A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 482

Chapter 94: Turf War (3)

Surgical observation room.

Kim Han-sang, an influential associate professor in the medical department.

Choi Jin-gu, his loyal right-hand man.

The two men sat side by side, observing the monitor displaying the operating room.

It’s often said that people who spend a lot of time together start to resemble each other.

The two men, with their arms crossed and heads slightly tilted, did look quite alike.

“That look in his eyes. Isn’t he glaring at us?”

Kim Han-sang spoke first.

Standing at the surgeon’s position, Jun-hoo was indeed glaring intensely at the camera showing the entire operating room.

His eyes were fierce.

Like the eyes of a character in a martial arts novel who has just encountered the enemy who killed his parents.

Even from a distance, the intense emotion sent shivers down Kim Han-sang’s arm.

“That’s… about that.”

“Tell me in detail.”

“I played a little trick during the chief’s surgery…”

“A trick?”

“Originally, a third-year and second-year resident were assigned to assist in the chief’s surgery. But I switched them out with an intern and a first-year resident.”

“How did you manage that?”

Kim Han-sang tilted his head, puzzled.

“Is there anything to it? I simply said the surgery schedule had been changed urgently. What would the residents know?”

Choi Jin-gu smirked as he replied.

Choi Jin-gu couldn’t stand being wronged.

And he felt Jun-hoo had wronged him.

During the morning rounds, Jun-hoo exposed his misdiagnosis and incorrect surgery plan in front of his fellow professors, patients and their families, and the nurses.

The humiliation he felt at that time was like falling off a cliff.

So he took revenge, and he took it boldly.

The aftermath wouldn’t be easy to handle, but he had already prepared his excuses.

All that was left for Choi Jin-gu was to sit back and leisurely enjoy Jun-hoo’s inevitable failure in surgery.

“You.”

Kim Han-sang looked at Choi Jin-gu with narrowed eyes.

Was he about to be scolded for going too far?

Choi Jin-gu’s bent back straightened up.

“Yes, Associate Professor.”

“Your knack for scheming is as sharp as ever. I was worried you’d lost your touch. Professor Choi isn’t dead yet, is he?”

Bang! Bang!

Kim Han-sang suddenly patted Choi Jin-gu’s back with his palm.

He laughed heartily, his uvula fully visible.

“Whew. I was so nervous, thinking I was going to be scolded.”

“Me scolding you? That’s impossible. I can’t exactly praise you, but still… What do you think of this surgery?”

Kim Han-sang changed the subject.

“As you know, Associate Professor, revision spinal surgery is very difficult. And endoscopic surgery is even more so.”

“…”

“On top of that, if the assistant is a newbie…”

A sly smile appeared on Choi Jin-gu’s face.

“Let me summarize it for you in a word.”

“That’s good.”

“Our young and handsome chief is screwed.”

* * *

Jun-hoo glared at the camera showing the operating room before turning his gaze to the operating table.

It was extremely rare for the surgical staff to be changed.

Even if they did change, it was usually due to an emergency patient.

But for the staff of a regularly scheduled surgery to change, regardless of an emergency patient?

This could only be seen as someone’s mischief, a trick, a scheme, or a trap.

*So, this is how you want to play it?*

Jun-hoo suppressed the anger boiling inside him.

The surgery came first.

“Have you guys ever assisted in endoscopic spinal surgery before?”

“No, we haven’t.”

“Me neither…”

Yoon-chan and the intern replied with their heads bowed. They looked like they’d been caught doing something wrong.

“Raise your heads and look at me straight. It’s unfamiliar at first, but once you get the hang of it, endoscopic surgery is easier than regular surgery.”

“…”

“Just trust me, and there won’t be any problems.”

Jun-hoo confidently used Jeong-an [mental stabilization technique].

His eyes shone blue like a clear lake.

Inner energy rippled and spread subtly from his entire body, carrying an intense feeling of encouragement.

Yoon-chan and the intern regained their confidence. They widened their eyes and straightened their shoulders.

They didn’t know why, but Jun-hoo’s words sounded as sacred as a divine revelation.

It felt like everything he said would come true.

*I’ve been using Jeong-an a lot since becoming the chief. I’ll be relying on it a lot in the future.*

Reading the change in the two men’s eyes, Jun-hoo chuckled.

