A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 431

Baaang!

Baaang!

“Hey, you crazy bastard! Can’t you drive straight?”

“If you want to see the afterlife, go die quietly alone! Why the hell are you grabbing the steering wheel and acting up?”

On a four-lane, two-way road.

A gray sedan was speeding recklessly.

Its zigzagging across lanes caused nearby drivers to scowl.

‘I’m sorry. I have no choice.’

Jun-hoo, the driver of the gray sedan, shouted inwardly.

He had been enjoying a relaxing break at Ah-young’s apartment after completing his service as a military doctor.

Suddenly, his phone vibrated.

“……!”

Seeing Min-seok from Korea Dousu Hospital as the caller, Jun-hoo knew something serious must have happened.

Sure enough.

He received urgent news that a patient with a gunshot wound to the head was being transferred to Dousu Hospital by helicopter.

“When and how did they get shot?”

-I heard it secondhand, so I don’t know the details. I think we’ll have to assess the patient at the hospital.

“I’ll leave right away.”

Jun-hoo excused himself to Ah-young and headed straight to Korea Dousu Hospital in his car.

Jun-hoo gripped the steering wheel tightly, maneuvering dangerously.

He overtook one car, then another, in quick succession.

Baaang!

This time, a threatening horn blared from behind.

But Jun-hoo had no choice.

Was the patient just any ordinary emergency patient?

A bullet had pierced their head.

Given the domestic situation where firearms are restricted.

A surgeon who can operate on gunshot wounds was rare.

Moreover, it was no exaggeration to say that there was no specialized surgeon who could handle intracranial gunshot wounds [gunshot wounds inside the skull].

In other words…….

Jun-hoo was the only one who could save the patient.

So Jun-hoo had to get to the hospital as soon as possible.

‘Please, they have to be safe…….’

Tuktuktuktuk.

Feeling anxious for the first time in a while, he tapped his upper and lower teeth together.

Based on his experience in the United States, gunshot wound patients were either all or nothing.

Here, ‘all’ meant that the patient’s condition was perfectly normal.

Although extremely rare.

There were cases where people were fine or healthy even after being shot in the head.

This included cases where, luckily, the bullet did not penetrate the head but was lodged in the skull.

The ‘nothing’ case was when the patient died before arriving at the hospital, died upon arrival, or died during surgery.

And anyone who has played Yutnori [a traditional Korean board game] would have already noticed.

That ‘nothing’ comes up much more often than ‘all.’

That was why Jun-hoo was in such a hurry.

The frantic race lasted nearly an hour.

Thanks to the fact that there weren’t many cars on the road because it was late at night, and the traffic thinned out even more as he left Seoul.

Jun-hoo was heading to Dousu Hospital relatively smoothly, considering the circumstances, without causing a traffic accident.

The influence of his martial arts was also significant.

He enhanced his eyesight by channeling internal energy into his eyes.

And by releasing internal energy throughout his body.

He had increased his reflexes more than five times their normal level.

Of course, to other drivers, Jun-hoo still looked like a drunk driver or someone under the influence of drugs.

Thump!

The driver’s side door slammed shut loudly.

Jun-hoo finished parking in the basement of Dousu Hospital.

He practically flew up the emergency exit stairs, arriving on the first floor in an instant.

Arriving at the emergency room, he scanned the surroundings, looking for Min-seok.

Min-seok was standing on the west side of the emergency room.

The bed where the patient was lying was not there.

It seemed they had gone for tests.

“Doctor, I’m here.”

“Wow! You got here really fast. I thought you’d arrive in the middle of the surgery.”

“I floored it like a madman, so I was treated like one. Where’s the patient?”

“I sent them to the CT scan room with a resident. I’ve reserved the operating room and contacted anesthesiology too.”

“What do you think of the patient’s condition?”

“Haa…….”

Instead of answering, Min-seok lowered his head and sighed. It felt like he had heard a full explanation even though he hadn’t heard anything.

“Let’s go to the station. We need to check the CT results anyway.”

“Right.”

Jun-hoo followed Min-seok to the station [likely referring to a medical imaging viewing station].

Min-seok sat down and pulled up the patient’s chart.

The emergency record was a mess.

The patient had received CPR twice during transport.

They had also been given epinephrine [adrenaline] four times.

Among the vitals, only body temperature was normal.

Blood pressure and pulse were 2.5 times higher than normal, and breathing was unstable.

Most of the blood test results had a ▼ symbol. This meant the values were lower than normal.

The electrocardiogram rhythm was also erratic, making it very unstable.

It was a wonder they were still breathing.

The patient was alive, probably because they had been given a massive amount of medication before and after arriving at the hospital.

‘Maybe…… surgery isn’t the problem. Keeping the patient alive until they can have surgery might be a bigger challenge.’

Jun-hoo muttered inwardly.

The chart alone showed that the patient’s condition was as precarious as a lamp in the wind.

The case where the patient dies before even receiving surgery.

This patient was exactly that case.

Fortunately…….

Jun-hoo had performed similar surgeries on several patients at Mayu Hospital.

If you don’t know, you can’t help it.

If you do, you might not be helpless.

“The CT results just came out. What the f…….”

Min-seok barely swallowed the curse he had brought to his throat.

It was a video analysis that was hard to believe even when seen with his own eyes.

Min-seok had never seen such a terrible Brain CT image.

There were holes on both sides of the temples.

Traces of the bullet grazing part of the parietal lobe [part of the brain] remained.

