Dr. Shin Seonhan: The Doctor Who Sees The Future [EN]: Chapter 106

#106 A Stroke of Luck at the Summer Sea (9)

“Who’s causing a ruckus in my sacred emergency room again?”

That’s Mr. Pung’s signature line.

It’s like a pro wrestler appearing on stage with his theme music.

Dum-dum!

The guardian of Gokdam Emergency Room.

A hero has appeared.

Soon, a familiar scene unfolds once more.

“Who are you?”

“As you can see, I’m a doctor. And who might you be?”

“I’m this kind of guy!”

Flap~

The patient takes off his shirt, revealing his upper body.

Wow…….

A dragon this time?

A dragon writhes as if it’s about to ascend to the heavens, over bulging flesh.

Of course, Mr. Pung wasn’t intimidated.

“Oh~ Are you from the Azure Dragon Clan [a fictional or real-world gang]?”

“What if I am?”

“Seeing a dragon tattoo after so long brings back old memories.”

“What?”

“Lee Soon-cheol of the Azure Dragon Clan. And Googly-Eyes Joo Tae-jin under him. And Hammer Kang Do-won. They’re all close to me.”

“Heok…….”

The dragon-tattooed patient’s face turns pale.

I was dumbfounded watching from the side.

How does he know so many gangsters?

“Was it ten years ago? When Lee Soon-cheol was ambushed in the middle of the night and brought in burned all over, I was the one who pulled him back from the brink.”

“……”

“If I called them right now, they’d come running to me, calling me ‘hyungnim [a Korean term for older brother or respected elder],’ ‘hyungnim’… Should I tell them to set some discipline?”

“I’m sorry!”

The patient prostrates himself before Mr. Pung.

The pattern is the same as last time.

But this time, it’s not the White Tiger Clan, but the Azure Dragon Clan.

How does he have so many connections?

“Um… why do you know so many gangsters, sir?”

After the patient disappeared, Geun-wook asked cautiously.

I was curious too.

Did he used to work in the underworld?

But Mr. Pung chuckled and said,

“It’s a bluff, you idiot.”

“Yes?”

We stared at Mr. Pung with surprised eyes.

“Do you think I really know those people? I just gave him a plausible scare.”

What. It was all a bluff?

It was too detailed to be just a bluff.

Geun-wook asked, surprised.

“What if they find out you’re lying?”

“Hey, those guys aren’t real Azure Dragon or White Tiger gangsters anyway. They’re just neighborhood bullies who get tattoos and act tough.”

Mr. Pung said that and then laughed heartily before continuing.

“So what if I get caught lying and get stabbed in the gut? So what? I’m an emergency room doctor. I can disinfect it, stitch it up, and treat it myself.”

A few days later.

I found a book lying around in the corner of the emergency room prep room.

In that book, I could confirm all the names of the gangsters that came out of Mr. Pung’s mouth.

‘He really was a bluffer.’

I chuckled.

What kind of person is this?

It was absurd, but at the same time, I was impressed by his courage and quick wit.

Anyway, he was the most interesting doctor I had met since becoming an intern.

* * *

However, not all of his words were bluffs.

There was also this incident.

“Doctor…….”

A young female patient came to the emergency room around 8 p.m.

Blood flowed from her forehead, running down the bridge of her nose.

She was receiving the falling blood with a handkerchief, but it was soaked with blood.

“Where does it hurt…….”

It was Geun-wook’s turn for the new patient.

Geun-wook, who was writing a chart at the station, ran to the patient.

Then, he reflexively stared at the patient with a goofy look.

The patient was a young woman, wearing a thinly see-through shirt over her swimsuit.

Seeing the sand on her body, it seemed like she had come straight from playing at the beach.

“T-t-this way, please!”

Geun-wook couldn’t come to his senses, shook his head, and regained his composure.

Then, he sent a rescue signal to me with gestures.

Why is he so flustered?

I finished dressing the patient I was in charge of and approached him.

Then Geun-wook whispered in my ear.

“Hey, Sun-han. Can you take care of that patient?”

“What?”

“I have a condition where I get nervous and stutter when I see a pretty girl for the first time. I feel like my hands are going to shake.”

Seriously?

What a funny guy.

I elbowed Geun-wook in the side and headed to the patient.

“Hello, I’m Shin Sun-han, an emergency room doctor. How did you hurt your forehead? Do you have any other pain or injuries?”

I calmly asked the patient why she came to the emergency room.

Then, the patient, who was pressing her forehead, opened her mouth.

“I was playing at the beach, and suddenly the parasol fell over, on my forehead, euheuk [onomatopoeia for sobbing], and there was so much blood, euheuheuk [onomatopoeia for sobbing]…….”

The patient burst into tears before she could finish speaking.

It seemed like the shock after the accident suddenly burst out all at once.

I calmly comforted the patient.

“Don’t worry too much, we’ll take good care of you, so come this way.”

I guided the sobbing woman to the bed.

And I sat her on the bed and looked at the wound.

A laceration on the forehead.

It was about 4cm long.

First, I irrigated it with normal saline 0.9% [a standard sterile solution] and then looked at the depth.

Because the need for sutures depends on the depth.

“The tear seems to require sutures.”

