enemy.

Whether the enemy is right-handed or left-handed.

Where are the eyes looking?

What is the direction of the stride and ankle, etc.

If you don’t carefully observe the enemy, your life is in danger.

Jun-hoo observed the patient as if he were fighting against villains.

He found a black scab on the patient’s wrist.

The black scab was visible through the patient’s loose sleeves.

The moment he saw the scab.

Jun-hoo was convinced that the patient had scrub typhus. So he asked about mountain climbing and even issued a test order.

As a result, he was able to handle his first consultation without any problems.

[Develops treatment and diagnostic skills in the emergency department.]

Jun-hoo set that as his goal.

There was no subject that dealt with such a wide range of symptoms as the emergency department.

Usually, when a major is created, it is common to delve into only the major subject.

But Jun-hoo wanted to understand the patient in all directions.

That way, even if there is a major, a consultant (cooperation) from another department can be requested without error.

And it will be possible to manage the various aftereffects that may occur to inpatients and discharged patients.

In that sense, the fact that the first turn is the emergency department is fortunate.

Because you can learn the basics of a doctor, which are treatment and diagnosis.

Jun-hoo, who had solidified his goal, took a cool sip of the energy drink he was holding.

It tasted better because it was given to him by the guardian.

* * *

Starting with his first consultation, Jun-hoo spent his time busier than he could blink.

He performed electrocardiogram tests or dressings (disinfection) on patients lying in bed.

He also treated patients who were waiting.

It hadn’t even been half a day since he started working, but Jun-hoo thought the emergency room was like hell.

The patient was in pain and suffered once again due to the long waiting time.

So the staff had to take all the anger.

The staff were also suffering.

They had to classify, treat, and treat patients without a break, and even deal with patients’ complaints and dissatisfaction.

Occasionally, when a T.A (traffic accident) patient or an emergency patient came in, the emergency room was turned upside down.

A tense sense of crisis that the patient might die gripped the emergency room.

The emergency room was like a battlefield.

But even in the midst of that, Jun-hoo did not forget his duty.

He thought about the achievements (growth of treatment and diagnostic skills) that he had to achieve while working in the emergency department, and he tried to develop them.

He always tried to understand the situation from the patient’s point of view.

In order not to repeat the tragedy of losing precious people in the world of martial arts.

“You’re really good at your job?”

Someone spoke to Jun-hoo, who had just finished treating a patient.

When he turned his head toward the voice, there was a woman wearing a gown.

Seo So-jin.

Third year resident in emergency medicine.

Jun-hoo didn’t know So-jin well because she wasn’t from Shinwon University, so he had never had a proper conversation with her.

“Thank you, doctor.”

“You don’t have to thank me. I’m just stating the facts. Isn’t work hard?”

“It’s manageable.”

Jun-hoo resisted saying that it wasn’t hard at all.

Even without circulating his energy, Jun-hoo’s physical recovery was already monstrous.

The mental cultivation technique he was unconsciously operating also had a fatigue recovery effect.

However, circulating his energy only made the fatigue recovery speed faster.

“It seems so. You haven’t shown any signs of being tired while working.”

“Were you watching me?”

“That’s right. I was a little worried.”

“It’s my first day on the job, so I might look anxious from the doctor’s point of view.”

“That’s not it, there’s another reason.”

So-jin scanned her surroundings and continued.

So-jin told Jun-hoo to be wary of Sung-min.

She said that Sung-min had a bad habit of catching junior colleagues and exploiting them.

This was something Jun-hoo had vaguely felt.

Jun-hoo often saw So Cheong-woon, the vice-captain of the Blue Dragon Squad of the Martial Arts Alliance, overlapping with Sung-min.

Sung-min was exactly the same type as So Cheong-woon.

A cunning type who kills the morale of subordinates and uses them like his own limbs.

Of course, So Cheong-woon was severely punished by Jun-hoo later.

“I’m from another university, and the chief likes Sung-min, so I can’t touch him. So take care of yourself.”

“…”

“Sung-min is not the type to protect his school juniors.”

