A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 519

101. As Planned (5)

It had been a month and a half since the epilepsy clinic opened.

The clinic was bustling with patients, so much so that the expression ‘packed to the rafters’ felt apt.

They had all flocked from various places, drawn by Jun-woo’s reputation.

Although Jun-woo directly saw only a small number of patients, the patients didn’t mind.

Just seeing Jun-woo’s face displayed in the clinic gave them a sense of reassurance.

And that trust was not betrayed.

Chun Seok-young and Jung Min-jae.

The robotic surgery skills of the two, who had trained under Jun-woo with the help of ‘Brain Acupoint Technique,’ were top-notch.

It was similar to selling cosmetics.

A handsome, clear-skinned celebrity is advertising, and even the quality of the cosmetics is good?

It was only a matter of time before word spread and they sold like hotcakes.

The success of the epilepsy clinic was broadcast on medical news and evening news.

It became a whirlwind issue.

Naturally, Jun-woo’s stock soared.

A joke circulated that if you didn’t know Jun-woo, you must be living under a rock.

Until now, there were hardly any cases where a section chief pushed through a new project and achieved remarkable results.

The section chief was merely a manager and a person in charge.

They did not participate in hospital management with a business mindset.

Jun-woo became the first surgeon to break that established way of thinking.

The money invested in ‘Cerebral’ was recovered in full.

The vice president acknowledged the profitability of the epilepsy clinic.

Furthermore, as promised, Jung Hyun-jung actively brought in new Cerebrals from Mayou.

With two robots, the surgery schedule, which had been clogged like an artery with arteriosclerosis [hardening of the arteries], began to open up somewhat.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, doctor, I haven’t had a seizure lately.”

“Why am I only getting this good treatment now?”

“I was scared of opening my head, but it’s so great that it’s over in just one day.”

The patients’ and guardians’ expressions of gratitude were Jun-woo’s greatest reward.

Too young.

Too old.

Or patients who had vaguely feared craniotomy [surgical removal of part of the skull] and hesitated to undergo surgery found new lives after receiving robotic surgery.

Their bright smiles gave Jun-woo great strength.

However.

The sea of life could not always be smooth sailing. One could not only encounter gentle waves.

Jun-woo soon encountered an unavoidable, treacherous reef.

* * *

It was early autumn when the heat had subsided and the wind was cool in the mornings and evenings.

Jun-woo was reviewing documents in his office.

Jun-woo’s eyes were narrowed.

His brow was furrowed, and wrinkles lined his forehead.

Thud.

Jun-woo placed the material he was holding on the desk.

The lack of a breakthrough for the problem caused a throbbing pain in both temples.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Just in time, the sound of knocking.

He told them to come in.

Choi Jin-gu approached Jun-woo with a bright smile.

He placed one of the coffees he was holding on the table.

“Everyone else is dying of envy for you, Section Chief, but why are you having such a hard time?”

“There’s something that’s been bothering me.”

“What is it?”

“Read it yourself.”

Jun-woo handed Choi Jin-gu the printout he had placed on the desk.

Choi Jin-gu quickly scanned the data.

“Looks like you’re not satisfied with the pediatric department?”

Choi Jin-gu, who was a master of reading situations, quickly understood Jun-woo’s intentions.

Jun-woo liked Choi Jin-gu for this reason.

He always grasped the essence of the problem quickly and easily.

“Yes.”

“Judging from this data alone, the performance of the pediatric neurosurgery department is terrible. There have been many cases where patients who came to the emergency room were transferred to other hospitals. And the number of surgeries isn’t high either.”

Choi Jin-gu put the data on the desk and sipped his coffee.

“How about closing the pediatric department altogether at this opportunity?”

“What about the pediatric patients?”

“We should only treat the existing patients and direct future patients to Jewon University Hospital. It’s time to choose and focus.”

“…….”

“Our department is already enjoying a boom with the epilepsy clinic, isn’t it? We don’t have the capacity to care about the pediatric department.”

Choi Jin-gu’s advice hit Jun-woo hard.

Jun-woo couldn’t refute it.

It wasn’t wrong.

Realistically, there was no one to manage the pediatric department, and there was no time.

Currently, there was only one professor of pediatric neurosurgery, and Jun-woo only helped him sporadically.

It was barely holding on.

If things continued this way, there was a high probability that a major accident would occur due to the poor environment.

“Professor Choi, you’re a parent too, aren’t you?”

“Of course. I have a daughter in college and a son in high school.”

“If your children were injured and went to the hospital, how despairing would it be if there was no one to operate on them?”

Choi Jin-gu tilted his head as Jun-woo suddenly appealed to emotions.

“Ha… You’re a really strange person, Section Chief.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m saying that you’re like a ruthless person who doesn’t care about the means to an end when it comes to power struggles, but you’re also like an angel when you stand in the patients’ shoes.”

“There are many versions of me inside me.”

Jun-woo threw out a joke.

Choi Jin-gu chuckled.

He was on Jun-woo’s side to thoroughly pursue his own interests, but Choi Jin-gu really liked this emotional side of Jun-woo.

Sacrifice. Dedication. Hope. Empathy.

It was as if values that seemed useless and old were shining brightly through Jun-woo’s will.

No one hated warm and great values.

It’s just that they hated the pain they had to endure while pursuing that path.

In that sense, Jun-woo was like a lighthouse.

“I’ll talk to Professor Hwang. There won’t be any brilliant solutions, so don’t expect too much.”

“That’s enough. I’ll look for a way too.”

The conversation ended like that.

* * *

That afternoon.

Jun-woo was handling his regular schedule in the operating room.

The patient was a man in his 60s.

