Dr. Shin Seonhan: The Doctor Who Sees The Future [EN]: Chapter 13

#13 Among Us, Maligs (4)

Everyone’s eyes converged on one spot.

A corner of the emergency room.

A large man in his 30s is shouting at the top of his lungs.

In front of him, Sodam is frozen like a stone, looking flustered.

“Hey… what’s going on over there? Looks like Sodam made some kind of mistake?”

Joongwon hyung whispers.

The man’s angry voice continues.

“You’ve riddled my father’s arms like a honeycomb! I came here because it’s Yeon-guk University Hospital, but what is this after 20 minutes? He’s burning up with a fever!”

Sodam flinches.

Sodam shrinks back.

The large man is furious, and the pressure is no joke.

It looks like he’s about to grab her by the collar.

Watching the scene, Jo Jin-gi clicks his tongue as if it’s none of his business.

“Ham Sodam finally did it, she really did it. It’s not even her first rotation; she should be able to do an ABGA [Arterial Blood Gas Analysis] easily enough……”

He sneers as he says that.

ABGA (Arterial Blood Gas Analysis).

It’s the most common task for interns, but it’s not a skill to be taken lightly.

It’s not uncommon for them to struggle to find a blood vessel and get cursed at by the patient.

Sodam has been repeatedly poking the patient’s arm for 20 minutes, so I understand why the guardian is angry.

“I can’t stand it anymore. Hey, miss! Draw some blood from my father!”

The man grabs a passing nurse, panting.

The nurse is flustered.

“Guardian, this is an arterial blood test, so the doctors have to do it.”

“What? A doctor? What kind of doctor can’t even draw blood properly!”

“I’ll call another doctor, so please don’t shout like that.”

The nurse is also at a loss.

The atmosphere is such that a riot could break out at any moment, so she can’t help but be scared.

Jo Jin-gi smirks as he watches the scene.

“Pathetic, so pathetic. What’s the point of being a ‘royal’ [someone from a privileged background] if you can’t even do such a simple procedure properly.”

He speaks as if it has nothing to do with him.

It’s annoying to hear.

I look straight at Jo Jin-gi and say.

“Everyone makes mistakes.”

“What?”

“She’s a colleague working with us. I don’t think this is a situation where we can just stand by and watch.”

Jo Jin-gi flinches at my words.

But he soon retorts with a sneering expression.

“I can’t help because my hands are like this. If you’re so concerned, why don’t you help?”

I was planning to do that anyway.

I put down what I was holding for a moment and ran towards the commotion.

Sodam is already red-eyed and cowering.

She looks like she’s about to dig into the ground and disappear if left alone.

“Just a moment.”

“Huh?”

I stepped between Sodam and the guardian.

Then he says with a fierce expression.

“Who are you, a doctor?”

“Yes, I am a doctor.”

“Are the doctors at Yeon-guk University originally this bad?”

The guardian is very angry.

I smile kindly and soothe him.

“I’m sorry. It’s just that it’s a bit difficult to find blood vessels in patients who are as robust as your father.”

“What? Are you saying my father is fat?”

“Oh, no, it’s just that it reminds me of my father. My father is also well-built.”

Of course, it’s a lie.

My father has a lean physique due to his protein-based diet as a seafood restaurant owner.

And in fact, arterial blood tests often have little to do with body type.

But after hearing my words, the guardian’s anger subsided somewhat.

I bow my head and make eye contact with the patient.

“Sir, it must have been hard, right? But it’s a necessary test, so please sit here for a moment.”

At my words, the patient groans but sits quietly in his seat.

There is a word called rapport [a close and harmonious relationship].

It refers to the psychological bond between people.

Forming rapport so that the patient can trust the doctor is a very important step.

Rapport formation is the foundation of treatment, and the treatment effect can vary based on this trust.

These are things I learned firsthand while working as an intern in internal medicine for the past month.

“Are you going to do it right this time?”

The guardian grumbles from the side.

“If you make my father suffer again this time, I’ll turn the hospital upside down!”

“Don’t worry.”

