Dr. Shin Seonhan: The Doctor Who Sees The Future [EN]: Chapter 123

<……Octopus hair.>

‘I need to go see the drawing my daughter drew…….’

He thought, bleeding.

If I die, who will feed my daughter?

Who will buy her clothes, and who will send her to school?

Thinking about that made his heart ache as if it were being torn apart.

No, was it actually torn apart?

I don’t know, damn it.

Anyway, it hurts.

‘I shouldn’t have thrown a punch just because I got into an argument on the street…….’

I regret it.

But it’s already too late.

I’ve lost too much blood, and I’m getting dizzy.

I could feel the shadow of death gradually covering my eyelids.

……Then, as if in a dream, he heard the faint voices of strangers.

“Everyone, to the resuscitation room!”

Whirr―

The hospital ceiling moves.

Something thick is in my mouth, all the way down my throat.

Lying on the bed, he saw the scenes before him through his barely opened eyelids.

He saw the doctors dragging him somewhere and running busily.

“Once we move him, set up the lines right away!”

“Yes!”

Throb.

He felt like crying.

People he didn’t even know were working hard to save him.

Soon, a ray of hope shone in his heart.

‘I want to live!’

To live…….

One more time, I want to see my daughter.

As he thought that, his vision blurred.

With his consciousness gradually fading, he thought.

‘Doctors, please save me.’

Please.

I will live a good life.

I won’t imitate gangsters.

I will drive safely.

Even if I get into an argument on the street, I will never hit anyone.

Please, give me a chance to live the rest of my life……!

* * *

Resuscitation Room.

As soon as we arrived with the patient, we secured the stretcher car.

As the patient’s body was moved to the bed, Dr. Pung shouted in a loud voice.

“Check vitals!”

“BP (blood pressure) is 60 over 40, pulse rate is 92!”

The emergency medical technician next to the patient shouted.

“I’ll take off his clothes first!”

Rip, rip―

The nurses stick to him and cut his clothes with scissors.

Soon, the patient’s entire body, covered in tattoos, is exposed.

The intubation tube is connected to a ventilator, and IV lines are placed in the blood vessels of both arms.

“Got the lines?”

“Yes!”

“Full drip on all the lines!”

Dr. Pung shouts.

Full drip.

It means to open all the IV lines.

It is to pour fluids as quickly as possible.

Soon, fluids begin to enter through the lines in the arms and legs at twice the speed of the ambulance.

“In these situations, you have to flood him with volume first.”

Volume, meaning to maintain the fluid in the body.

“It’s probably hypovolemic shock due to bleeding. Everyone needs to stay focused. Otherwise, the patient will die!”

“Yes!”

“Start norepinephrine (cardiotonic) right away!”

.

A leading cause of death in the emergency room.

If there is a lack of blood in our body, many major problems occur.

So, for now, we need to replenish the blood flow with fluids, even if it’s just this.

“Kid, get an A-line (arterial line) in while there’s still a little pulse!”

“Yes!”

Sodam moves quickly.

If the heart stops, we won’t be able to find a pulse, so we need to hurry.

After a while.

Sodam feels a faint pulse in the patient’s wrist and inserts the needle.

Unlike last April, Sodam’s hands have become more skilled.

Soon, bright red blood fills the catheter, and the arterial line is connected.

“I’ll go get an arterial blood gas test!”

Tap―

Sodam shakes the blood-filled syringe and leaves the resuscitation room.

In the meantime, blood pressure is measured in real-time through the arterial line.

74/45.

As fluids enter, the systolic blood pressure barely exceeds 70.

Still lower than the normal blood pressure of 120/80.

“Move, let’s wipe his thigh so I can insert a C-line (central venous catheter).”

Dr. Pung pours povidone (antiseptic) all over his thigh.

Pour, pour―

Both thighs are stained brown, and Dr. Pung quickly finishes inserting the central venous catheter.

And he starts pumping fluids through the infusion pump at an even faster rate.

At that moment, Sodam returns with the test results.

“Doctor, the results are in.”

“What’s the hemoglobin (Hb, blood pigment) level?”

“It’s 7.8!”

Damn it.

This is a disaster.

A hemoglobin level below 10 means there was a lot of bleeding.

It means there is more bleeding inside the patient’s chest than we see outside.

Dr. Pung’s voice became hurried.

“Tell them to bring blood quickly!”

“I called a little while ago…….”

“Call again!”

“Yes!”

At Dr. Pung’s words, the nurse calls the blood bank.

A scene more chaotic than Gokdam Fish Market.

The emergency room is now a complete mess.

That’s because the patient’s condition is not good.

That fact was also confirmed by a series of X-ray images.

“It’s a hemothorax.”

Dr. Pung clicked his tongue as he looked at the X-ray.

