Dr. Shin Seonhan: The Doctor Who Sees The Future [EN]: Chapter 185

#185 A Fresh Thoracic Surgeon (2)

The man stared at Deok-sang, surprised.

‘What’s wrong with this guy?’ he thought.

Deok-sang looked pale and unsteady, as if he might collapse at any moment.

“Are you alright?”

“Don’t worry about me. I get like this sometimes, especially when it’s cold…”

“Didn’t you say you had diabetes? Are you keeping up with your doctor’s appointments?”

“I get the medicine, but I ran out a few weeks ago… I can’t afford the hospital bills.”

At Deok-sang’s words, delivered while gently removing the hand clutching his chest, the man snapped irritably.

“Hospital bills are the problem? South Korea’s health insurance is pretty good; it shouldn’t cost that much, right?!”

“I don’t see any difference whether I take it or not.”

“Come on, you need to be alive to work, earn money, and pay back your debts, right?”

“Alright, alright. I’ll pay you back, so don’t worry…”

Deok-sang, looking sorrowful, barely straightened his hunched posture.

“Make sure to go to the hospital tomorrow!”

“Okay…”

Deok-sang tried to climb the stairs and enter the building, his steps faltering.

However, he hadn’t gone far before he leaned against the wall, struggling.

Climbing the stairs seemed to bring back the tightness in his chest.

The man, who was about to turn away, sighed as if he couldn’t help himself and grabbed Deok-sang’s arm.

“This won’t do. Let’s go to the emergency room of the hospital you usually go to. I came to collect a debt, but I don’t want you to die of a heart attack; it’ll leave a bad taste in my mouth.”

“Heart?”

Deok-sang was suddenly scared.

He suddenly remembered that his deceased father had also died of a heart attack.

He was worried about the emergency room costs, but he figured it was better than dying right away.

The man kept urging him.

“Don’t be stubborn. Let’s go while I’m being nice. I’ll take you.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“Damn it, this is not what I wanted. I came to collect a debt, what is this…”
The man cursed roughly as he supported Deok-sang.

The moment the man’s arm touched him, Deok-sang felt like crying.

Even though the other person was a debt collector, he wondered when was the last time he felt someone’s warmth.

With the man’s help, he got into the passenger seat of the small SUV.

“Wang Bio… I thought it would skyrocket like my name…” (Likely a reference to a stock or investment that Deok-sang hoped would be successful).

“Is that what you’re worried about right now?”

“…I’m sorry.”
Tears streamed down Kim Deok-sang’s eyes.

Seeing him still trying to crack a joke in the midst of all this, the pomade-haired man figured he wasn’t going to die anytime soon.

Vroom!

The small car carrying the two people sped through the snowy road towards the hospital.

* * *

Ring, ring—

The alarm rings.

6 AM, my body feels light as I prepare for work.

“It’s the first day of the new year.”

I smiled as I looked in the mirror.

A new year, a new month.

I had been accepted into the Department of Thoracic Surgery and would be rotating through it as an intern for the month of January.

The part I was assigned to this time was the Adult Heart section, as Dr. Ma Dong-seop had mentioned at the year-end party.

‘After all, isn’t heart surgery what comes to mind when you think of Thoracic Surgery?’

Here, I would be dealing with patients with coronary artery disease, valvular disease, and aortic disease.

In addition, there were also patients who had undergone arrhythmia surgery, cardiac tumor surgery, and heart transplant surgery.

“Hello!”

I greeted everyone more brightly and energetically than usual.

The medical staff I was seeing in this ward now were the people I would be encountering throughout my hospital life.

It felt different from when I was an intern who would stay for a month and then disappear.

‘Okay… I’ve already finished modifying today’s orders and removing the chest tubes; all that’s left is dressing.’

I was sitting at the station, processing ward duties after the morning rounds.

At that moment, the phone in my pocket rang.

Beep, beep—

‘Huh? I’m here at the station… where is this call coming from?’

The phone screen displayed [Dr. Ma Dong-seop].

“Yes, Doctor. I don’t have anything urgent right now. I’ll go down right away.”

I took the elevator down to the operating room.

I was already wearing a gown over my scrubs, so I casually hung the gown on the coat rack in the changing room and put on a surgical cap and mask.

‘It’s my first time in a Heart part operating room!’

Thump, thump.

My heart was pounding.

It was my first year as an intern.

It was a time when there shouldn’t be any new and amazing experiences left as an intern.

However, entering the thoracic surgery operating room was enough to make my heart beat again.

Whirr—

The door to room 16 opened, and I entered the operating room.

The room was busy with preparations for the second surgery of the day, and there were more people moving around than I had expected.

“Ah, you’re here! This is Shin Seon-han, our first-year who will be joining us. You all saw him briefly at the year-end party, right?”

Dr. Ma Dong-seop, wearing a headlight and medical loupes [magnifying glasses used in surgery], introduced me to the people.

“Hello, I’m Shin Seon-han, and I’ll be working as a first-year starting in March.”

I bowed my head and greeted the people in the operating room.

‘The people over there seem to be the anesthesiologists, and the rest are probably the operating room nurses, surgical assistants, and perfusionists [specialists who operate the heart-lung machine during surgery]…’

Since it was my first time, I didn’t know who was who.

But since they were definitely members of the thoracic surgery team, I politely greeted everyone.

“Ah, you’re the doctor that Dr. Dong-seop always praises!”

Everyone exchanged eye contact while busy with their respective tasks.

“Nice to meet you, Doctor!”

Some greeted me so happily…

“Be careful of contamination. Don’t cross over there!”

But there was also a nurse who greeted me with a picky tone without even saying hello.

