A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 523

Chapter 102: New Face (4)

Hyun Jong looked up at the main building of Busan Shinwon University Hospital.

A modern building resembling a long rectangle.

Auxiliary buildings attached to the left and right like wings, connected by a sky bridge.

Even the fountain in front of the building spouted cool streams of water.

There was a time when Hyun Jong vowed to be buried here.

He was prepared to dedicate his life to children suffering from brain diseases.

But that determination had now faded and rusted.

Strictly speaking, those were the desires of Kwon Tae-hyuk, a worldly man, not the desires of the monk Hyun Jong.

“Wow! The building is huge! My neck is going to break!”

So-myeong exclaimed like a child.

It was a natural reaction, as he grew up in a temple and had hardly seen the city.

Passersby glanced at the two people in their monastic robes.

But neither Hyun Jong nor So-myeong cared.

“Let’s go. After the examination, I’ll buy you something delicious.”

“Really? What kind of food?”

“Snacks and candy, things like that.”

“Hehe. Okay. But…”

Anxiety flashed across So-myeong’s face, which had been all smiles.

“Am I very sick? Why do I have to go to such a big hospital? I’m just a little dizzy and have no energy.”

“Just in case. But isn’t it nice to get some fresh air?”

“That’s good!”

So-myeong nodded vigorously.

The two moved to the emergency room reception desk, and Jun-hoo went inside the emergency room.

The waiting room was even more crowded because it was the weekend.

There were no seats available even after checking in, so they had to stand awkwardly near the entrance.

After that, new patients followed one after another behind them.

Hell, as Buddhism speaks of it, was not separate.

The university hospital itself was hell.

A roaring scream came from inside the emergency room, as if someone was causing a commotion.

Somewhere, a mournful wail was heard.

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) paramedics were constantly running in and out of the emergency room, carrying patients covered in blood.

In the midst of the commotion, Hyun Jong quietly closed his eyes.

He didn’t know if this was the right thing to do.

One hour ago.

“We need to take So-myeong to our hospital’s emergency room. Immediately.”

Jun-hoo declared firmly.

“What grounds do you have for saying such nonsense? So-myeong is just suffering from anemia.”

Hyun Jong retorted, glaring.

“I saw the child vomiting. We can’t dismiss it as simple anemia. And the symptoms have been appearing for months.”

“! So-myeong-ah. Did you really throw up?”

“…Yes.”

So-myeong pouted. He glared at Jun-hoo with a resentful look.

Hyun Jong thought that if he had even vomited, it was not something to be taken lightly.

So-myeong was not a child who overate. If it wasn’t vomiting due to an upset stomach, there might be a problem with his head.

So Hyun Jong asked the head monk for permission.

He took Jun-hoo’s car and visited Shinwon University Hospital.

He figured that there was no way a mere 10-year-old would have a serious illness, but it wouldn’t be bad to get various tests done on this occasion.

“Patient Kim Do-hyun, please come to the emergency room.”

“Let’s go.”

Hyun Jong took So-myeong’s hand and entered the emergency room. Thanks to Jun-hoo’s help, the wait was not long.

The two were guided by a nurse to the examination table.

Jun-hoo, who was sitting in front of the computer, was already wearing a doctor’s gown.

“Mister, are you a doctor? Did you study a lot?”

So-myeong’s eyes widened. His voice was filled with admiration.

“Why do I suddenly look different?”

“Yes. You look very cool.”

“The doctor will do some tests. The only scary thing is drawing blood with a syringe, and taking pictures inside your head—click, click.”

“Please tell me specifically what tests you will be doing.”

Hyun Jong asked, tilting his head, a hint of suspicion in his voice.

Seo Jun-hoo, considered the pinnacle of neurosurgery.

The only hexa-board surgeon in Korea who has conquered six sub-specialties of neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic.

What disease is he suspecting?

What tests are you going to do?

Suddenly, curiosity surged.

“As a routine, we will add a urine test, a blood test, a chest X-ray, and a brain CT [computed tomography scan].”

“CT instead of X-ray?”

Hyun Jong frowned and asked.

It seemed excessive to take a CT scan.

So-myeong had no external injuries, nor did he have a congenital brain disease.

“Have you been visiting the temple all this time to rip us off?”

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m going to pay for all the tests anyway. In modern terms, this is called ‘I paid for it myself,’ right?”

Jun-hoo shrugged with a relaxed expression.

“So please cancel the word ‘rip off.’ Don’t insult my kindness.”

“I have no intention of receiving your money. I don’t want any pity either.”

“Don’t you know about giving [dana in Sanskrit]? This is also a kind of medical donation. You accept donations from non-believers, so why do you refuse my donations? What is the distinction between the two?”

Hyun Jong could only pant at Jun-hoo’s rebuttal and could not refute it.

Giving had various meanings, but it was also used in a similar sense to churchgoers giving offerings.

Like a Buddhist version of offering.

Hyun Jong had nothing to say when Jun-hoo brought up the concept of giving.

This guy, he knows more about Buddhism than I thought?

“You can receive donations. Thank you, teacher.”

So-myeong answered innocently and put his hands together in a prayer gesture. Now Hyun Jong had no choice.

After the test order was issued.

Hyun Jong took So-myeong to various examination rooms.

“Namo Amitabha, Avalokitesvara [Homage to Amitabha Buddha, Homage to Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva].”

Except for chanting mantras and being nervous when drawing blood, So-myeong bravely overcame the tests.

“Is it worth making such a fuss by coming to the emergency room?”

As soon as he finished the test and returned to the examination table, Hyun Jong snapped at Jun-hoo.

So-myeong was sucking on a lollipop he had received from Jun-hoo.

