A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 451

‘Of all things….’

Jun-hoo bit his lip, watching the motionless snake.

He knew that snake well.

It was a Mamushi [a venomous pit viper native to East Asia], a snake with a short, thick body compared to other snakes, and it possessed potent venom.

In the Murim world [a fictional world of martial arts and chivalry], there was the Sichuan Tang Clan, famous for their poisons.

The Sichuan Tang Clan would extract venom from Mamushi snakes to create poisons.

The venom was that deadly.

It paralyzed the nerves and caused bleeding at the same time.

As the thought crossed his mind, he felt a jolt, as if splashed with cold water.

“Elder, are you alright?”

Jun-hoo approached the old man who had been bitten and had fallen on his backside.

The old man looked dazed.

His mouth was open, and his eyes were just blinking.

“Elder!”

“Huh? Oh. I think I slightly twisted my back when I fell….”

The old man frowned, placing a hand on his back.

“But you, did you say that snake was venomous?”

“Yes, it is a venomous snake.”

“Damn it! What bad luck. To be bitten by a venomous snake of all things….”

“Elder, calm down.”

“How can I calm down right now? I came out for a leisurely stroll and now I might die.”

The old man looked like he was about to cry.

“Excitement will only make the venom spread faster. Try to calm your mind as much as possible.”

“……”

“And I am a neurosurgeon. There’s not much I can do for you in the mountains right now, but I will do my best to provide first aid.”

“You’re a doctor? Heaven gives both the disease and the cure.”

A faint sense of relief crossed the old man’s face.

“Anyway, I’m sorry for getting angry for no reason. I was scared and upset that I got bitten by a venomous snake, so I lost it….”

“It’s alright. It can happen.”

Jun-hoo nodded and continued.

First, he asked the other old man to call 119 [the emergency telephone number in South Korea]. The old man nodded and picked up his phone.

Meanwhile, Jun-hoo knelt down in front of the old man.

As he rolled up his pants, a skinny leg was revealed.

The area where the Mamushi had bitten was unfortunately on the thigh.

It was the location where the femoral artery, the thickest blood vessel in the leg, passed through. There were clear fang marks of the Mamushi on the area.

There was also a bright blue bruise around the bite marks.

The venom would spread in an instant.

Being stabbed in the thigh by a knife and dying from excessive bleeding was also due to damage to the femoral artery.

“Ugh… suddenly I feel so cold?”

The old man wrapped his arms around himself. His lips were gradually turning purple.

Jun-hoo took off the windbreaker he was wearing.

Tear.

The sleeve of the windbreaker was torn off purely with brute force.

It was an amazing feat, but the poisoned old man was not in a state to recognize it.

Jun-hoo tightly tied the torn sleeve of the jacket above the bite mark.

It was an action to prevent the venom from spreading throughout the body.

However, he did not apply too much pressure.

Otherwise, blood would not circulate, and necrosis could occur in the leg.

‘Is this the end?’

A bitter smile hung on Jun-hoo’s lips.

Even as a neurosurgeon.

This was in the mountains.

There was nothing more Jun-hoo could do.

Treating venomous bites was in the realm of internal medicine, not surgery.

“Elder, what’s the status of 119?”

“They said it will take a while? It seems the helicopter was dispatched elsewhere. They said we have to wait at least 30 minutes.”

The old man with glasses said with a sigh.

“This is a problem. This is an urgent situation.”

“Tell me about it.”

“For now, let’s have the patient lie down comfortably.”

Jun-hoo laid the patient on the ground.

He was poisoned and had injured his back, so it was not good for him to sit up forcibly.

Jun-hoo supported the patient’s back with one hand and slowly laid him on the ground.

It hadn’t been long since he was bitten by the venomous snake, but the patient’s condition was rapidly deteriorating.

He kept gagging as if he felt nauseous.

His complexion was turning pale.

His arms and legs were faintly trembling.

“I don’t think this will do. I have to step in.”

“What do you mean?”

Jun-hoo tilted his head at the old man’s words.

“If you suck the wound with your mouth, doesn’t it prevent the venom from spreading? I’m saying I’ll suck the venom out.”

“That doesn’t help.”

“They used to do that all the time in the old days?”

The old man with glasses raised his voice in protest.

“As long as there are no wounds in my mouth, it should be fine, right? Even though I’m this old, I haven’t even had one implant. I don’t even have any fillings.”

“That’s not the problem.”

“Then what is the problem?”

“Conversely, the bacteria in your mouth could cause an infection in the wound.”

Jun-hoo said firmly.

There was a folk remedy that sucking the venom left in the wound when bitten by a venomous snake would improve the condition.

It has now been revealed that it is not very helpful, but there were still people who believed in it.

Like the old man with glasses.

Like Jun-hoo back in the Murim world.

“The bacteria in my mouth?”

“Yes. There are bound to be bacteria in saliva and in the mouth. The moment you put your mouth on the wound, they will be transferred to the patient’s wound.”

“Huh… I didn’t think of that.”

The old man with glasses smiled bitterly.

“Then are we left with no choice but to wait for 119 to arrive?”

Jun-hoo did not answer the old man’s words.

It wasn’t like there were no options at all.

What immediately came to mind was carrying the patient on his back and descending the mountain.

Jun-hoo, who had mastered footwork, could descend like lightning.

Once he got down the mountain.

He could rely on the ambulance from then on.

However, Jun-hoo couldn’t easily move as he thought.

Unfortunately, the patient had injured his back.

