Dr. Shin Seonhan: The Doctor Who Sees The Future [EN]: Chapter 149

#149 Happy Birthday (8)

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“No-eul, is that you?”

I had my doubts when I saw the name on the chart.

But it really was someone I knew…

No-eul, with an oxygen tube in her nose, greeted me with delight and grabbed my hand.

“Oh my goodness… Seon-han, is that really you!”

I didn’t know how to react.

I froze, dumbfounded.

In contrast, No-eul shook my hand, overjoyed.

“Seon-han, you’re an obstetrician here…?”

Her tone was welcoming, but she seemed breathless even when saying a single sentence.

“No, I’m still an intern.”

“I see. Wow… how did we end up meeting like this? The last time we saw each other… was it ten years ago?”

Ten years.

Enough time for a decade to pass.

Time had passed, so I couldn’t say she looked exactly the same…

No-eul, pregnant and in a hospital bed, looked very different.

Just then, the guardian next to her carefully spoke up.

“Honey, do you know him?”

“Yeah. You know my friend Shin Seon-do, right? The one I was closest to in high school… This is her younger brother, Seon-han.”

No-eul continued, pausing to catch her breath.

“Ah, I see.”

A kind-looking man with glasses bowed to me.

“Doctor, please take good care of my wife.”

It was almost a 90-degree bow.

I quickly bowed back and said to No-eul,

“No-eul, it’s great to see you after so long, but I have to prepare for rounds now…”

“Okay, Seon-han. Let’s talk later.”

“The professor will be here soon.”

“Alright.”

No-eul gave a gentle smile.

Seeing the dimples that appeared when she smiled, it suddenly felt real.

I realized that she was indeed the No-eul I knew from my childhood.

“Hoo.”

After leaving the room, I took a breath in the hallway, trying to calm my surprised heart.

‘Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve seen someone I know as a patient in the hospital…’

It’s a small world.

I felt a strange sensation.

No wonder I felt like something was off today; was this a sign of things to come?

It seems there really is such a thing as fate.

‘Well, meeting at the hospital isn’t exactly a good situation.’

I felt a sense of bitterness.

Doctors aren’t always happy to see acquaintances as patients.

There’s even an expression for it.

It means that when doctors treat a ‘special’ patient, the treatment outcome can actually be worse.

Of course, I’m just an intern, so I won’t be responsible for the treatment…

In any case, the fact that someone I know has been admitted to the place where I work made me feel uneasy.

‘But have I ever seen an obstetrical patient on oxygen before?’

No-eul, in the high-risk maternal intensive care unit, looked breathless with an oxygen tube.

While I was happy to see her, I was more worried.

Why did she specifically transfer to our hospital before giving birth?

I don’t know what’s going on, but it was clear that the situation wasn’t good.

* * *

“What? Someone you know?”

Shortly after, Nurse Mi-seon’s eyes widened when she heard my words at the station.

It was right after the hectic morning rounds.

“Oh my, oh my. What are the odds? She just happened to come to the OB/GYN ward when you’re an intern?”

“I was very surprised too.”

“That’s amazing… Meeting someone you know like that in the hospital, you must feel terrible, Seon-han.”

Nurse Mi-seon was right.

I would have been much happier if we had met on the street.

But in the hospital, of all places.

My complex emotions hadn’t settled down yet.

“By the way, how do you know her?”

Mi-seon’s eyes were full of curiosity as she asked.

Well… how should I describe No-eul in a nutshell?

An acquaintance from childhood.

My second older sister’s friend.

That’s the simple summary, but at one point, we were as close as family.

“She’s a friend of my second older sister, and we were very close about ten years ago.”

“Your sister’s friend?”

“Yes. I was really bad at studying when I was a freshman in high school. But she helped me a lot back then.”

“Wow… then she’s someone you’re really grateful to, right?”

“That’s right.”

I nodded.

Suddenly, I remembered my high school days.

The time when I watched a documentary about a medical saint and decided to become a doctor.

Back then, it was almost an impossible dream for me.

‘Thinking about it now, my father must have been taken aback… A kid who had practically given up on studying suddenly said he wanted to become a doctor.’

Everything felt daunting.

Even if I tried to catch up on the studies I had missed, I didn’t know where to start.

It was as difficult as cultivating barren land from scratch without a single drop of rain.

…That’s when No-eul helped me.

No-eul, who was a student at a prestigious university at the time, helped me with my studies for a while.

Like a persistent farmer, No-eul plowed the fields, watered them, and sowed seeds in the barren land of my mind.

No-eul was the type to get things done once she set her mind to it.

Influenced by her, I also developed a sense of determination.

Thanks to her, the tenacity hidden within me was awakened.

In short, No-eul was the one who made me who I am today.

“If it weren’t for No-eul back then, I would never have become a doctor. In a way, she’s like a benefactor to me…”

I stopped speaking.

Mi-seon was looking at me with an amused expression, her lips slightly pursed.

“Seon-han, you look so affectionate when you talk about her~?”

“…Really?”

“Yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you make that kind of face before?”

I chuckled.

Of course, my second older sister has been teasing me like that for years.

But No-eul was someone who couldn’t be described with such words.

“It’s not like that.”

“Come on, if you were tutored by an older sister you knew during your adolescence, you couldn’t have had no fluttering feelings at all, right?”

“…”

I was hit with a fact attack.

Honestly, I can’t completely deny it.

No-eul was someone I admired.

She was four years older than me, and at that time, she seemed like a very mature adult.

However, rather than seeing her as a romantic interest, I had a much stronger desire to .

Of course, Nurse Mi-seon in front of me seems to be interpreting it as she pleases.

“It might be rude to say this to a patient who’s hospitalized… but, she has a very unique aura.”

“Noona, your pager is ringing.”

“Look at him, changing the subject, hahaha! Anyway, I hope she delivers safely and gets discharged.”

Then, she left me behind to handle the call that had just come in.

‘I hope it’s nothing serious…’

Only now did I calmly open the chart again.

I was going to review the contents that I hadn’t been able to grasp properly because I was so flustered earlier.

But the moment I read the contents of the chart in detail, I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

WHO class II PAH

Eisenmenger syndrome d/t unrepaired PDA

…

‘Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and Eisenmenger Syndrome, due to patent ductus arteriosus (PDA)?’ [Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is high blood pressure in the arteries to the lungs. Eisenmenger syndrome is a condition where a heart defect causes abnormal blood circulation in the heart and lungs. Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a persistent opening between two major blood vessels leading from the heart].

I definitely knew the names of the diseases.

But I didn’t want to believe it.

Congenital heart disease.

In short, it meant that there was a problem with her heart from birth.

And that the problem hadn’t been corrected and she had lived with it until now.

‘No-eul had a congenital heart defect…’

I had no idea.

Of course, she wasn’t very healthy before either.

She wasn’t good at exercising.

I remember that she wasn’t in good health when she left our neighborhood to move.

But I never imagined she had such a serious illness.

‘Hoo…’

I ran my hand over my face.

This wasn’t the time to be happy about seeing her after so long.

Right now, the patient Jeong No-eul seemed to be in a pretty serious condition.

‘…Let’s read more for now. There might be something I can do to help.’

I focused on the chart displayed on the monitor.

But it was all just black letters on a white screen.

As Nurse Mi-seon said, there were many things that were quite difficult for an intern to understand.

‘This seems to be the most difficult patient chart I’ve ever seen… I’ll have to look up some books later and find out more.’

Beep, beep—

Just then, the OB/GYN entrance opened.

Along with the cool air, an unexpected face appeared.

“…Dr. Song Yu-ju?”

A slender figure.

A wild cat-like impression.

What was thoracic surgeon Song Yu-ju doing in OB/GYN?

Step, step.

As always, she walked to the station in the shortest path, and immediately asked without greeting.

“What room and bed is Kim Ga-eul in?”

“…Are you referring to patient Jeong No-eul?”

“Oh, yeah.”

She still can’t remember people’s names.

I stood up and said,

“She’s in bed 2 in the high-risk maternal intensive care unit. Would you like me to guide you?”

“No, I’ll go.”

Dr. Song Yu-ju hurried away.

There was no special explanation, but I knew why she was here.

‘She’s here for a consultation!’

Consultation.

Also expressed as consult.

Generally, consultation means getting advice with the help of an expert.

It’s similar in hospitals.

Even if a patient is admitted to a specific department, they actively request consultations for areas related to other departments.

In this case, since it was related to congenital heart disease, it was natural for the department to need a consultation from the department.

Consultations were also requested from and , which are related to the heart.

Dr. Song Yu-ju came to examine the patient before the thoracic surgery professor’s rounds.

Like sending a scout to check the position in advance, the resident first comes to assess the patient’s condition, which is the basic process of consultation.

‘This is perfect. There were many parts that I didn’t understand just by looking at the chart… I should ask Dr. Song Yu-ju since she’s here.’

I felt reassured that the ace of thoracic surgery had come.

After a while.

When I saw Dr. Song Yu-ju coming out after seeing the patient, I quickly approached her.

“Dr. Song.”

“What?”

“Are you busy? I have some questions about Eisenmenger syndrome in patient Jeong No-eul, whom you just saw.”

“You can find it in the chart.”

Of course, I know that.

That’s the face she seems to be asking with.

Sometimes, this person seems to mistakenly think that interns have the same level of knowledge as her.

“I know roughly that it’s a disease caused by congenital heart disease… but I don’t know the details.”

I said honestly.

Then, Dr. Song Yu-ju, who was about to leave the OB/GYN ward, stopped.

Her next words were shocking from the very first sentence.

“50 percent mortality rate.”

“…Excuse me?”

“That’s the mortality rate when a pregnant woman with pulmonary hypertension gives birth.”

I froze in place like a stone.

Dr. Song Yu-ju’s cold words continued.

“Originally, that patient’s body shouldn’t have gotten pregnant. She’s risking her life to have that baby in her womb right now.”