The situation had been resolved.

All that was left was to restore the patient’s back and deliver a satisfying counterattack to Choi Jin-gu.

“From now on, we will begin cervical fusion on L4-L6 [lumbar vertebrae 4 through 6].”

Jun-hoo’s voice echoed deeply throughout the operating room.

The intern disinfected the waist of the patient lying in the prone position and covered it with a blue drape.

The red disinfectant applied to the skin and the blue drape created a strange contrast.

“Number 10.”

“Yes, Chief.”

Click!

The scrub nurse fitted a number 10 blade onto the scalpel and handed it over.

Jun-hoo used the patient’s L-5 (lumbar vertebra 5) as a reference.

He made two 2-centimeter-long horizontal incisions on each side.

His hands felt light today. He couldn’t even feel the weight of the scalpel in his hand.

His condition was optimal.

Swoosh.

Jun-hoo drew the scalpel across the incisions again. The blade of the scalpel gleamed silver.

The yellow fat layer split open.

The whitish fascia layer split open.

The hard muscle split open.

Jun-hoo’s hand movements were always delicate and precise.

The patient had already undergone disc decompression surgery just ten days ago, so the structure of his back was weakened.

It was necessary to minimize the incision of the fascia and muscle layers to ensure faster recovery.

“Yoon-chan, retract the incisions with the retractor, and intern, what’s your name?”

“Tae-sung.”

“Tae-sung, can you wipe away the blood with a gauze?”

“Yes, Chief.”

“Yes, Chief.”

Yoon-chan and Tae-sung answered simultaneously.

It was clearly thanks to Jeong-an.

The two men were proactive and full of energy.

*Choi Jin-gu seemed to think that the surgery would be ruined if clumsy staff assisted… He was mistaken. Jun-hoo was also skilled at managing the staff.*

“Yoon-chan, insert the port [an entrance for inserting endoscopic instruments, shaped like a funnel] into the incision.”

“Me?”

“It’s not difficult. Just push it in until the wide part of the port’s entrance.”

“Yes, Chief.”

Yoon-chan swallowed hard.

He had never assisted in endoscopic surgery, nor had he even observed it.

But he was being asked to perform an important procedure like inserting the port…

Yoon-chan hesitated for a moment before closing his eyes and grabbing the port.

He boldly inserted the port.

“That’s right. Good job. That’s the depth you need. Do it on the incision next to it.”

“Understood.”

Confidence grew with Jun-hoo’s praise. Yoon-chan inserted the port into the right incision as well.

It wasn’t a difficult procedure, but it was still a great success.

A sense of pride spread from Yoon-chan’s chest.

“See? You’re doing well. I told you you could do it, right?”

Jun-hoo’s eyebrows arched like a rainbow.

Jun-hoo came from the Murim [martial arts world].

In the Murim, martial arts were taught through stances.

A stance was similar to a Taekwondo form, with fixed movements.

Just now, Jun-hoo had formalized the pre-endoscopic procedure before surgery into a stance and taught it.

So, if you just followed it well, you couldn’t fail the pre-surgical procedure even if you wanted to.

Before the full-scale surgery, Jun-hoo stared at the monitor next to the operating table.

The patient’s lumbar MRI image was displayed on the monitor.

“Everyone, pay attention to the monitor.”

Jun-hoo called the staff’s attention.

“As you can see in the MRI image, the vertebral body is pressing down on the patient’s L-5 nerve.”

“…”

“But our Professor Choi only removed the posterior arch [bony arch on the back of the vertebra] and the ligamentum flavum [a ligament in the spine].”

“…”

“Do you know what this means?”

“I’m not sure.”

Yoon-chan and Sung-tae shook their heads and replied.

“It means he examined and operated on the patient carelessly, out of habit. Because usually, when a nerve is compressed, the posterior arch and ligamentum flavum are removed to decompress it.”

“…”

“You can’t take patients lightly. Crisis always comes when you’re careless.”

“We will keep that in mind.”

“We will keep that in mind.”

After hearing the two men’s replies, Jun-hoo explained the overview of the endoscopic surgery.

Then he winked at Yoon-chan.

“Endoscopic camera, you hold it.”

“C-Can I dare to even secure the field of vision?”