I looked at the wound and said to the patient.

The patient was frightened by the word suture.

“Suture……? What do I do? Will I have a scar on my forehead? What if they make fun of me later and call me Harry Potter? Sniff sniff…….”

Even though it wasn’t a serious injury, the patient herself would feel like the world was collapsing because she had a wound on her face.

Moreover, it’s near the center of her forehead, so how worried would she be about scarring?

“Just a moment. I’ll disinfect it first.”

I disinfected the patient’s forehead.

Then, Mr. Pung suddenly appeared from behind me.

“Tsk, tsk. A wound on such a beautiful face.”

Then the female patient asked again with a tearful face.

“Doctor, do I really have to stitch it up?”

“Of course.”

“What do I do…… Please stitch it up well so I don’t have a scar…….”

“You’re in luck. Actually, I’m a doctor who gets scouted by Gangnam [a wealthy district in Seoul known for plastic surgery clinics] plastic surgery clinics fifty times a year.”

“Really?”

“Of course, of course.”

Oh my.

Here comes another bluff.

How can there be such a doctor in the world?

Mr. Pung, who was making such ridiculous bluffs, suddenly poked me.

“Hey, Smarty!”

“Yes?”

‘Smarty’ was a new nickname for me.

I was Smarty.

Geun-wook was Big Guy.

So-dam was Shorty.

Yeon-seo was Idol.

That’s what they decided to call us, and we had become accustomed to the nicknames.

“Come here. Let’s do some cutting next to me.”

Cutting (cutting, cutting sutures with scissors).

When one person sutures the wound and makes a knot, the assistant doctor on the opposite side must cut the thread with scissors, which is called cutting.

At this time, it is important to cut to the appropriate length, and of course, you must not accidentally injure the skin while cutting.

It looks simple, but it is not easy for beginners, and it is also a moment when interns are often scolded in the operating room.

“Have you assisted with sutures before?”

“Yes.”

I nodded.

I had experience helping plastic surgery residents with sutures when I was an intern at Yeon-guk University Emergency Room.

“Come on.”

He beckoned with his finger.

Meanwhile, Geun-wook looked at me, feeling a little disappointed.

His eyes said that even if he couldn’t talk, he could still assist and cut with scissors.

Even though he couldn’t even talk to her, his eyes conveyed his desire to get closer to this female patient.

‘Anyway, that guy is funny when you look at him.’

I followed Jang Pung to assist with the suture.

Soon, Dr. Jang Pung had the nurse prepare this and that in the treatment room.

“Please prepare 7-0 Nylon.”

7-0 Nylon?

I stared at Mr. Pung with surprised eyes.

Nylon.

The name of the thread used for suturing.

The number at the beginning indicates the thickness of the thread.

The larger the number, the thinner the thread. And the thinner the thread, the more delicate the suture requires, and the more skilled the technique is needed.

But…….

‘7-0 Nylon. You’re using such a thin thread?’

I had never seen such a thin thread like 7-0 being used in the emergency room before.

When I showed a slightly surprised look, Dr. Jang Pung smiled and said.

“Why? Why do you look so surprised? There was a time when we used to use 8-0 like it was nothing.”

Really?

What this person says doesn’t seem very credible.

I laid the patient down to be sutured and thought while preparing.

‘7-0, 8-0.’

To use 8-0 thread precisely, you often use surgical loupes [magnifying glasses].

But I had never seen sutures being done with magnifying glasses in the emergency room.

So it was natural that I didn’t believe Mr. Pung’s words.

The patient was laid down in the treatment room.

And with disinfectant applied, only the forehead with the wound was exposed, and the face was covered with a drape.

I adjusted the surgical light toward the forehead.

Soon, Dr. Jang Pung, wearing gloves, began to inject lidocaine (local anesthetic).

“This is an anesthetic injection, so it may hurt a little. Once this is over, it won’t hurt at all.”

I thought Dr. Jang Pung’s suture would begin like that.

But suddenly, something unexpected happened.

“Heoitjja [nonsense word]!”

Clap!

Dr. Pung suddenly clapped his hands together.

The powder on the surgical gloves fluttered slightly.

The patient, whose face was covered with a drape and only her ears were open, was startled by the sound of the palms hitting each other.

The whole body of the patient, who was nervous, flinched.

“Why, why are you doing that?”

“Oh, I’m just gathering some energy.”

Gathering energy?

As expected, Dr. Jang Pung.

He lives up to his name.

Well, there are such people among athletes.

They must chew gum before a game, or step on the mound three times before throwing the ball.

I’ve heard that among surgeons, there are doctors who can only concentrate well when they play classical music during surgery.

In the case of Dr. Jang Pung, the gesture of gathering energy seemed to correspond to such a jinx.

“Okay. I’ve gathered my energy, so now I have full power of concentration. Don’t worry.”

“Ugh…….”

The patient’s voice trembled anxiously.

I would have felt the same if I were the patient.

Dr. Jang Pung’s hand holding the needle holder began to move.

I stood opposite him and helped him.

I held the thread so that it wouldn’t obstruct the view and watched the suturing process while holding the scissors.

But.

My eyes widened as I watched his technique.

‘What, why is he…….’