A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 492

Martial Surgeon – Episode 492

Chapter 96: Unforeseen Hardships (3)

The helicopter, which had been cutting through the sky, finally landed on the hospital helipad.

Drrrrr.

The helicopter door swung open roughly.

Jun-hoo was the first to touch down.

He displayed incredible strength, single-handedly lifting the stretcher with the patient and placing it on the ground.

Yoon Deok-hwan watched the scene calmly.

Perhaps he had been so surprised by Jun-hoo’s performance that he was now ready to believe anything could happen.

“Everyone, you’ve worked hard. Let’s get the patient transferred first. Operating Room 3 is set up.”

Woo-hyun, who had come to meet them, pulled the stretcher and rushed away.

Jun-hoo, Yoon Deok-hwan, and Kang Yoo-jung followed behind.

“The real game starts now. But I believe both of you will do well.”

Jun-hoo patted both of them on the shoulders simultaneously.

‘What’s this again?’

Yoon Deok-hwan’s eyes widened.

Jun-hoo had simply patted his shoulder to offer encouragement.

It was just a routine gesture.

Yet, an unknown force surged from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

The fatigue that had been clinging to his body vanished in an instant.

“…….”

With a look that demanded explanation,

Yoon Deok-hwan stared at Jun-hoo.

Jun-hoo simply smiled.

“I’m just very fast. I’ll head to the operating room first.”

Flap!

Jun-hoo ran, his doctor’s gown fluttering.

He disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“Dr. Seo is truly amazing.”

Kang Yoo-jung muttered in admiration.

“In what way?”

“I heard he’s a genius doctor who graduated from the Mayo Boost-Up Program [Likely a fictional program, implying advanced training at the Mayo Clinic]. I thought his skills might be overrated… but it feels like the rumors don’t even do his real skills justice.”

“…….”

“What do you think, Professor Yoon? Are you perhaps jealous?”

Kang Yoo-jung threw a direct question.

It was a question possible because they had worked together for years and were close.

Yoon Deok-hwan quickly shook his head from side to side.

“If the skill difference is this big, I don’t even feel jealous.”

“Are you serious?”

“When have you ever seen me lie?”

Yoon Deok-hwan retorted with a slightly sulky voice.

He stared at the rooftop door where Jun-hoo had run off to.

Thirty minutes ago.

The helicopter was speeding madly toward the hospital.

The vibrations inside the helicopter were so intense that it was almost unbearable. Even when still, his upper and lower teeth were clattering together.

And yet!

Despite those adverse conditions, Jun-hoo had managed to perform an open cardiac, a thoracotomy [surgical incision into the chest wall], perfectly.

Squeak!

Just once.

It was enough to wield the scalpel.

A crescent-shaped incision formed on the patient’s chest with a flash of blue light.

Screech!

Yoon Deok-hwan retracted the incision up and down.

As if waiting for it,

Jun-hoo resected [surgically removed] the patient’s ribs.

He exposed the heart.

He removed the effusion [fluid buildup] from the pericardium [sac surrounding the heart].

Around that time, the Grim Reaper played a trick.

The Grim Reaper caused the patient to suddenly go into cardiac arrest.

The electrocardiogram graph lay flat on the floor.

Beeeep. Beeeep.

The patient monitoring device emitted urgent mechanical sounds.

Jun-hoo did not panic.

He performed open-chest cardiac massage on the patient who had suffered cardiac arrest.

Open-chest cardiac massage was a highly difficult procedure in which a doctor directly held and massaged the patient’s heart exposed by thoracotomy.

Through Jun-hoo’s touch, the patient was revived.

‘Wow… I never thought I’d be the first to surrender completely.’

Yoon Deok-hwan chuckled to himself.

As an eight-year veteran of trauma surgery,

He had been determined to teach Jun-hoo a thing or two about trauma medicine.

But it was Yoon Deok-hwan who had been taught instead.

The chatter ended there.

He didn’t know the exact reason, but with the fatigue completely washed away, he sprinted toward the operating room.

He scrubbed in (pre-operative disinfection).

He put on a surgical cap, gown, mask, and surgical gloves and entered Operating Room 3.

A cool air penetrated his gown.

The pungent smell of alcohol stung his nose.

Jun-hoo, who had arrived earlier, was already doing something.

“Take a look over there. The audience is quite something.”

Kang Yoo-jung clicked her tongue.

She pointed with her finger to the observation operating room located on the second floor of the operating room.

As Kang Yoo-jung said,

The hospital director was watching over the operating room with his arms crossed and a fierce look in his eyes.

