A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 424

Chapter 82: Emergency (5)

“Okay, let’s do that.”

The man sitting on the sofa nodded and ended the call.

The man was a middle-aged man with an intellectual appearance, wearing horn-rimmed glasses.

The man’s name was Lee Dong-won.

He was the director of Hankook Dosu Hospital.

He was taking a break in his office, drinking coffee.

He had just finished an unexpected call that came out of nowhere.

“Did I just hear correctly?”

The man sitting across from him asked, his eyes wide.

It was the vice director, Kim Myung-jin.

He was in the middle of a conversation with Dong-won about the hospital’s operations.

He happened to overhear the phone conversation.

“I don’t know what you heard,” Dong-won said, feigning ignorance.

“Didn’t you just approve a strange surgery? Didn’t you allow an outside doctor to perform surgery at our hospital?”

“Are you a psychic? How did you eavesdrop on that?”

“You were talking to yourself in the middle of the conversation.”

“Was I?” Dong-won shrugged, recalling his habit.

“To be precise, it’s not an outside doctor, but a military surgeon.”

“Even if he’s a military surgeon, he’s not affiliated with our hospital, is he? If something goes wrong with the patient, we’ll take all the blame.”

Myung-jin continued his strong argument, raising his voice.

“You have to cancel it now. Have you forgotten what happened a month ago?”

“How could I forget that, even if I wanted to?” Dong-won took a sip of the coffee on the table. The black coffee was more bitter than poison.

Just a month ago, a major incident occurred at Hankook Dosu Hospital.

A nurse made a mistake in administering an injection, and a patient who was hospitalized became paralyzed.

Dong-won was even called to the National Assembly because of the incident. At that time, Dong-won was grilled by the National Assembly members. Even now, he felt a chill down his spine whenever he thought about it.

“If this incident happens again, even the hospital director won’t be able to handle it.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. You only know one thing and not the other.”

“Me?”

“Yes. I allowed the surgery for my sake.”

Myung-jin was surprised once again by the unexpected answer.

In Myung-jin’s view, Dong-won seemed to have hit a ground ball into a double play [baseball term for a poor outcome]. He didn’t know the situation exactly, but he thought it would have been better to stay still.

“Listen carefully,” Dong-won’s explanation continued.

“There is a one-star general among the emergency room patients. Due to a problem during the administration of thrombolytic agents [medications to dissolve blood clots] for ischemic stroke, the patient urgently needs emergency surgery.”

“However, the problem is, there is no neurosurgeon available for immediate surgery, so the patient has to be transferred.”

“Then, of course, we should send him to another hospital.”

“Then, of course, we’ll get criticized again.”

Dong-won wagged his index finger from side to side.

“You’re saying we get criticized even when we do the obvious thing?”

“Yes. That’s our situation right now.”

Dong-won’s voice was calm as he continued. “Transferring the patient means… we’re advertising our incompetence in not being able to handle the patient.”

“…….”

“Besides, the helicopter can’t take off. There’s a high risk of neurological deficits occurring while the patient is being transported to a university hospital.”

“…….”

“Then wouldn’t the responsibility fall on us again?”

“Ha… that’s a problem.”

Myung-jin couldn’t argue any further.

Considering the situation comprehensively, he couldn’t say that Dong-won’s judgment was incomprehensible.

With that incident still fresh, if the treatment of a one-star officer becomes an issue again, it would clearly be a major blow.

“Still, if the military surgeon in question fails in the surgery, wouldn’t that be the worst-case scenario?”

“There’s no need to worry about that. Definitely.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“The surgeon is Dr. Seo Jun-hoo.”

“Seo Jun-hoo? Are you talking about that legendary neurosurgeon from Mayou who obtained the Grand Master certification?”

“Yes. Heaven is helping us.”

Dong-won finished speaking and stood up from his seat.

“Let’s go. Let’s see with our own eyes how amazing that legendary surgical skill is.”

* * *

At that moment, Jun-hoo was heading to the operating room at a fast pace.

The conversation with the hospital director was surprisingly simple. As soon as he explained the situation, he immediately got the okay sign.

Unexpectedly, the variable broke out elsewhere, and that was with the patient and the guardian.

They insisted that they would never have surgery at a military hospital and pushed for transfer to a university hospital in Seoul as soon as possible!

Jun-hoo had no choice but to use his ultimate move.

As soon as he showed his ultimate move, the patient and guardian agreed to the surgery.

What was the ultimate move?

It was searching Jun-hoo’s name on Korea’s top portal site [similar to Google] and showing them the news section.

The emergency treatment of the car accident that recently occurred at the cafe, receiving the Grand Master title from Mayou, and so on.

The news section was filled with Jun-hoo’s achievements. It was enough to cause cramps in your thumb to scroll through all the articles.

“I’m better than any surgeon at any university hospital that the patient wants to be transferred to.”

“…….”

“Are you still going to risk it and go to another hospital?”

That one word ended the game.

The patient signed the surgical consent form with his own hand just before losing consciousness.

After that, everything went smoothly.

The patient was moved to the operating room, and Jun-hoo was heading there with Min-seok.

‘I guess reputation is important after all.’ Jun-hoo smiled bitterly inside.

Without reputation and fame, Jun-hoo would never have been able to persuade the patient and guardian. The patient would have been transferred to another hospital, and there would have been a high risk of neurological sequelae [long-term complications].

“Wow. This really works,” Min-seok, who was walking a little behind, said.

“It seems possible because it’s Dr. Seo. You persuaded not only the hospital director but also the patient and guardian in an instant.”

“I’m glad that my hard work as a doctor hasn’t been in vain. By the way,” Jun-hoo glanced back at Min-seok. “Are you going to assist in the surgery?”

