Dr. Shin Seonhan: The Doctor Who Sees The Future [EN]: Chapter 199

#199 The Eye of the Hawk, the Hand of a Woman, the Heart of a Lion (2)

“Tch, suddenly CPR… it’s ruining my coffee.”

Thud!

Dr. Baek roughly set down his coffee cup.

Was it just me, or did the term ‘CPR’ sound like a curse word because of his unique, rough way of speaking?

The announcement continued urgently, repeating itself.

“It seems like there’s a problem in the emergency room. Come to think of it, Professor Baek hasn’t heard these hospital announcements in a while, has he…?”

The hospital director, who was about to lift his coffee cup, couldn’t finish his sentence.

Tap-tap-

Before he knew it, Baek Ui-sin had sprung up from his seat and was heading out the door.

“Professor Baek, where are you going?”

Instead of answering, Baek Ui-sin tapped his ear with his finger.

The hospital director thought for a moment before he could interpret the meaning.

That seemed to be what he meant.

It seemed that the option of not rushing over after hearing the CPR announcement didn’t even exist in his mind.

“Professor Baek, you haven’t even officially returned yet, and you’re already working? Our residents and fellows are perfectly capable of handling things on their own…”

“Trust them, you say?”

Twitch-

The hospital director’s temple twitched.

Was it because of his long-standing inferiority complex?

Baek Ui-sin’s casually uttered words didn’t sit well with him at all.

That’s how it sounded to the hospital director.

Of course, it could be an overinterpretation, but…

Considering Baek Ui-sin’s personality, it was a perfectly plausible thing for him to say.

“Anyway, let’s continue our conversation later!”

“Yes, we should hold a welcome party for you when you officially return, right?”

“Forget it. A welcome party, my foot.”

Clunk, Bang!

The door to the director’s office nearly broke.

Baek Ui-sin stormed out with the force of a rocket being launched.

On the table, the coffee cup that Baek Ui-sin had left behind was sloshing.

‘That guy’s personality is still the same.’

The hospital director gave a bitter smile.

Baek Ui-sin.

Even after all these years, his brash personality hadn’t changed.

No, it was more like he had recharged and become even more energetic.

He wished that Baek would just blend in with the people around him and finish out his career in a normal way, considering his age, but…

‘There’s no way he’d stay quiet like that.’

He was such an eccentric person.

Of course, that was probably the secret to his popularity.

Outside the hospital, he was considered a symbol of the Korean medical community.

However, his reputation inside the hospital was quite different.

Baek Ui-sin was always like a nail sticking out.

To some, he was a doctor who acted like he was the only one who was great, and to others, he was a thorn in their side.

‘He suddenly comes back today and makes strange suggestions.’

Swish-

He picked up the paper next to the coffee cup.

Notes where Baek Ui-sin had roughly explained his plans.

He already had a headache.

The previous hospital director had said that Baek Ui-sin was the most difficult person to deal with, and now he knew why.

“Honestly, no one asked him to come back, but he suddenly decides to return…”

Taking advantage of the fact that no one was listening, the hospital director grumbled inwardly.

In any case, it was already unavoidable.

He didn’t know where they got the information, but several reporters were already contacting the public relations team.

Until now, they had been responding with ‘nothing has been confirmed,’ but they couldn’t do that anymore.

It was time to use it proactively.

He picked up the phone.

“Yes, PR Team Leader. Let’s talk for a moment. You know that interview that SBC did with our intern? This time, in relation to Professor Baek’s return…”

Like the tide coming in, change was slowly approaching Yeonguk University Hospital.

* * *

5 minutes ago.

Yeo Bong-cheol in the emergency room of Yeonguk University Hospital was frantically busy.

Come to think of it, January was always like this.

Because the existing 4th-year residents went to the back room to study for the specialist exam, the number of doctors decreased.

Residents called this period the ‘barley pass’ [a difficult time of year when food is scarce].

In short, a manpower shortage.

Moreover, seeing the way the prospective 1st-year residents acted, he felt frustrated and his blood boiled.

“Hey! Get your act together!”

“I’m sorry.”

“How are you going to handle it if you can’t even properly see a patient with abdominal pain? You’re a PGY1 [Post-Graduate Year 1, an intern], are you going to be like this even when you become a resident? Is the ER a joke?”

ER.

An abbreviation for Emergency Room.

When heard in Yeo Bong-cheol’s unique dialect, the intonation was unique.

After scolding the intern for a long time, Yeo Bong-cheol returned to the station and muttered.

“Tch… I should have brought Shin-seon to the ER.”

He missed Shin-seon, who had been quick-witted, today.

The intern that Yeo Bong-cheol had been most closely watching last year.

If he taught him one thing, he would know ten.

However, he was taken over by the sly Ma Dong-seop and fell into cardiothoracic surgery.

“Sigh, what’s the use of longing for the fish I missed… Let’s get to work.”

Meanwhile, in one corner of the emergency room.

There was a patient who didn’t look good.

Was he in his mid-60s?

A gaunt man was lying on the emergency room bed, panting.

The shallow beads of sweat gathered on his forehead suggested the patient’s current condition.

The bespectacled female guardian was sitting with a worried look, then took a sip of water from the water purifier in the corner of the emergency room.

From her gestures, which didn’t seem awkward in a hospital, it was clear that she had been to Yeonguk University Hospital quite often.

“…Sigh.”

The 2nd-year resident in emergency medicine, who had examined the patient, returned to the station with a serious expression.

Then, he cautiously spoke to Yeo Bong-cheol, who was now the chief.

“Sir.”

“What?”

“Jang Jae-seong’s fever isn’t going down, the labs are abnormal, and I did a culture, but…”

“Huh, really?”

“I started the antibiotics, though.”