If one were conscious of that gaze, they might get indigestion during the surgery.

* * *

“Which area of the surgery will you start with?”

From the second assistant position,

That is, standing opposite Jun-hoo, Yoon Deok-hwan asked.

Unlike when he was in the helicopter, Yoon Deok-hwan’s voice was much softer.

If his previous voice was like a winter wind, his current voice was like a spring breeze.

Was it because he was out of the helicopter?

Was it because there was no need to shout anymore?

But Jun-hoo knew that wasn’t it.

Jun-hoo knew that Yoon Deok-hwan had acknowledged him.

Yoon Deok-hwan, who had been picking fights with him at every turn.

It was definitely reassuring that he had turned to his side.

“I think it’s best to start with abdominal surgery.”

“That’s unexpected.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Since you’re from neurosurgery, I thought you’d naturally want to do brain surgery first.”

“We should look at the more serious side first.”

“Let’s do as you say, Doctor.”

Yoon Deok-hwan replied coolly.

While Woo-hyun, the third assistant, was disinfecting the patient’s abdomen,

Jun-hoo drew up his internal energy.

He wrapped his entire body in internal energy as if wearing armor.

Woooong.

A subtle resonance that no one else could hear spread. The internal energy began to spread evenly throughout Jun-hoo’s blood vessels, muscles, and nerves.

Jun-hoo was unfolding the Myriad Manifestations Skill.

Myriad Manifestations Skill.

This martial art was a divine skill that maximized sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, and even enabled multitasking.

Thanks to the Myriad Manifestations Skill, Jun-hoo was able to stand shoulder to shoulder with even the masters who had reached the realm of Transcendence or Detachment from Demonic Influences [likely referring to advanced stages of martial arts mastery], even though he had only reached the Harmonious Realm [a specific level in martial arts].

Perhaps it was because his five senses were amplified superhumanly.

Time seemed to be passing slowly for Jun-hoo.

He felt as if he was in a different time zone from the other staff.

“From now on, I will perform hepatic portal vein anastomosis [surgical connection of the hepatic portal vein] and splenectomy [surgical removal of the spleen].”

Jun-hoo’s voice, announcing the start of the surgery, was solemn.

The tense staff swallowed dryly.

Bringing the patient to the operating room alive was certainly a great achievement, but it was strictly a half-success.

If the patient stopped breathing during the surgery, all the struggles they had gone through would be in vain.

Ssssk.

The scalpel wielded by Jun-hoo flashed.

The patient’s abdominal skin layer split horizontally.

Blood gushed from the incision.

Yoon Deok-hwan wiped the blood with gauze. A layer of whitish fat appeared.

“Step back.”

Jun-hoo wielded the scalpel again.

The fascia [connective tissue] and peritoneum [lining of the abdominal cavity] split simultaneously.

Fshooo!

A fierce fountain of blood spurted from the incision.

Thanks to Jun-hoo’s advance warning, the staff avoided the misfortune of being covered in blood.

“Woo-hyun, squeeze the blood packs for all you’re worth.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“Professor Yoon, I’d like to ask you to do the splenectomy.”

“Me? Weren’t you going to perform it, Doctor?”

Surprised, Yoon Deok-hwan’s eyebrows seemed to soar to the top of his head.

He wondered why he, the second assistant, had to perform the surgery when the chief surgeon was wide awake.

“This surgery is a race against time. Even I can’t handle this patient alone.”

“Ha… this is a first.”

“I’m asking you.”

Jun-hoo bowed his head lightly.

While performing the laparotomy [surgical incision into the abdominal cavity],

Jun-hoo used the Myriad Manifestations Skill to thoroughly review how to plan this surgery.

Spreading out numerous branches,

And cutting them off again,

The only conclusion he reached was one.

For the patient to live, he had to walk ‘that one path’ only.

Without falling even once.

It was burdensome, but it wasn’t something he couldn’t do.

In the Murim world [a world of martial arts], Jun-hoo crossed the boundaries of life and death as easily as eating a meal.

There was no burden, and it was a familiar task.

Jun-hoo used a retractor to directly widen the patient’s abdominal incision up and down.

The inside and outside of the abdominal cavity were a pool of blood itself.

It was hard to see the organs.

Cheee!

Jun-hoo held suction devices in both hands and sucked up the blood.

The blood sloshing in the abdominal cavity quickly revealed the bottom.

“It’s a miracle that the patient is still alive.”