“Yes. You need a reliable first assistant, don’t you?”

“Who are you leaving the on-call duty to?”

“I contacted the resident. Surely another surgical patient won’t come, right?”

Jun-hoo nodded instead of answering.

He arrived at the 3rd-floor operating room and headed straight to the disinfection room.

Rub. Rub. Rub.

He soaked the disinfectant brush with disinfectant and vigorously rubbed his fingers, the back of his hands, and his forearms.

Red bubbles rose up.

He was happy to be scrubbing after a long time. It was the first scrub in two months since leaving Mayou.

Since he had been doing mental training every day, his surgical senses had not deteriorated at all. His condition was at its best.

With the help of the nurse, Jun-hoo put on a doctor’s gown, surgical cap, surgical mask, and surgical gloves in order.

Only then did he realize even more that he was going to perform the surgery.

“Doctor, will this surgery really be okay?”

“Why? Are you worried that something will go wrong?”

“…Yes. I trust Dr. Seo 100%, but the patient’s condition has deteriorated rapidly. The GCS (Glasgow Coma Scale) [a neurological scale to assess level of consciousness] has also dropped to 4 points.”

“Everything will be fine,” Jun-hoo reassured Min-seok in a calm voice.

It was true that the patient’s condition was not good. The bleeding site was, unfortunately, the middle cerebral artery. If the bleeding progressed to rupture, the situation would be out of control.

In that sense, the key point of today’s surgery was ‘speed’. How quickly can you access the surgical site?

Ziiiiing.

The operating room door opened.

White disinfectant smoke poured down from the ceiling.

The structure of the operating room, which he entered after the air shower, was familiar.

The operating table was placed in the front, a micro microscope was attached to the ceiling, and a shadowless lamp that did not create shadows was shining brightly.

Next to the operating table, machines such as patient monitoring devices, defibrillators, and oxygen respirators were arranged.

Two people had already arrived and were waiting in the operating room. It seemed to be the operating room nurse and the resident in charge of the second assist.

The two had already prepared for the surgery in advance.

Jun-hoo naturally stood in the position of the surgeon.

“I’m Seo Jun-hoo, who will be in charge of this surgery. I’ll give you a detailed explanation after the surgery is over. Is the general anesthesia finished?”

“Yes, doctor,” the resident replied.

“Good.”

Jun-hoo looked down at the patient.

The patient’s bald head shone under the shadowless lamp. This was because the hair was shaved to prevent infection.

Jun-hoo’s gaze moved to the patient monitoring device.

Thanks to the timely administration of antihypertensive drugs [medications to lower blood pressure], hemostatic agents [medications to stop bleeding], and diuretics [medications to increase urination], blood pressure and pulse had returned to normal levels.

The electrocardiogram rhythm and breathing were also stable.

However, he couldn’t let his guard down. Depending on the progress of the surgery, depending on the deterioration of the disease, those numbers are dancing.

“From now on, I will perform decompressive craniectomy [surgical procedure where part of the skull is removed] and hematoma removal [surgical removal of a blood clot] for a patient with middle cerebral artery hemorrhage [bleeding in the brain].”

At Jun-hoo’s words, Min-seok, who was in charge of the first assist, disinfected the patient’s head and covered it with a drape.

“Wait a minute. There’s no need to draw a line.”

“Yes?”

Jun-hoo stopped Min-seok, who was about to draw a line on the patient’s head.

Min-seok tilted his head.

“But isn’t marking the incision with a magic marker routine? What are you going to do if you make a mistake in the scalp incision?”

Min-seok’s voice was mixed with worry.

“I don’t need that. We also need to shorten the surgery time as much as possible. Give me number 10 [surgical blade].”

“Yes, doctor.”

Click!

The scrub nurse inserted a blade into the knife handle and handed it over.

Jun-hoo neatly incised the patient’s scalp without an incision marking line – a circle with a diameter of about 4 centimeters and an incision depth of 4 centimeters. A perfect incision was made as if it had been drawn with a compass.

“Wow… amazing.”

“I don’t think even a math teacher could do this…”

Min-seok and the resident, who were watching this, exclaimed.

“There’s no time to admire. Wipe the blood and prepare the retractor.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Yes, doctor.”

Min-seok and the resident, who received Jun-hoo’s instructions, moved quickly.

It was as Jun-hoo had planned.

What is the best leadership?

Jun-hoo definitely thought it was skill.

Isn’t surgery gambling with the patient’s life? If so, the assistants will believe and follow only if the skill is good enough to give them the belief that the patient will not die during the surgery.

The crew will never follow a captain whose navigation skills are poor.

“Our goal is to reach the middle cerebral artery within an hour. Everyone, stay focused.”

“Ha… an hour? Doesn’t it usually take… 3 hours?”

Surprised, Min-seok even stammered.

Min-seok felt that Jun-hoo’s words sounded somehow dangerous. What should I say? It sounded like he was going to rush the surgery.

No matter how critical the patient was, the surgical procedure always had to be perfect and accurate.

“That’s because I’m not an ordinary person.”

Jun-hoo’s eyes smiled like a crescent moon.

Jun-hoo unfolded his Manhwa Gong [a technique that enhances physical and mental abilities] after a long time.

Internal energy, invisible to others, was emanating from Jun-hoo’s body. At the same time, sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell were amplified several times.

Not only that, he could also feel each sense clearly distinguished.

“Give me a diamond drill. Two of them.”

“Two of them?”

This time, the scrub nurse asked in a surprised voice.

Jun-hoo answered indifferently. “Isn’t it obvious? Because I’m going to use both hands.”

Jun-hoo’s declaration turned the operating room upside down once again.