The diagnosis was a brain tumor.

An astrocytoma [a type of brain tumor], classified as benign, was nestled in the temporal lobe, measuring 3cm x 3cm.

Jun-woo had just removed the patient’s skull.

The real surgery was about to begin.

But.

Ring-a-ling~

The telephone hanging at the entrance of the operating room rang.

The surgery was temporarily suspended.

Won-pil, a third-year resident, moved to the entrance, answered the phone, and returned to the operating table.

Even though he was wearing a mask.

I could roughly guess from the atmosphere and his eyes.

That another critical patient had come to the hospital.

“What’s going on?”

“That’s… they say there’s a T.A. [Traffic Accident] patient in the emergency room right now. There’s no one to operate, so they asked if you could possibly do the surgery.”

Won-pil couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with Jun-woo.

He seemed to feel guilty for having to deliver the news that someone who was already in surgery was being asked to perform another surgery.

“Tell me in detail.”

“The patient is an 8-year-old child. They say they were hit by a truck whose driver was drowsy while traveling in their parents’ car. The parents died on the spot, and the child is in critical condition.”

“Where is the child injured?”

“They say they have severe head and arm injuries. They even performed CPR once while transporting them.”

“Hoo.”

Jun-woo looked up at the ceiling and let out a deep sigh.

A sense of despair washed over him.

There were too many tragedies in the world.

Anyway, did words become reality?

He had talked about pediatric neurosurgery with Choi Jin-gu this morning, and a pediatric patient suddenly rushed into the emergency room.

“Where’s Professor Hwang?”

“He’s in the middle of a regular surgery right now. He’s operating on a cerebral vascular malformation [abnormality of blood vessels in the brain]. I think it’ll take at least two more hours.”

“This is difficult.”

“Should we send them to another hospital?”

Jun-woo hesitated.

That was the most reasonable and realistic choice. Originally, you shouldn’t take on things you can’t handle.

But the answer ‘do that’ didn’t easily pass his throat.

He had a bad feeling.

He was afraid that the patient would become a victim of the emergency room shuttle [the practice of transferring patients between hospitals due to lack of resources] that had become a problem these days.

Where would they take a patient that Busan Shinwon University Hospital, a regional trauma center, couldn’t handle?

Especially since the patient was a child.

Suddenly, an unforgettable face flickered before Jun-woo’s eyes.

Hyung Seong-ho.

A person who wandered around the emergency room due to a traffic accident and died of brain death.

A person Jun-woo would carry in his heart for the rest of his life.

Just thinking of Seong-ho made his chest burn.

“How long will it take for them to arrive?”

“They said they’ll be here in 30 minutes.”

“Then tell them to come. I’ll operate.”

The staff opened their eyes wide at Jun-woo’s decision.

Jun-woo was already in surgery. Even though it was a benign tumor, the difficulty of a brain tumor resection was considerable.

Absolutely not!

It wasn’t a surgery that could be finished in 30 minutes.

“Section Chief, will another professor possibly take over the surgery in the middle?”

Won-pil carefully asked Jun-woo.

If Jun-woo did 30 minutes of surgery.

If another professor with free time took over Jun-woo’s surgery, Jun-woo’s judgment would make sense.

But the answer that came back was beyond imagination.

“No one will. I’m going to finish this surgery. And I’m going to go receive the T.A. patient.”

“But that’s impossible…”

“There’s not enough time to talk, so just focus on the surgery.”

Jun-woo’s voice was firm, as if he wouldn’t allow any rebuttal.

The staff had no choice but to keep the words they wanted to say to themselves.

Jun-woo was a great surgeon.

But sometimes he was reckless like today. And no one could stop the reckless Jun-woo.

I have to finish the brain tumor surgery quickly and save the child.

That’s the best way.

There’s no other way.

Jun-woo recited inwardly.

Jun-woo’s heart was already full of Seong-ho. There was no room to put anyone else in it.

However, what was regrettable was…

The tragedy that there was only one pediatric neurosurgeon at Busan Shinwon University.

If there were at least two.

They wouldn’t have been driven into a corner like this.

Even if Jun-woo somehow manages to handle this case, what if another patient comes in here?

Then even Jun-woo would have no choice but to surrender.

In other words, the fundamental solution to this problem was to recruit one more pediatric neurosurgeon.

Because saving people is ultimately about people.

“Resume surgery. Everyone, stay sharp.”

“Yes, Section Chief.”

“Yes, Section Chief.”

The residents answered loudly.

30 minutes later.

Surprisingly, everything happened as Jun-woo said.

The brain tumor resection was completed in 30 minutes.

Thud!

The yellow tumor, cut out with a scalpel, fell onto the instrument tray.

“Send the tumor for biopsy and please finish up.”

Jun-woo stormed out of the operating room. The staff watched Jun-woo’s back.

This was clearly a skill that defied common sense.

Speed and perfection were generally inversely proportional.

The faster the speed, the lower the surgery’s perfection.

However, the brain tumor that Jun-woo removed was as clean as if it had been drawn with a line.

He didn’t touch the nerves and blood vessels near the tumor by even a hair.

Speed and perfection.

The staff was simply amazed by Jun-woo’s skill.

“Wow! It really ended in 30 minutes. I didn’t expect this.”

A second-year resident said, looking at the wall clock.

“But isn’t something a little strange?”

“What is it?”

“I feel like it’s been about an hour, but it seems like only 30 minutes have passed.”

“Time goes by quickly when you concentrate.”

“Is that so? Let’s close the head first.”

Won-pil moved to the position of the surgeon where Jun-woo had been standing.

The staff had no idea.

That they had really been operating on a different timeline than reality.