A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 93

Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts-Episode 93 (93/540)

Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts Episode 93

Chapter 16: The Fox (3)

Jun-hoo was walking down the quiet hospital ward hallway.

He was on his way back from returning the electrocardiograph machine to the electrocardiography room.

The time was 1 p.m.

As he passed by the hospital rooms, he saw patients lying on their beds, dozing or sleeping.

The guardians were in a similar state.

It hadn’t been long since lunchtime, so everyone was drowsy.

Step. Step.

With no one else in the hallway, Jun-hoo’s footsteps echoed.

‘How much time is left?’

Jun-hoo checked his wristwatch and shook his head.

There was still an hour left until the robot surgery he had been anticipating.

Paradoxically, the closer it got to scrub time [time to prepare for surgery], the slower time seemed to pass.

Robot surgery, as the name suggests, is surgery performed using robots.

It’s not surgery where artificial intelligence does everything.

It refers to surgery where the surgeon operates by controlling the robot arms.

Robot surgery is being touted as a next-generation surgical method.

From general incision surgery to laparoscopic surgery [minimally invasive surgery using small incisions and a camera].

Robot surgery was taking over.

During his residency in orthopedics.

Jun-hoo had never scrubbed in for robot surgery.

Orthopedics had a low frequency of robot surgery. Robots were only used in artificial joint replacement surgery.

But gastrointestinal surgery would be different.

He would be able to gain more experience scrubbing in for robot surgery.

Because almost all gastrointestinal surgeries could be performed with robot assistance.

Drrr.

Jun-hoo entered the on-call room.

Dae-jin and Mi-ho were busy entering charts.

“Are you done with the procedures already?”

Dae-jin glanced at Jun-hoo and asked.

“Yes. Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Not right now? Get some rest. You have to scrub in soon.”

“Dae-jin, don’t be so lenient with Jun-hoo. What’s the big deal about scrubbing in?”

Mi-ho, who had been silent, joined the conversation.

Mi-ho’s voice was still sharp.

“Looking at the schedule, it’s just robot surgery scrub. There won’t be much to do. He’ll probably doze off and come out.”

“Still, let’s let him rest as much as possible while he can.”

“You’re too soft. That’s your problem.”

Mi-ho clicked her tongue.

Ring~.

The on-call room phone rang, and Mi-ho answered it.

After listening to the emergency room’s notification, she hung up and called Dae-jin in a saccharine voice.

“Dae-jin~ The emergency room wants you to see a patient? They suspect appendicitis. Can you cover for me?”

“Okay. I’ll go. I wanted to walk around anyway.”

Dae-jin readily got up and left the on-call room.

The worst combination.

Dae-jin, who suffers from Nice Guy Syndrome [a person who seeks to please others, often at their own expense].

The combination of Mi-ho, who leeches off other people like a nine-tailed fox [a mythical creature known for its cunning and ability to deceive].

It’s frustrating even for me, a third party.

Jun-hoo, who had been watching the situation, shook his head without realizing it.

And he watched Mi-ho handle her work for a while.

Other people wouldn’t be able to see the contents of the monitor because they were too far away, but Jun-hoo was different.

Using his internal energy to amplify his eyesight, the letters became clear.

Compared to Dae-jin, Mi-ho’s work speed was significantly slower.

She typed quickly, but there were many orders that she deleted and re-entered. She also wasted a lot of time searching through books for medical terms.

A style of doing work adequately but passing it on to others because it’s bothersome.

A style of passing work on to others because they can’t do it.

Mi-ho was the latter.

That’s why she had no choice but to parasitize Dae-jin.

If you can’t do the work, you should think about improving.

You should think about learning diligently.

How can you pass the work on to your colleague?

Mi-ho’s work ethic was the worst of the worst.

“Seo Jun-hoo. You said you have nothing to do right now, right?”

“Yes.”

“Go do a free rounding. Don’t just waste time; come back quickly.”

“Understood.”

Jun-hoo prepared and started free rounding without complaint.

Free rounding was a free ward round where interns or residents went around the hospital rooms to check on the patient’s condition.