“I appreciate the advice, but you don’t have to worry too much.”

“Are you confident?”

“Yes. I can devour him at that level.”

Jun-hoo answered honestly.

He thought it would be okay to do that to So-jin, who was worried about him.

It was also better to reveal your inner thoughts first in order to make the same side.

“He was trying to pass off scrub typhus as a cold. If his work skills are at that level, he will have no choice but to be eaten by me.”

Power in the workplace comes from work performance.

A senior who can’t work.

A junior who works well.

If the two clash, the higher-ups are more likely to side with the latter.

Especially if the job is about saving lives.

In that sense, Jun-hoo was ready to devour Sung-min.

“Jun-hoo, you’re a little scary?”

“I tend to be like that to people with bad personalities. Anyway, I won’t forget your advice.”

“Okay. You look so capable that my worries are probably unfounded. Have dinner with your classmate and come back. I’ll take care of the patient.”

“Thank you.”

Jun-hoo approached his classmate Myung-hoon, who was far away.

But Myung-hoon was struggling in front of a patient.

The patient was yelling at Myung-hoon, but Myung-hoon couldn’t say a word.

‘This.’

The whole story was grasped the moment he approached the bed.

Myung-hoon was performing an ABGA (arterial blood gas draw), but he seemed to have failed several times.

The patient was angry about this and was grabbing Myung-hoon like a rat.

“Myung-hoon. I’ll do it.”

“Ju… Jun-hoo.”

Jun-hoo took out a new syringe and held it in his hand instead of Myung-hoon.

“I’ve broken a lot of blood vessels, so there’s only one place left to insert the needle.”

Myung-hoon whispered to Jun-hoo, watching the patient’s reaction.

“Wouldn’t it be better to call Sung-min senior? If you fail too, the patient will go wild…”

“You can succeed at once. And calling Sung-min senior is the worst decision.”

Jun-hoo said firmly.

Let’s say Sung-min is called and Sung-min succeeds in ABGA.

Then how much would Sung-min brag?

Also, let’s say Sung-min is called and Sung-min fails in ABGA.

Then Sung-min will blame the two of them, saying, ‘You guys ruined the good blood vessels, so this happened.’

Either way was a bad ending.

In other words, Jun-hoo’s success in ABGA was the only happy ending.

“Hey. Are you good at giving shots?”

The patient looked up at Jun-hoo and asked in a prickly voice.

But it wasn’t the patient’s fault.

He had been stabbed with needles several times like a laboratory rat.

It would be strange to expect the patient to be kind.

“Yes. I’ll finish it at once without pain.”

“What if you fail?”

“I’ll deposit 1 million won [approximately $750 USD] to the patient on the spot.”

The man in his 40s said, grinding his teeth.

Prior to the full-scale ABGA blood draw.

Jun-hoo tapped the patient’s upper and lower arms.

Pabababat!

It was a martial arts acupressure technique that paralyzed the pain nerves in the arm.

Jun-hoo developed the acupressure technique using the knowledge he learned from anatomy professor Kang-ho, so he named it the Kang-ho acupressure technique.

Now that he has received the Kang-ho acupressure technique, the patient’s injection pain will be gone.

After finishing the acupressure, Jun-hoo disinfected the patient’s last remaining intact blood vessel and inserted the syringe.

Poof!

There was no hesitation in his hand.

Jun-hoo’s hand had already cut off people’s necks, waists, and limbs.

He couldn’t even feel nervous about stabbing a syringe needle.

Sssseuk.

When he pulled the syringe body, red blood came out.

The needle accurately pierced the arterial blood.

‘This is as easy as eating a cold soup [very easy].’

Jun-hoo finished the blood draw in one breath and closed the syringe cap.

“How’s your arm?”

“It doesn’t hurt… it’s good.”

“I’m sorry for making you suffer for no reason. They are interns who just started working today, so there may be mistakes. Please understand.”

“Okay. I didn’t have any hard feelings either.”

Jun-hoo smiled inwardly as he watched the patient answer with a sullen expression.

The patient’s face was saying this.

‘Ah… my 1 million won is gone.’