“Ah, yes, I’ll be careful.”

The patient was already anesthetized and lying straight (supine position), and even draped.

“Hey, friend, you’re busy, but just watch the sternotomy [surgical procedure where the breastbone is cut open] and go!”

“Ah, yes, Doctor.”

I quickly replied to Ma Dong-seop’s shout.

Sternotomy.

It is an essential incision method for heart surgery, and there are various methods.

The most commonly used basic method is the median sternotomy that Dr. Ma Dong-seop mentioned.

It is a procedure to cut the sternum in the middle of the chest vertically, and it can be seen as the first step in heart surgery.

“You don’t have to wash your hands and come to see it; just bring a footstool and stand on it to watch.”

“I understand.”

I dragged a step stool over and stood on it, watching Dr. Ma Dong-seop’s fingertips.

‘I was wondering why he suddenly called me to the operating room… he was trying to show me this.’

I felt grateful in my heart.

Even though he was busy, Dr. Ma Dong-seop took care of me like a parent trying to give their child another piece of rice cake [a Korean expression for showing extra care and attention].

Now that we were officially family, he seemed to want to help me become a full-fledged member as soon as possible.

“Scalpel!”

Swoosh—

Dr. Ma Dong-seop began to cut the patient’s chest vertically in the middle with a scalpel.

Zzzzzz—

The sound of the bovie [electrocautery device] burning some of the patient’s fat and muscle could be heard.

And after a while, the sternum in the middle of the patient’s chest was exposed.

Then, Ma Dong-seop received a large metal object from the nurse and held it in his right hand.

“Now, look. This is called a sternotomy saw.”

It looked like a gun.

But what was attached to the end was a saw blade.

Ma Dong-seop held it in the air and pressed the handle button on the object he was holding in his right hand.

Weeee—

Like the sound of an industrial grinder motor turning, the electric saw blade began to spin each time the handle button was pressed.

‘It doesn’t look like a medical device because the doctor is holding it…’

Although it was covered by a mask, I could tell that he was smiling.

He began to saw the patient’s sternum from the lower chest to the top with the electric saw.

Vroom—

The saw cut the patient’s sternum in the center, and blood flowed from the cut bone surface.

Watching Ma Dong-seop’s sawing, which ended in an instant, I thought.

‘Wow… is it okay to cut a person’s chest bone with a saw like that?’

It was such a violent scene that I couldn’t help but think that.

“Did you see that? This is called a median sternotomy.”

He said in a loud voice and began to stop the bleeding from the cut sternum surface.

Soon, after completing the hemostasis [stopping the bleeding] process, he used a sternum retractor to open the cut bone.

Click—

The sight of turning the handle clockwise to open the cut sternum bone overlapped with the scene of Master Poong opening the chest in Gokdam [fictional place, likely from a previous story or reference].

‘So this is what it means to be a thoracic surgeon…!’

As I was admiring it, the heart revealed itself under the opened bone.

‘…!’

Of course, it wasn’t the first time I had seen a living, beating heart, but it was a little different from before.

The heart I saw in the surgery with Master Poong in Gokdam was a heart viewed from the side.

‘At that time, I had surgery by incising the chest from the side…’

This time, it was a heart viewed by approaching the front of the patient lying straight.

Unlike Gokdam, the scene in front of me was new and surprising.

“How is it? Did you see it well? When you become a first-year, you will be doing the sternotomy you just saw. If you look up some books and videos, it will be helpful.”

“…Yes.”

I answered briefly, but my heart was pounding even more.

Tension? Trembling?

No. Rather, there was more anticipation and excitement.

I was so happy that I could finally become a surgeon participating in heart surgery.

‘…It’s on a different level.’

I carefully organized the scenes I had just seen in my head.

Finally, I realized that I had come to the thoracic surgery adult heart part.

* * *

If the esophagogastric [esophagus and stomach] part is in the cancer center, the adult heart and pediatric heart parts are located in the main building.

Not only is the location different, but the heart side and the esophagogastric side are in the same thoracic surgery department, but it felt quite different.

Should I say it felt a little more raw than the esophagogastric part?

The professors had a strong rough and wild feel.

“Hey, you bastard, you should have just opened the chest in the ICU [Intensive Care Unit]!”

“What’s the potassium level?! I can’t hear you, speak up!”

“Which XX determined the warfarin [blood thinner] dose yesterday?!”

Following the rounds from the ward to the ICU, it was common to hear these rough voices.

Here, I am already a prospective first-year who has been confirmed for thoracic surgery.

Therefore, I had to learn little by little about ICU work and operating room work.

The life as a full-fledged thoracic surgery resident was beginning.

‘And… I have to take care of pediatric heart patients as well.’

Lee Seul-gi.

The patient I saw in the prophetic dream two months ago.

That patient will definitely be hospitalized in January.

The CPR [Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation] situation that made Dr. Ahn Kyung-shik sit on the floor and cry will happen.

To prepare for that situation, I was setting a goal in my heart.

‘Let’s grow as much as possible within a month!’

When that day comes, I can’t be an ordinary intern.

I have to be a full-fledged thoracic surgery resident.

Only then can I be of even a little help.

‘This month won’t be easy… or maybe it will be the most difficult month.’

I steeled myself in my heart.

In the meantime, should I say it was fortunate?

Fortunately, there was a Spartan teaching assistant named Ma Dong-seop next to me.

A few days later.

When a patient came up to the ward through the emergency room, Ma Dong-seop suddenly said.

“First surgery tomorrow, patient Kim Deok-sang. Would you like to try the sternotomy?”

…Already?

I didn’t know the opportunity would come this quickly.