Dr. Shin Seonhan: The Doctor Who Sees The Future [EN]: Chapter 204

#204 Hawk Eyes, a Woman’s Touch, a Lion’s Heart (7)

Seulgi’s mom, Jihye, was a single mother.

A so-called ‘unwed mother.’

She hated that term.

Because she felt the social stigma, as if people were looking at someone greatly lacking.

‘I am not lacking anything as a mother.’

From the moment she decided to have the child, she had to fight against prejudice.

‘How are you going to raise her alone?’

‘Can a child grow up properly without a father?’

‘Aren’t you being too irresponsible? Aren’t you thinking about how the child will feel later?’

Every time she heard such things, she made a resolution.

To raise Seulgi without any lack.

To raise her into the most wonderful daughter in the world, just to show them.

Perhaps that was why.

When she heard that Seulgi had a congenital heart defect, she felt like the world was collapsing.

“Yes, doctor. I’m on my way now.”

In the small SUV, Jihye spoke, holding the phone.

In the driver’s seat, her older sister, who had rushed over, was gripping the steering wheel with an anxious expression.

The child, who had been discharged after scheduling surgery in four months, suddenly deteriorated.

She seemed to be breathing faster as time went on, and the oxygen saturation level, which usually hovered around 85, was indicating 72.

Even that would drop endlessly when the baby started crying.

A hole had been drilled in her heart to barely maintain blood circulation, but even that was now precarious.

Jihye looked at Seulgi in her arms and said into the phone.

“If I go now, can she be admitted right away? The surgery… Yes, I understand.”

After hearing the answer from the pediatric cardiology coordinator nurse on the other end of the phone, she quickly hung up and checked on her child’s condition.

Cyanosis.

A phenomenon that occurs when the body lacks oxygen supply.

Why does my child have to suffer like this from the moment she was born?

“Seulgi, it’s okay.”

She held the baby’s hand, which seemed to be turning increasingly blue.

My one and only alter ego in the world.

How wonderful would it be if I could be sick instead?

She couldn’t count the number of nights she had spent with that thought.

“Ah, why is the road so blocked!”

Her older sister in the driver’s seat shouted.

It seemed to contain some frustration towards her younger sister.

*You should have listened to me and had it removed. Why did you give birth and go through this hardship?*

It felt like a rebuke filled with such upset was being conveyed through her voice.

“Seulgi, you’ll be okay.”

Once again, Jihye whispered.

Then, as if in response, the baby made eye contact with her mother.

Tears seemed to well up.

A child who had heard the story that she ‘should be erased’ dozens of times even before she was born.

Erase her?

How could I have erased her? You are so beautiful.

“No matter what anyone says, Mom won’t give up on you.”

Whenever her heart felt like it was collapsing, she thought.

*I am this child’s last breakwater.*

If I collapse, no one will support this child’s life.

“Mom will protect you.”

She resolutely raised her head.

The building of Yeonguk University Hospital was coming into view.

Besides herself, there were people inside waiting to support Seulgi’s life.

* * *

.

The most unique department even within thoracic surgery.

A child is a different life from an adult. Therefore, more experience and meticulousness are required than when seeing adult patients.

“Hello, Seonhan ssaem [Korean honorific for teacher or doctor]!”

“Hello.”

Dr. Ahn Gyeongshik had become an enthusiastic man since the last incident.

“I’m going to the pediatric cardiology department next month. It’s my first time rotating there, so I’m looking forward to it.”

In the Yeonguk University Hospital thoracic surgery training course, the pediatric cardiology department is a department that can only be rotated after the second year.

That much ‘another level’.

This field was not an area that could be easily approached.

“Professor Baek Euishin used to do pediatric heart surgery so amazingly well… I hope he’s still doing heart surgery, right?”

?

“I heard that he only does simple surgeries these days.”

To Dr. Ahn Gyeongshik’s chatter, a nurse who had been quietly listening to the story added a word from the side.

I was listening to their story without saying a word.

“While we’re on the subject, shall we go to the pediatric intensive care unit? Dr. Song Yuju is on pediatric duty, so let’s say hello?”

“Yes.”

I followed Dr. Ahn Gyeongshik to the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit.

Beep-

The door to the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit opened, and nurses were seen gathered on one side.

“Hello.”

When we greeted them, Dr. Song Yuju glanced at us once.

In the bed where people were gathered, a cute baby was lying down with an oxygen tube inserted into her nose, flailing her arms and legs.

“Wow- look how cute the baby is.”

While Dr. Ahn Gyeongshik approached the baby patient, I couldn’t help but be surprised when I saw the patient’s name.

The patient I saw in the pediatric NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) before.

The very patient who received CPR in the precognitive dream and made Dr. Ahn Gyeongshik sit down on the floor and cry.

‘She’s finally here!’

The bed that Lee Seulgi was lying on now was also the very place I saw in my dream.

Three months had passed, and this child had come to the hospital to undergo surgery.

Regardless of my surprise, Dr. Ahn Gyeongshik, who had not seen the future, asked Song Yuju in a bright voice.

“Sunbae [senior colleague], what kind of patient is this?”

His image of sitting on the floor and crying in the dream overlapped with his current cheerful face, making me feel strange.

Dr. Ahn Gyeongshik ran away and came back not long ago….

If something goes wrong again, will he really quit thoracic surgery?

Of course, what I’m more worried about is the baby’s current condition.