Hemothorax.

In short, it means there is blood pooling in the chest cavity.

It was so severe that the left chest appeared completely white on the X-ray.

“Let’s drain the blood that’s pooled in his body first!”

“Yes!”

I helped him from the side.

Dr. Pung immediately performs a chest tube insertion.

Quickly and skillfully.

Gurgle―

As soon as he tore open the chest and inserted the chest tube, red blood gushed out.

The blood that gushed out in time with the ventilator’s breathing quickly filled the chest bottle.

“I’ll switch to the next bottle.”

The newly replaced bottle is also quickly filled with more than half blood.

It means that nearly 2 liters of blood had already pooled in the chest cavity.

While the emergency medical technician was replacing the bottle, Dr. Pung was examining the heart with an ultrasound machine.

“Damn it, I can’t even see well because of the hematoma. The knife shouldn’t have gone into the heart. The pulmonary artery shouldn’t have burst, right?”

Dr. Pung clicked his tongue and spat out various possibilities.

And even in the midst of all this, the blood pressure is not exceeding 80.

“There seems to be tamponade findings, let’s see if there’s a problem with the heart beating.”

At that moment, Dr. Pung’s eyes suddenly widened as he looked at the ultrasound.

“What is this, it looks like blood is leaking from the ventricle?”

Ventricle?

That means…….

Blood is flowing directly out of the heart!

Tension grew even more in the emergency room at Dr. Pung’s words.

Gurgle, gurgle―

Blood continues to gush out through the chest tube.

And to keep up with this enormous amount of bleeding, blood and fluids are rushing in through the peripheral blood vessels and central venous catheter in both arms.

“Doctor, this…… the amount of bleeding seems too much, will he be okay?”

The emergency medical technician says, looking embarrassed.

It’s like pouring water into a bottomless pit.

But we can’t stop.

The patient will die the moment we stop pouring water.

Soon, Dr. Pung says.

“This patient needs to be sent to a hospital that can do open-heart surgery. That’s the best thing for the patient.”

“Does that mean……?”

“Prepare for transfer!”

Transfer.

That is, to send him to another hospital.

Dr. Pung’s words are not wrong.

But…….

Can we send him like this?

It takes at least 30 minutes to get to a bigger hospital from here, no matter how fast we go.

“Doctor, will the patient be able to hold on until then?”

I looked straight into Dr. Pung’s eyes and asked.

Dr. Pung glares at me.

There is a moment of silence.

At that moment.

Beep, beep, beep―

Finally, the patient’s heart stops.

The first arrest (cardiac arrest) has occurred.

The emergency medical technician shouts.

“A-line is flat. I don’t think his heart is beating, no blood pressure!”

Blood pressure is 0.

The ECG rhythm is moving messily.

Dr. Pung immediately shouted.

“It’s V-fib (ventricular fibrillation). What are you doing?! Start CPR first! Bring the defibrillator! And epinephrine (cardiotonic)!”

“I’ll do it!”

Before Dr. Pung could finish speaking, Yeonseo was already on top of the patient’s body.

Thump, thump, thump―

Starts chest compressions.

We must supply blood to each organ by pressing on the heart somehow.

By any means necessary!

After 1 minute.

By the time Yeonseo’s hair was disheveled with sweat.

Dr. Pung shouts, holding the defibrillator.

“200J charge! Everyone get back!”

Bang!

Defibrillation is performed.

The heart slowly begins to beat again in a normal rhythm.

But the blood pressure is still barely touching 70.

It was a situation where another arrest could occur at any time.

“…….”

A moment of silence follows.

No matter how much volume we fill, we couldn’t fill the amount of bleeding inside the chest.

The heart eventually stopped beating properly due to arrhythmia due to low blood pressure.

Soon, Dr. Pung’s mouth opened.

“There’s nothing we can do. Even if we leave for another hospital now, this patient won’t be able to withstand the transfer.”

Does that mean…….

Are we giving up?

In reality, there seems to be no other way.

“A stab wound with heart damage and tamponade has a mortality rate of 90 percent.”

Dr. Pung continued.

Mortality 90%.

In other words, the patient is destined to die 90% of the time.

‘In the end, did I fail to change the future this time?’

I let my hands droop.

Failure?

Like this, so futilely?

But, Dr. Pung’s following words were unexpected.

“Let’s bet on the 10%. Everyone, prepare for EDT.”

“EDT?”

The eyes of everyone gathered in the resuscitation room widened.

EDT.

An abbreviation for . [Emergency Department Thoracotomy]

It means performing a thoracotomy in the emergency room.

In other words, Dr. Pung’s words meant that he was going to turn this place into an operating room right now.

‘Wait…… are we really going to open the patient’s chest here?’