Yoon-chan’s eyes widened as if they would roll out of their sockets.

The intern and the scrub nurse were also shocked.

Wasn’t this surgery being performed endoscopically?

If so, the endoscopic camera was no different from Jun-hoo’s eyes.

But to entrust Jun-hoo’s eyes to a first-year resident, everyone thought it was too much.

“If you really can’t trust yourself, trust me who trusts you. Got it?”

Jun-hoo’s voice was warm. It was a fearless voice.

* * *

“Ha… it’s crazy in many ways.”

Choi Jin-gu, who was observing the surgery, clicked his tongue.

It was shocking enough that he had entrusted the endoscope to a first-year resident, but there was an even more shocking fact.

The first-year’s field of vision securing was surprisingly high-level.

He was a first-year, so he clearly had no experience assisting in endoscopic surgery, but he was still doing well.

Usually, when assisting with an endoscope for the first time, it was common to bump the lens against the lumbar structures.

They wouldn’t know where to point the camera, and their hands would wander.

But what?

That first-year was avoiding the mistakes he should have been making like a slippery loach.

This didn’t make sense. It was the epitome of the absurd.

“Could it be that he knew I would change the assistant and trained him in advance?”

“That’s unlikely.”

Kim Han-sang shook his head at Choi Jin-gu’s mutterings.

“But it doesn’t make sense, does it? To grasp the initial field of vision securing at that level.”

“This is also the chief’s work.”

“The chief’s?”

“Look closely at the chief’s mouth.”

Choi Jin-gu belatedly observed Jun-hoo’s mouth. He was wearing a mask, so his mouth was naturally not visible.

But after examining it carefully, he realized something.

Jun-hoo’s mask was constantly moving.

“Could it mean that?”

“Yes. The chief is directing, and the first-year is just following along.”

“It certainly seems that way, but…”

Choi Jin-gu frowned and continued. “You can’t just copy and follow along after hearing it once, can you? Securing the field of vision, I mean.”

“It seems the chief has used some kind of magic.”

Kim Han-sang smiled bitterly.

“Doesn’t this mean your plan is going down the drain?”

“Let’s watch a little longer. The heavens won’t always be on the chief’s side.”

Choi Jin-gu gritted his teeth.

Meanwhile, Jun-hoo was smoothly proceeding with the endoscopic surgery with Yoon-chan.

“That’s right. Keep going straight.”

“Turn the lens to the left. The bone there is the posterior arch. The empty space next to it is the posterior arch that Professor Choi removed.”

Jun-hoo was controlling Yoon-chan with his tongue, giving him precise verbal directions.

Jun-hoo was freely using both hands. In fact, there was no real need to entrust the endoscope to Yoon-chan.

But in order to train his juniors and to mess with Choi Jin-gu, who had laid such a shallow trap, he deliberately entrusted the surgical field of vision to Yoon-chan.

“Okay. Stop there. That’s the area we’re going to operate on today.”

“Whew. My whole body is soaked with sweat.”

“You did well, what are you talking about?”

“It’s all thanks to you, Chief.”

Yoon-chan smiled brightly.

All Yoon-chan had done was follow Jun-hoo’s instructions.

“But Chief, I’ve been wondering about something since earlier.”

“What is it?”

“It seemed like you knew the surrounding structures inside and out even before approaching the surgical site with the endoscope. That’s why I was able to get here without making any mistakes. How can you do that?”

“I memorized it.”

“You mean memorization?”

“Yes. Memorization.”

Jun-hoo pointed to his temple with his index finger.

In the past, while performing endoscopic spinal surgery at Mayu, there was a flood of bleeding.

Since the surgical field of vision was already narrow, the bleeding made it impossible to see anything.

Since that day, Jun-hoo had developed a habit of thoroughly studying the MRI before endoscopic surgery and memorizing the patient’s lumbar structure as a whole.

This made it possible to overcome the narrow field of vision of the endoscope to some extent.

“Wow! That’s amazing.”

“I respect you, Chief.”

“Stop with the embarrassing talk and focus. The real surgery starts now.”

But it was right then, just as the curtain was rising on the full-scale spinal fusion, that the anesthesiologist threw cold water on the situation.

“Professor, the spinal pressure has risen a lot! Please check if there is a cerebrospinal fluid leak.”