Even if Jun-hoo absorbed the shock as much as possible while using his footwork, he couldn’t completely absorb the shock transmitted to the back.

There was another problem.

The hospital that could treat the poisoning was an hour away from here.

There was a festival at a nearby concert hall today, so traffic was paralyzed.

Of course, an ambulance would arrive at the hospital faster.

But could it be compared to the speed of helicopter transport?

The ambulance that departs quickly but has to get through traffic.

The helicopter that arrives late but has a fast transport time.

Which one should he choose?

As he pondered, his temples throbbed as if someone was stabbing him with an awl.

“Ugh….”

The patient tossed and turned, groaning.

Even though he had managed to apply pressure to the wound relatively quickly, the patient’s condition was getting worse.

Being bitten in the femoral artery was a big factor.

“Hang in there. Your grandchildren are coming to visit next week. Can you just collapse here like this?”

The old man with glasses approached the patient and held his hand tightly.

At the sight, Jun-hoo clenched his fists.

He couldn’t let this continue.

What led Jun-hoo to become a surgeon in the first place was a sense of helplessness.

Wasn’t it the pain of having to watch his colleagues die beside him that drove Jun-hoo to become a doctor?

But the same tragedy was about to repeat itself.

If this was the case, there was no point in choosing to be a doctor.

Come what may.

He had no choice but to face it.

If there is no way, make one.

Jun-hoo’s eyes lit up as he steeled his resolve.

“Elder, could you step aside for a moment?”

“Huh? Why?”

“I will treat the patient.”

Jun-hoo’s declaration echoed in the clearing.

* * *

Doo doo doo doo!

Doo doo doo doo!

The sound of the propeller turning was deafening. The wind created by the propeller shook the surrounding branches and bushes.

A helicopter landed on the helipad in the mountain. The helicopter door opened, and two paramedics got out with a stretcher.

“It seems too late.”

“That’s right. Unfortunately, the dispatch orders overlapped.”

“Let’s go quickly.”

The paramedics rushed to the scene.

It had already been 30 minutes since they received a report that a patient had been bitten by a venomous snake in the mountain.

They couldn’t drive an ambulance up the mountain, so a helicopter had to take off, but unfortunately, the helicopter had already left to rescue another patient.

The two running men hoped that the patient was safe.

They also desperately hoped that the patient had actually been bitten by a non-venomous snake, not a venomous one.

It was when they had crossed three or four steep hills.

A young man spotted the crew and waved his hand in the air.

That seemed to be the scene.

“Haa… haa… haa….”

“Ho… how is the patient?”

The paramedic asked, breathing heavily.

“Whether heaven helped or not, he’s fine.”

The young man replied with an awkward expression, pointing to a nearby tree.

An old man was lying under the tree.

The old man with glasses, who appeared to have made the report, was next to the lying old man.

“What do you mean by fine?”

“Should I say it’s a miracle that’s hard to explain? The patient recovered on his own.”

“Recovered on his own? How can such a ridiculous thing happen?”

“Let’s go see first.”

The paramedics followed the young man under the tree.

“Elder, you said you were bitten by a venomous snake?”

The paramedic, Cheol-min, approached the patient and asked. As the young man said, the patient looked fine.

If he had been bitten by a venomous snake.

And if it had been 40 minutes since he was bitten.

He should be in a coma and his life should be in danger….

What the hell is going on?

“I was bitten, but I’m fine now.”

“How can you be fine if you were bitten by a venomous snake?”

“I’m saying I’m fine because I’m fine, so what can I do?”

“Let’s look at the wound first.”

Cheol-min knelt down on one knee and examined the patient’s leg.

Sure enough, there were clear fang marks on his thigh.

There was also a red band mark 5 centimeters above it.

Looking at the cloth thrown nearby, it seemed that someone had compressed the area above the wound.

Direct compression was virtually the best treatment that civilians could do.

The distance between the wound and the compression area was also appropriate, neither too close nor too far.

“Who did the direct compression?”

“I did it. I’m a neurosurgeon.”

“Ah… there was a doctor. Fortunately. But why did you release the cloth in the middle?”

“Because the patient’s condition improved.”

“You’ve been saying things that don’t make sense since earlier, but how can a wound bitten by a venomous snake suddenly improve? It’s not like there’s an antidote in the mountain.”

Cheol-min clicked his tongue and asked.

Something was going ridiculously wrong.

He was bitten by a venomous snake, but did he get natural healing?

That was impossible even if the sun rose in the west.

“Ah… I get it now.”

Cheol-min, who had been pondering for a while, nodded.

“The patient wasn’t bitten by a venomous snake. He was bitten by a non-venomous snake. Right? Senior?”

Cheol-min looked at his senior, who had approached him, and asked for his agreement.

But the senior didn’t answer.

He had a blank expression like a person who had lost his soul.

“Senior. Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“Do you see that?”

The senior’s finger pointed to the bushes a little away from the patient. There, a short, thick, rope-like snake was stretched out.

It wasn’t moving, so it was dead.

“Yes. It’s a snake. It’s short and stubby, so it doesn’t look venomous?”

“No, that’s a Mamushi. I saw it clearly with my own eyes when I rescued a hiker before.”

“Then the patient was really bitten by a venomous snake?”

“Yes.”

Only then did Cheol-min make a foolish expression.

Common sense had collapsed.

Good heavens!

The patient is fine even after being bitten by a venomous snake, how can this be?

While the paramedics were unable to escape from the shock.

Jun-hoo watched this from afar and chuckled.

Only Jun-hoo knew the secret of the miracle.