The treatment was already out of his interest.

“Come this way and look at the CT scan.”

“I was so curious about my reading skills. All right. I’ll surprise you.”

Hyun Jong confidently approached Jun-hoo.

However, the moment he checked the scan image.

Hyun Jong’s face was as crumpled as if he had chewed on poop.

Hyun Jong narrowed his eyes and rubbed them repeatedly with his hands. But that didn’t mean the scan results would change.

“Ah…”

Hyun Jong sighed and lowered his head.

There was a brain tumor in the brainstem and medulla oblongata of So-myeong. Moreover, it was not small, with a size of 5x5cm.

So-myeong’s suffering was not due to simple anemia.

“Hyun Jong will also know. In the case of children, brain tumors grow rapidly.”

“…”

“Looking at the common site and size, it is malignant. I’ll have to do a biopsy later, but I suspect a glioma [a type of tumor that starts in the glial cells of the brain or spinal cord].”

“That’s right.”

Hyun Jong replied weakly.

He felt like a fool and an idiot.

He was a famous pediatric neurosurgeon, but he was optimistic about So-myeong’s condition and missed the critical treatment period.

If I had found out a little earlier, I could have avoided this situation…

His cheeks flushed red with guilt and shame.

“Let’s set a date for hospitalization and surgery.”

“Okay. I’ll go back to the temple today. I have to talk to the head monk.”

“All right.”

Jun-hoo nodded.

“But why are you talking about the Gyojong sect [a major branch of Korean Buddhism emphasizing scriptural study]? We are the Seonjong sect [another major branch emphasizing meditation]?”

So-myeong innocently joined the conversation.

He mistook glioma, one of the types of brain tumors, for the Gyojong sect, a Buddhist sect.

To So-myeong’s pure question.

Neither Jun-hoo nor Hyun Jong could answer.

* * *

That evening.

Jun-hoo was talking with Hwang Jung-hoon in the cafe on the first basement floor of the hospital.

Hwang Jung-hoon was the only pediatric neurosurgeon at Shinwon University. He was also the one who introduced Hyun Jong to Jun-hoo.

“You are amazing. I didn’t know you would visit the temple and do 108 bows for 60 days. Did you have any results?”

“No. He’s still stubborn.”

Jun-hoo smiled bitterly. He quenched his dry throat with iced coffee.

Even if he visited the temple and did 108 bows every day for 100 days, Hyun Jong’s mind would not change.

Hyun Jong directly operated on his beloved nephew but had to watch his nephew die on the operating table.

How can that deep wound be healed with 100 days of sincerity?

Hyun Jong only suggested 100 days and 108 bows to create an excuse to get rid of Jun-hoo.

But Jun-hoo did not miss any attendance.

Because that was the only way to move Hyun Jong’s heart even a little.

“There’s even worse news.”

“Tell me anything. My mood is already on the floor.”

“There is a child monk in the temple suffering from glioma.”

Jun-hoo summarized the details for Hwang Jung-hoon.

“Director. Maybe this could be an opportunity? If Hyun Jong succeeds in operating on the child monk he cares for, won’t Hyun Jong change his mind?”

Hwang Jung-hoon said in a somewhat excited voice.

“It could be, or it could not be.”

“What do you mean?”

“If the surgery fails, I won’t be able to enter the temple anymore. And Hyun Jong will resent and curse us for the rest of his life.”

“Haha. You’re sounding weak for a director.”

“Look at this.”

Jun-hoo handed his cell phone to Hwang Jung-hoon.

The child monk’s brain CT image was displayed on the PACS [Picture Archiving and Communication System] program installed on the cell phone.

Hwang Jung-hoon’s eyes narrowed as he examined the scan image.

The space between his eyebrows also gradually narrowed.

“It’s a mess. A glioma of this size is growing in the cerebellum.”

“Yes. It is the most difficult area to access with surgery. If you touch the nerve wrong, the patient may die instantly.”

“But with the director’s skills, wouldn’t he be able to handle it?”

Hwang Jung-hoon said sincerely, not flatteringly.

Jun-hoo has successfully performed countless difficult surgeries, including saving a congressman who fell from the 8th floor.

Moreover, surprisingly, not a single patient has died after receiving surgery from Jun-hoo.

There were patients who died later from complications or other illnesses, but the number of patients who died from surgery alone was zero.

This record was unprecedented in the neurosurgery world.

“I was trying to adjust the surgery schedule, but there’s no gap at all. I can only take out about an hour at best, but that’s not enough.”

“Well, you don’t do epilepsy surgery at all, and you have emergency surgeries in between, so that’s understandable.”

“That’s why I’m saying, Professor Hwang, please take on this surgery.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You’re the only one I can trust, Professor Hwang.”

Jun-hoo answered firmly.

Pediatric glioma removal.

It was definitely a difficult surgery, but there was nothing that a person like Professor Hwang couldn’t do.

Jun-hoo doesn’t have two bodies.

It was necessary to actively develop the skills of the surrounding staff.

“It seems very dangerous.”

“The risk can be reduced.”

“How?”

“Reduce the size of the tumor with a gamma knife [a type of radiation therapy] before going into surgery. Even if it’s only about 3x3cm, the burden will be greatly reduced.”

“Hmm… then it might be worth trying.”

“I will actively help. Professor Hwang, please take on this surgery.”

“Hmph. I introduced Hyun Jong in the first place, so there’s no way out. All right. I’ll take the lead.”

“You made a good decision.”

Jun-hoo smiled brightly for the first time in a while.

Jun-hoo and Hwang Jung-hoon went straight to the operating room, saying that they should strike while the iron is hot.