Kang Yoon-jung muttered to herself in a weary voice.

“It’s a miracle we all made together. The real miracle is saving the patient.”

“Doctor, you’re going to do the hepatic portal vein anastomosis, right?”

Yoon Deok-hwan chimed in.

“Yes.”

“Will the patient’s head be able to withstand it until then? The intracranial pressure [pressure inside the skull] must be no joke.”

Yoon Deok-hwan trailed off.

He trusted Jun-hoo, but he still seemed uneasy about doing abdominal surgery first.

“I’ve calculated the time enough. If I finish it in 10 minutes, I think I can barely make it.”

“Hepatic portal vein anastomosis in 10 minutes?”

Yoon Deok-hwan jumped.

The hepatic portal vein was a blood vessel connected to the intestines, and its structure was complex.

It was intricately intertwined like a web.

It wasn’t an area that could be easily stitched up like sewing skin.

Even if it was sutured, the thread would come loose, requiring re-suturing several times.

“You’ll see. 7-0 prolene [a type of suture].”

Jun-hoo held forceps in his left hand and a needle holder in his right hand.

Screech.

He tightened the suture needle of the suture thread handed over by Kang Yoo-jung with the needle holder.

Nine minutes later.

The torn hepatic portal vein was magically restored as if by touch.

* * *

The surgery was heading towards its finale.

Jun-hoo was not hiding his martial arts, which he had not used in a while, and was using them generously.

Since Jun-hoo had superhuman skills, the surgical results were also at a superhuman level.

The help of Yoon Deok-hwan and Kang Yoo-jung, who had received internal energy infusion, was also significant. They did not lose their concentration for a single moment.

‘The problem is from now on…’

Jun-hoo’s expression darkened slightly.

Jun-hoo, who had finished the hepatic portal vein anastomosis as quickly as a crab disappears into its hole, immediately opened the patient’s head.

The patient’s head was, as expected, a mess.

The intracranial pressure was 35 mmHg [millimeters of mercury].

Almost twice as high as the normal 0-15 mmHg.

Skull fracture.

Subarachnoid hemorrhage [bleeding in the space surrounding the brain] and intracerebral hemorrhage [bleeding within the brain tissue].

Brain herniation [displacement of brain tissue].

There was even carotid artery thrombosis [blood clot in the carotid artery].

A thrombus (blood clot) flowed along the bloodstream and blocked the path of the left carotid artery.

However, even this was an achievement obtained thanks to Jun-hoo’s struggles, using hemostatic acupressure [acupressure to stop bleeding].

What would have happened without hemostatic acupressure?

The patient’s brain would have already suffered permanent sequelae [long-term consequences] due to damage from intracranial pressure.

“Additional IV mix of antihypertensive [medication to lower blood pressure] and hemostatic agents [medication to stop bleeding].”

“Yes, Doctor.”

Jun-hoo gave an order for injections and stared intently at the patient’s head.

The skull has now been incised.

Only the full-scale work of opening the meninges [membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord] and entering the brain remained.

The forefront of the meninges.

While incising the dura mater [outermost layer of the meninges], which was white and opaque like a milk film, Jun-hoo was lost in thought.

It was multitasking possible thanks to the Myriad Manifestations Skill.

‘There’s no answer to this.

Even I, a Murim person, can’t do it alone.

If I don’t have a skilled assistant to support me, I won’t be able to perform to my full potential.’

The estimate was drawn up in an instant.

If things continued as they were now, he would somehow succeed in the surgery, but he could not avoid damage to the patient’s brain.

It would be nice if Yoon Deok-hwan could help,

But Yoon Deok-hwan was still performing the splenectomy.

The only reason there was a difference was because Jun-hoo’s hepatic portal vein anastomosis was so fast, but Yoon Deok-hwan’s splenectomy was also showing tremendous speed.

“I’ll be away for a moment.”

“Yes? Where are you going all of a sudden?”

Surprised, Kang Yoo-jung’s voice cracked.

Wasn’t Jun-hoo the one who emphasized time more than anyone else?

She was uneasy because Jun-hoo, of all people, was leaving his post.

Was it because the patient’s brain condition was so bad that even Jun-hoo wanted to avoid his position?

Or was it a physical burden?

Meanwhile, Jun-hoo, who had read Kang Yoo-jung’s mind, smiled with his eyes.

His eyes drew a crescent moon.

“I can’t do it alone, even if I die and come back to life.”

“Ah… Doctor.”

“Don’t misunderstand. It doesn’t mean I’m giving up on the surgery.”