“TGA, VSD, PS patient. She had Atrial septostomy in October and was hospitalized this time for surgery.”

TGA (Transposition of Great Arteries).

VSD (Ventricular Septal Defect).

PS (Pulmonary Stenosis).

She has various congenital heart defects.

If I had heard it for the first time, my head would have gone blank with complicated diseases.

But since I had been studying the disease from time to time, I listened to their conversation without panicking.

“Ah, I remember! Isn’t that the patient Dr. Seonhan asked about before, by any chance?”

That’s right.

I asked Dr. Ahn Gyeongshik on the day I had my first precognitive dream.

In the case of a normal person.

Heart → Lungs → Heart → Whole body → Heart → Lungs…….

It is usually connected in one circulatory loop, and the heart delivers oxygen received from the lungs to the whole body.

However, in the case of a TGA (Transposition of the Great Arteries) patient, there are two circulatory loops in the body.

(1) Heart → Lungs → Heart → Lungs…….

(2) Heart → Whole body → Heart → Whole body…….

If these two circulatory loops do not mix with each other, our body will not be able to obtain oxygen.

Lee Seulgi was still too small and young to undergo major surgery.

As a temporary measure, a hole was drilled in her heart so that the circulatory loops could mix, and she came to the intensive care unit this time to receive complete correction.

“Pre-op patient, but she came to our intensive care unit?”

“Originally, we were going to raise her for about 4-5 months and then operate, but as you can see, the child is having trouble breathing. The saturation in room air is less than 80.”

“Oh my, this……”

Ahn Gyeongshik sighed as if he was upset.

Meanwhile, I looked at the baby in detail.

The baby was breathing fast, and the oxygen saturation checked on the monitor was low even though oxygen was being supplied.

“So you moved up the surgery date. And you’re seeing her in the intensive care unit just in case.”

“That’s right. Do you know how TGA treatment generally works?”

“Yes, I know.”

I nodded at Song Yuju’s question.

Basic TGA patients undergo within 1-2 weeks after birth.

It changes the position of the aorta and pulmonary artery so that blood can circulate in a normal form.

“That’s right. But if you have heart defects such as VSD and PS like this child, the story is completely different.”

Song Yuju’s expression was complicated as she said that.

“Having a stenosis (PS) in the path where the pulmonary artery exits means that there is a problem with the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT). So it’s not enough to just change the position of the aorta and pulmonary artery.”

In the treatment of TGA patients, what is most important in the end is to ensure that the connection and the connection can occur naturally.

However, since there is a stenosis in the path exiting the left ventricle, it meant that treatment could not be achieved with just the ‘arterial switch operation’.

“Um… then what should we do?”

Dr. Ahn Gyeongshik asked, raising his glasses.

“As we did with this child, first create a way for the systemic-pulmonary arterial blood to mix as a primary procedure.”

For now, the two parallel circulatory loops are connected so that oxygen can be delivered to the body, buying time until it is the right time for heart surgery.

“And then, later, we will perform a major surgery for complete correction. But……”

Song Yuju trailed off and added.

“……It is not decided what kind of surgery should be performed.”

“Yes?”

Ahn Gyeongshik widened his eyes.

Song Yuju was always characterized by speaking as if she was confident.

But not now.

That must mean it’s a difficult patient.

“There’s nothing in the textbook?”

“Various methods are 나와 있지 [listed]. But none of them are perfect yet.”

TGA, VSD, PS.

Despite the development of modern medicine, it was still an unsolved problem with no clear treatment.

Various surgical methods have been tried, but it is a disease in which no one can say that one is superior, and the controversy continues.

“Maybe it will be discussed at the conference tomorrow. They will discuss which method to use for the surgery.”

“Wow… I want to go in and see it too.”

Dr. Ahn Gyeongshik says.

It was natural to be curious about how Yeonguk University Hospital would solve one of the challenges in the field of pediatric heart disease.

I plucked up the courage and opened my mouth.

“Could I possibly attend if possible?”

Then the two people look at me strangely.

It was surprising that I, who had not even started my first year yet, said that I would participate in the pediatric heart conference.

“Well, come if you have time.”

Song Yuju nods slightly.

At the call that came at the right time, Dr. Ahn Gyeongshik headed to the adult cardiac intensive care unit, and I followed him.

‘I have to intervene somehow and change the future.’

In the face of the challenges of modern medicine, I had to issue a challenge just by seeing the future.

* * *

Pediatric Heart Conference.

It is a place where pediatrics, which deals with pediatric heart disease internally, and thoracic surgery, which approaches it surgically, discuss patients together.

All pediatric heart disease patients who may be subject to surgery are discussed at this meeting to determine the treatment policy.

“Then we will start the meeting.”

Today’s main topic is .

Perhaps because of the uniqueness of the disease, more doctors than expected were participating.

Professor Lee Yoonjung of Pediatrics, who does not neglect seeing patients even in the position of director.

Professor Ahn Youngwook, the most senior in the current thoracic surgery pediatric heart department.

Professor Heo Junim of Thoracic Surgery, who is increasing the number of heart surgery cases by going back and forth between adults and children.

In addition, many pediatric and thoracic surgery residents and fellows are filling the seats.

‘But, where is Professor Baek Euishin……?’

I looked around.

No matter how long I waited, he was not visible.

Of course, not all professors participate in the conference without exception. Because everyone has their own schedule.

But for such a difficult and important issue, Professor Baek, the leading authority in domestic heart surgery, is not visible?