Due to the brain hemorrhage, intracranial pressure had increased, causing severe brain herniation [when brain tissue shifts from its normal position].

The white shadows (retained cerebrospinal fluid) were violently pushing the brain towards the skull.

In this situation, nerve damage was unavoidable.

“It’s going to be hard to even get into the operating room, isn’t it?”

Min-seok shook his head and said.

It looked that way to Jun-hoo too.

Even among the cases he had experienced in the United States, this was one of the most critical.

And out of those three cases.

Two survived, and one passed away.

“Did you get the surgical consent form?”

“Ah…… I was so flustered that I didn’t get the consent form. I’ll print it out and get it now.”

“Let’s go together.”

Jun-hoo held the paper that Min-seok printed out in his hand.

Then, he moved to the empty bed where the patient should have been.

A man in military uniform was sitting in a chair, burying his face in his hands, looking distressed.

His shoulders were trembling slightly.

From the combat uniform the man was wearing.

He could tell that the man’s rank was sergeant, and his name was Shin Su-won.

“Shin Su-won.”

“Yes. Doctor. Can my squad leader be saved?”

Su-won raised his head and asked in a hurried voice.

It seemed he was quite close to the patient.

“The situation is not good. We’re going into surgery soon, but even if we do our best, we can’t guarantee the outcome.”

“What is the probability of survival?”

“It’s difficult to say specifically. But you should be prepared for the worst-case scenario.”

Min-seok explained and glanced at Jun-hoo.

He seemed to want to confirm that he was speaking properly.

Jun-hoo nodded silently.

Currently, Jun-hoo was a shadow surgeon.

He should not appear on the front lines of the surgery.

“Ah…….”

After hearing the explanation, Su-won lowered his head again.

“Have you contacted the patient’s guardian?”

“Yes. I have. They said they are on their way to the hospital. But they live in Busan, so they will be very late in arriving.”

“Then, I’ll ask Shin Su-won to sign the consent form.”

Jun-hoo began to explain the surgical consent form step by step in place of Min-seok.

It was an act to deliberately make Jun-hoo look like Min-seok’s subordinate.

“I have a question…….”

Jun-hoo, who had received the consent form back, asked Su-won.

“What are you curious about?”

“How did the patient get a gunshot wound?”

The emergency record only stated that the patient had a gunshot wound to the head.

The specific circumstances were not written.

So he was curious.

The exact truth of how the gunshot wound occurred.

“I wasn’t the first witness. The soldiers who returned from guard duty found the squad leader.”

“Yes. I understand.”

“Anyway, the soldiers said the squad leader was collapsed in the warehouse, so I went there…….”

Su-won bit his lip and continued his explanation.

A dark warehouse.

Squad Leader Yoo Kyung-wook, slumped against the wall.

Click!

A hellish scene that he would never forget for the rest of his life awaited Su-won as he turned on the light.

Yoo Kyung-wook, his face pale white, was lying in an ‘L’ shape.

A pistol lay powerlessly near his arms, which were limply hanging down with gunshot wounds to both temples.

Each time Su-won inhaled, the acrid smell of gunpowder stung his nose.

The bullet that had pierced his head was rolling far away.

“I almost fainted on the spot. I would have definitely done so if I hadn’t steeled myself to manage the soldiers.”

“Why did that happen to the squad leader?”

“Dr. Seo. Isn’t it rude to ask about such details?”

Min-seok, who had been silent, frowned and asked.

He seemed to feel that Jun-hoo’s question was rude.

But Jun-hoo just shook his head silently.

He had no intention of backing down even a bit.

Revealing the truth was as important as treating the patient.

In the case of trauma, unlike a disease.

There were usually victims and perpetrators.

And the perpetrator had to receive appropriate punishment.

Perhaps because he was from the Orthodox Murim Alliance [a fictional martial arts organization], Jun-hoo never neglected matters of justice.

“Is that the important issue right now?”

Su-won stared at Jun-hoo with resentful eyes.

“Shouldn’t doctors focus on saving people?”

“It’s just as important to accurately understand why the patient was injured as it is to treat them.”

“…….”

“We have to write the circumstances in the admission record. And those circumstances have legal effect.”

“Hmph~”

Su-won frowned at Jun-hoo’s ironclad logic.

He twitched his lips and continued speaking with difficulty.

“You’re not thinking of playing some strange reasoning game, are you?”

“I’m not a detective, a police officer, or anything. I’m a doctor.”

“Honestly, I don’t know exactly. I don’t think one of the squad members shot the squad leader.”

“…….”

“The squad leader is a good person. He’s only been in the military for two years, but he’s always been motivated and took good care of the unit members.”

“Are you saying…….”

“Maybe the squad leader took his own life.”

The air grew heavy at Su-won’s words.

None of the three could break the heavy silence.

He wondered if the squad leader had a reason to take his own life, but Jun-hoo couldn’t bring himself to ask that far.

However, one thing he felt was…….

That Su-won didn’t seem to be lying.

Throughout the story, Jun-hoo carefully watched Su-won’s expression. He didn’t find anything particularly suspicious.

But that didn’t mean he could let his guard down.

He couldn’t completely exclude Su-won from the list of suspects.

Because there were definitely people who could deceive others with their expressions like ghosts.

Siho, the psychopath resident he had lived with during his residency, was a prime example.

Even Jun-hoo would have difficulty discerning the truth if someone believed their own lies to be true.

Drrr.

Just then, a ward nurse was pulling a bed towards them.

Finally, the patient had returned.