I said confidently, but I’m also nervous.

Can I succeed where Sodam failed?

‘I can do it.’

I boosted my confidence.

Unlike Sodam, who spent her first rotation in pathology, I gained a lot of procedural experience in internal medicine for a month.

First, step by step from the beginning.

The right side must be properly hemostatic [able to stop bleeding], and the left arm must be fixed.

“Guardian, could you please press down firmly on the right wrist here?”

I asked the guardian.

Fortunately, he grumbled but followed my instructions obediently.

“Sir, are you comfortable? You have to stay still like this.”

After fixing his left arm so that it doesn’t move, I examine the area that Sodam had just poked.

‘Oh no…….’

I gasped inwardly.

Because Sodam had already made a mess of the patient’s arm.

Looking at the swollen wrist with a hematoma [a solid swelling of clotted blood within the tissues], sweat runs down my back.

“Sodam, did you do the left side first and then the right side just now?”

“Yes……”

Sodam nodded slightly.

ABGA – Arterial Blood Gas Analysis.

Usually, the radial artery passing through the wrist is punctured with a needle to draw blood.

The blood vessels in our body can be divided into arteries and veins, and the blood vessels that can usually be seen on the skin are veins.

Arteries are located deeper, so they cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Therefore, you have to feel the pulse of the artery with your fingertips and then puncture that area with a needle.

If the needle does not enter the blood vessel and only damages the blood vessel, arterial blood will bleed at a tremendous rate, unlike venous blood.

If bleeding occurs from a blood vessel deep in the skin, the blood cannot come out and forms a large mass, which is called a hematoma.

‘I can’t use the wrist.’

I clicked my tongue inwardly.

I have to feel the pulse with my fingertips and poke it, but I can’t feel anything due to the large hematoma.

I have no choice but to go a little more proximal [closer to the center of the body] and look for a chance.

‘It’s harder than I thought…… Can I succeed in one try?’

While hesitating like that.

Suddenly, the scene I saw during the ECMO [Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation] incident in internal medicine came to my mind.

―Wow, as expected of Yoo-joo!

―Senior, do you have an ultrasound attached to your finger?

.

That person found the blood vessel without any hesitation when inserting the ECMO. How could she do that?

Hand skills?

Experience and knowledge?

Or maybe she just succeeded by feeling.

‘Yes. That person found the blood vessels of a shaking patient in one go…… I can’t fail to find a blood vessel that’s jumping up and down in place!’

Thinking that way, my competitive spirit suddenly surges.

I imagined the blood vessels in my head and drew them.

‘This is where the blood vessel passed, and the pulse is felt very slightly on the upper part. Then it will pass between them.’

Even though I can’t see it with my eyes, I have no choice but to rely on knowledge, experience, and the sensation of my fingertips to find the artery.

“Sir, it will hurt for a moment, please bear with it.”

Stab!

I stuck the needle into the patient’s arm.

‘Artery, please don’t run away…….’

As the needle went deeper and deeper, my tension increased.

But blood doesn’t clot as quickly as I thought.

Is the artery this deep……?

The moment I pushed the needle in with half-doubt!

Bright red arterial blood formed at the end of the syringe.

‘I found it!’

Who would know this pleasure?

To put it in perspective, is it like the feeling when a red KakaoTalk [a popular Korean messaging app] message notification pops up from someone you desperately adore?

Arterial blood gradually filled the syringe.

I fix my left hand and gently move my right hand to carefully pull the syringe by 1mm.

Finally, about 0.5cc of blood was drawn.

The patient, his family, and Sodam are watching this process.

I calmly pulled out the needle.

“Okay, it’s over.”

“Huh? It’s over?”

The patient’s eyes widened.

I said as if I had finished it easily without any problems.

“You’ve had a hard time drawing this little bit of blood.”

“It hurt a lot earlier, but this time it only hurt at first and I didn’t even know you were drawing blood~.”

At the patient’s words, the guardian’s expression brightens.

“Wow, this doctor is good! What’s your name? I think there’s a compliment card or something at the entrance, I should write one!”

He says that and peers at my name tag.