While making rounds, Jun-hoo listened carefully to the patient’s symptoms and progress.

He noted any special 사항 [Korean word for ‘items’ or ‘details’] in his notebook.

But in the last hospital room he visited, he heard something unsettling from one of the patients.

“I’ve been feeling a bit dizzy since this morning. My stomach is also cramping, and I feel nauseous.”

“You’ve been feeling that way since this morning? Did you notify the nurse or us, I mean, let us know?”

“No. It wasn’t severe at the time, so I didn’t say anything.”

The patient stroked his stomach with one hand and frowned.

“Let’s see. Park Seung-hyun-nim…”

Jun-hoo looked at the patient’s chart, which he had printed out in advance.

The patient was in stage 2 of stomach cancer and had undergone a subtotal gastrectomy [removal of part of the stomach] two days ago.

He was recovering after the surgery.

There was no record that his condition had worsened during that time.

He currently had a nasogastric tube [a tube inserted through the nose into the stomach] inserted.

So what could be the problem?

Was the patient simply suffering from the ups and downs that he had to experience during the recovery process after surgery?

Or was there another problem?

It was Jun-hoo’s job to distinguish between these two.

Jun-hoo first examined the nasogastric tube.

There was no sign of blood or other contents refluxing into the nasogastric tube.

“Have you ever coughed up blood?”

“No. Not at all.”

“Was your stool black like black bean sauce?”

“That. I think it was black, but I’m not sure. I accidentally flushed the toilet without checking the stool…”

“When was the last time you had a bowel movement?”

“Lunchtime today.”

Jun-hoo asked various questions after that, but he couldn’t get any informative answers.

Abdominal pain. Nausea. Dizziness.

These were the most common symptoms complained of by patients who had undergone gastrointestinal surgery.

Maybe other interns or residents would have finished the examination at this point, thinking there was nothing wrong.

But Jun-hoo couldn’t do that.

Jun-hoo thought that when it came to matters of human life, he had to be overly sensitive and meticulous.

That was the key difference between a regular doctor and a renowned doctor.

Jun-hoo’s goal was not simply to be a doctor, but to be a renowned doctor.

He wanted to stop helplessly watching the suffering of those around him, as in the world of martial arts.

“Patient, can you unbutton your gown for a moment? I want to do a palpation [physical examination by touch].”

“Okay.”

When the patient opened the front of his gown.

Jun-hoo placed his right palm on the patient’s abdomen.

* * *

Tadatadak.

Mi-ho was humming while entering the chart.

Just now, a third-year senior came to the on-call room and praised Mi-ho.

Saying that her work was fast and accurate.

It was a pleasant misunderstanding.

The reason why Mi-ho’s work was fast was because Dae-jin was doing Mi-ho’s work instead.

But what did it matter?

When she became a second-year, she would boss around the first-year.

When she became a third-year, she would boss around the first and second-year, and her lacking skills would never be exposed.

But that was when it happened.

Jun-hoo, who had finished rounding, returned to the on-call room.

“Seo Jun-hoo, you’re too late. Did I tell you to come quickly? Or did I not?”

“There was something I needed to check. Senior, I have something to tell you anyway.”

“What is it?”

“Patient Park Seung-hyun in room 513. I think he has gastrointestinal bleeding.”

“Gastrointestinal bleeding? How do you know that?”

Mi-ho asked back with a ridiculous expression.

Gastrointestinal bleeding was, as the name suggests, a condition in which bleeding occurred in the stomach, and it was usually possible to confirm it by performing an endoscopy [a procedure where a camera is inserted into the body to view internal organs].

“There are some suspicious circumstances.”

Jun-hoo’s notification that followed was absurd.

The grounds for diagnosing gastrointestinal bleeding were too weak.

Oh ho. You’re in trouble.

I’ll take this opportunity to properly show the prestige of a senior.

“First of all, let’s disregard abdominal pain, nausea, and dizziness. Did you check the nasogastric tube?”

“Yes.”