“Where do you think the fever focus is?”

At Yeo Bong-cheol’s immediate question, the resident scratched his head uncertainly.

“Well, that’s…”

“What do you mean, well? Tch.”

“Ah, but it’s really difficult. This patient had a pneumonectomy [surgical removal of a lung] at TS [Thoracic Surgery] three months ago, and then he had an Eloesser procedure two weeks ago, but I’ve never seen it before.”

“What? Eloesser?”

Click- Click-

Yeo Bong-cheol’s expression, looking at the chart while clicking the mouse, was unusual.

“Ha, Eloesser procedure…”

Yeo Bong-cheol scratched his nose and opened the patient’s chest CT scan.

The Eloesser procedure.

A method devised by Dr. Eloesser in 1935, which involves creating a hole (thoracostomy window) on one side of the chest.

It’s not a small hole where a finger-thick chest tube goes in, but a hole the size of a person’s fist.

Through this hole, pus can be drained and disinfected.

The Eloesser procedure was first devised to drain empyema [collection of pus in the space between the lung and the inner surface of the chest wall] caused by tuberculosis in the chest cavity.

This was because there was no suitable treatment for tuberculosis at the time.

Currently, with the development of various tuberculosis treatments, it is a surgery performed for drainage in chronic empyema.

“I’ve only heard about it, but this is the first time I’ve seen a patient like this.”

“I saw it once two years ago, and this is the first time since then.”

In theory, it’s simple.

If pus fills somewhere in the body? The basic treatment is to drain the pus.

In this patient’s case, the area is just ‘inside the chest cavity.’

A patient who had a right pneumonectomy due to lung cancer, and then the empty right chest cavity became infected, and a bronchopleural fistula [an abnormal connection between the bronchus and the pleural space] (a condition in which a defect occurs in the bronchial section, creating a path connecting to the chest cavity) occurred, and he underwent the procedure.

After being discharged from the hospital, he came to the emergency room with a fever while managing it at home.

“Looking at the CT, the right lung has been completely cut off, and there’s a hole in the right side of his chest.”

Yeo Bong-cheol clicked his tongue.

He was discharged from the hospital with a hole in his chest and had been living at home?

It’s surprising, but it’s true.

He would have been disinfecting the inside of his chest cavity through a large hole that could fit a fist.

This is because it takes several weeks or more to manage it himself, putting disinfected gauze into the chest cavity and taking it out.

A situation where this patient has a fever and bacteria are growing in his blood.

In other words, it means that the infection caused by the empyema in the right chest cavity has begun to spread throughout the body.

“It seems like he’s progressing to sepsis [a life-threatening condition caused by the body’s response to an infection]? We need to call TS (cardiothoracic surgery) down here quickly to take a look.”

Just as Yeo Bong-cheol was about to pick up the phone.

Suddenly, a nurse’s surprised voice is heard from Jang Jae-seong’s side.

“Doctor! I can’t check his blood pressure! He’s in arrest!”

“What?!”

The wife, who was right next to the patient, is also flustered and doesn’t know what to do.

Tap-tap-

Yeo Bong-cheol and the 2nd-year emergency room resident rush to the patient.

“What? Suddenly in arrest? He wasn’t in a state to go over so quickly?!”

“Move him to the resuscitation room and send out a CPR broadcast for cardiothoracic surgery!”

Yeo Bong-cheol shouted, and at the same time, the emergency room resident began chest compressions.

Thump, Thump!

But a problem occurs.

When chest compressions are performed, red blood is seen coming out of the right chest area of the tracksuit he is wearing.

Everyone is surprised by the unexpected situation.

“What, is there bleeding from the chest?”

Yeo Bong-cheol quickly tears the patient’s clothes.

Ziiiip-

And after a while, everyone’s eyes widened.

“Gasp…”

Of course, they know it in theory.

But seeing it in person, the visual was quite shocking.

It was like there was a cave in a person’s body.

And in that cave, there is blood-stained gauze.

The gauze in the Eloesser window (hole) in the right chest is full of red blood, and the blood that has not been absorbed is flowing out of the body.

“Did something burst inside his chest? Emergency transfusion! Let’s start with the volume!!”

Yeo Bong-cheol shouted in an excited voice, and the broadcast began to ring throughout the hospital.

Thump, Thump!

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation continues.

Because this is the only way to supply blood flow to the patient’s entire body.

But like a broken jar, blood continues to leak out of the large hole in the body.

Gurgle, Gurgle!

As chest compressions are added, the bleeding also increases in rhythm.

“Oh no, this is a mess…!”

“I, is it okay to keep doing this? It seems like the bleeding is continuing through this hole?”

“…For now, let’s do compressions while following the volume! Contact TS one more time!!”

Yeo Bong-cheol shouts loudly in a firm voice.

But he couldn’t hide his embarrassment either.

Kongjwi at least had a toad to block the bottomless jar [a Korean folktale reference, implying a hopeless situation]… what do we do now?

The emergency room was in chaos due to the sudden and unusual situation.

* * *

17th floor, cardiothoracic surgery ward.

I looked up from writing a patient’s prescription at the station.

“Cardiothoracic surgery CPR!”

Thud!

I jumped up from my chair.

Then, Shin Sang-mi, who was staring at the chart with unfocused eyes next to me, grumbled.

“Hey, it’s an emergency room CPR, do we have to go? We’re still TS interns in terms of our affiliation.”

“What are you talking about, we’re cardiothoracic surgery people now.”

Before Shin Sang-mi could finish speaking, I was grabbing my gown and running out.

“Hey, wait up! What am I supposed to do if you go alone?”

Tap-tap-

Shin Sang-mi grumbled and belatedly followed me.

We quickly grabbed the intensive care unit elevator and headed to the first-floor emergency room.