The compliment card is the only gift that a patient can give to an intern.

There is a rumor that if you receive a lot of compliment cards, your intern score will increase.

So, it seems that there are interns who beg patients for these compliment cards for the sake of their intern scores.

I smiled and said.

“The doctor here is also originally very good, but it seems like it didn’t work out well today. We also have days when we do well and days when we don’t.”

“Yes, yes. I feel refreshed now.”

I calmed the guardian and the patient like that.

As I was returning to the station with Sodam, I felt a gaze.

Doctor Yeo Bong-cheol is looking at me with interest.

“I was bringing the ultrasound, how did you find the blood vessel?”

“I found it with my hands.”

“Wow, that’s impressive. You solved it with just the touch of your hands?”

I nodded.

Doctor Yeo Bong-cheol gently rubs my shoulder and adds a word.

“Good job. But next time, wait until I bring the ultrasound. It’s a good thing you succeeded in one try, but if you had failed again, it would have been a disaster.”

“Yes. I will do that next time.”

“Yes, yes.”

Yeo Bong-cheol’s face is full of smiles.

The distrustful look he had because I was from a local university can no longer be found.

Since I have gained Yeo Bong-cheol’s trust, it seems like the start of my emergency room internship is good.

“And Ham Sodam.”

“Yes.”

“You…….”

Yeo Bong-cheol started to speak and then stopped.

I glanced to the side and lost my words.

I can’t bear to look.

Sodam’s face, which is making an expression as if she has lost her country, looks like she’s about to burst into tears.

“Don’t cry in front of others, go to the bathroom.”

“Yes.”

Sodam bowed her head with reddened eyes and disappeared.

Yeo Bong-cheol sighed deeply.

“Sigh…… Take good care of your colleague. She might be treated like a Malig [short for Malignant, used to describe someone unpleasant to work with].”

I made a bitter expression at Yeo Bong-cheol’s words.

.

A word derived from malignancy, meaning a malignant tumor.

However, when doctors use the word ‘Malig’ in everyday life, its meaning is used slightly differently.

It is used to demean a colleague who has a bad reputation in the organization or who is unpleasant to work with.

Being called ‘Malig’ by colleagues you work with would be the worst situation.

I looked at Sodam’s back with a heavy heart.

* * *

“Please take good care of Sodam unni [older sister/female friend].”

“Who? Ham Sodam?”

Yeonseo nodded.

The second week of April, when the sunlight is warm.

She called me out separately during lunch time and suddenly started talking about this.

I opened the lid of the banana-flavored milk that Yeonseo bought me and said.

“Why are you suddenly talking about her?”

“I feel sorry for her.”

“You feel sorry for her?”

I tilted my head.

Although she made a mistake from the first week, it’s a common occurrence.

“Actually, Sodam unni has had a hard time since her university days. She was subtly bullied among her classmates.”

“Ah, really?”

I didn’t know that.

Well, given Sodam’s personality, it doesn’t seem like she would have gotten along well with her friends around her.

Yeonseo’s words continue.

“She made a lot of mistakes during her internship, so there were a lot of backstabbing comments like, ‘How can she not even do that when she’s a royal……’ So she seems to be getting more and more withdrawn.”

Ah.

I think I know roughly what it is.

Originally, people tend to slip when they are under psychological pressure.

Especially if it’s a timid personality like Sodam, she would have shrunk more and more after experiencing such things a few times.

I said, chewing on bread.

“I know what you mean, but I’m too busy taking care of myself to take care of others.”

“Wow, that’s cold.”

“Of course, I can help a little from the side. But basically, you have to take care of your own work.”

“That’s true, but…….”

Yeonseo pouted.

“I’m worried. I’m afraid she might make a big mistake.”

A big mistake.

Of course, there is a possibility.

But the work that an intern can do is limited anyway.

Unless a mistake that kills the patient happens, won’t the remaining period pass smoothly?

“Don’t worry too much. What could possibly happen during an intern’s month…….”

As I was about to answer that―

The front of my eyes suddenly went dark.

And another future began to appear.