“Then was there anything suspicious of bleeding in the nasogastric tube aspirate?”

“No. There wasn’t.”

“Seo Jun-hoo, are you kidding me right now? If there’s gastrointestinal bleeding, blood should have been aspirated into the nasogastric tube.”

Mi-ho scolded Jun-hoo sharply, thinking she was right.

But Jun-hoo didn’t back down.

He took out a pocketbook from his gown and opened a page, handing it to Mi-ho.

“If you look here, the diagnostic sensitivity of gastrointestinal bleeding through the nasogastric tube is only 40 percent. It’s even more difficult to diagnose if bleeding occurs in the proximal duodenum [the first part of the small intestine].”

“Give it to me.”

Mi-ho grabbed the pocketbook in Jun-hoo’s hand as if snatching it.
The page contained exactly what Jun-hoo had mentioned.

Mi-ho had been hit hard.

Mi-ho didn’t have the ability to overturn the contents of textbooks written by professors.

What is this, he knows something I don’t know?

Mi-ho suddenly felt very upset.

“Unlike what the senior said, gastrointestinal bleeding cannot be diagnosed with the nasogastric tube alone. Am I wrong?”

A chilling energy flashed through Jun-hoo’s eyes as he asked back.

“Okay. Let’s say you’re right. But what you said doesn’t prove that the patient has gastrointestinal bleeding. You know that too, right?”

“…”

“If the patient said he had gastrointestinal bleeding, you have to provide accurate evidence.”

Mi-ho attacked Jun-hoo again.

She had no intention of losing face like this.

“The patient seems to have had hematochezia [the passage of fresh blood through the anus].”

“Hematochezia?”

“If there is gastrointestinal bleeding, the blood is discolored black as it passes through the stomach and large intestine and is excreted.”

“Wait, if the patient had hematochezia, he had it, but what’s with ‘seems to have had’?”

Mi-ho’s voice was thorny.

“The patient doesn’t remember clearly.”

“So the basis for gastrointestinal bleeding is hematochezia that the patient can’t even remember? Our Jun-hoo is joking too much?”

“But I have enough grounds to suspect that the patient had hematochezia.”

Jun-hoo explained calmly.

Just now, Jun-hoo went to the men’s restroom and searched every toilet.

As a result, he found a toilet with black stool on it and even collected the stool on the toilet using a specimen.

His efforts were commendable, but Mi-ho saw through the vulnerable part of Jun-hoo’s argument at a glance.

“Seriously, Seo Jun-hoo.”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure that stool is from patient Park Seung-hyun? Do you match people by looking at poop?”

“It’s not necessarily impossible.”

“How?”

“The patient said he had a bowel movement during lunchtime today. So I went around the hospital rooms and asked each male patient and male guardian.”

“…”

“If anyone had a bowel movement during lunchtime. The result was none. So the stool on the toilet must be from patient Park Seung-hyun.”

Mi-ho was stunned by Jun-hoo’s chilling meticulousness.

Is it so important to check the stool like a forensic investigation team?

“I can’t accept it? There may be patients or guardians you missed. There may be a time difference.”

“Well. Would even CCTV lie?”

“You even checked the CCTV?”

“Yes. Among the CCTVs in the ward hallway, there is a CCTV that shows the entrance to the restroom. That’s why I was late returning.”

Mi-ho bit her nails at Jun-hoo’s clever answer.

If he had analyzed it to this extent, it seemed clear that the stool collected from the toilet was from patient Park Seung-hyun.

Since that stool would be hematochezia, there was a high probability that the patient had gastrointestinal bleeding.

I wonder what this uneasy feeling is, like trying to give a 되 and receiving a 말 [a Korean idiom referring to an attempt to give something small but receiving something much larger in return, often unexpectedly].

“Okay. Since you’ve worked so hard, let’s do an upper endoscopy once.”

“…”

“But if there’s nothing wrong with the patient, be prepared.”

“Okay. I’ll be prepared for anything.”

Even at Mi-ho’s fierce remark, Jun-hoo only smiled mischievously.

As if he already knew the test results.