Dr. Shin Seonhan: The Doctor Who Sees The Future [EN]: Chapter 85

#85 Breath (16)

11 PM.

The cardiothoracic surgery ward was deserted.

A nurse, who happened to be passing by the elevator, noticed me and asked,

“Dr. Seonhan, what brings you here?”

“Oh, I have something to ask the resident doctors.”

“At this hour?”

The nurse looked surprised.

Well, it was 11 PM.

“Last time, you were asking to borrow surgical tools… You’re really dedicated. The doctors should be in the on-call room right now.”

“Yes, thank you.”

I bowed my head and moved on.

‘Who’s on duty today?’

I headed to the station to check the duty roster.

Just then, someone called out to me.

“Oh, what brings you here so late?”

The one who called me was Dr. Ahn Gyeong-sik, wearing thick glasses.

A first-year resident.

The very person who was thoroughly grilled by Professor Threshing Machine from day one.

We weren’t particularly close, but I had seen him around quite a bit.

‘Maybe Dr. Ahn Gyeong-sik can give me some hints?’

Of course, he’s just a first-year resident, but he probably has more experience than I do.

Just as I was about to ask, Dr. Ahn spoke first.

“Perfect timing. It was a bit too much for us to eat alone.”

“Excuse me?”

Dr. Ahn grinned and pointed to the large plastic bag he was holding.

Then, he said something I couldn’t refuse.

“Do you like jokbal [braised pig’s trotters] and bossam [boiled pork belly]?”

* * *

Cardiothoracic surgery on-call room.

A space prepared for the on-call residents.

It consisted of several desks, a small table, and bunk beds.

Computers were also installed so that they could check the patient’s EMR (Electronic Medical Record) at any time.

“Come on in, come on in!”

“Yes.”

I followed Dr. Ahn into the on-call room, looking around.

‘So, this is the on-call room.’

It was my first time, as an intern, to see this place.

Traces of life could be felt everywhere in the small room.

Blood-stained surgical gowns lying on the floor.

A trash can about to overflow.

Various books and printed papers messily placed on the desk.

The refrigerator door was covered with magnets with delivery food numbers written on them.

It was really like the on-call room I had seen in dramas.

To put it nicely, it was a space with a human touch…….

To be honest, it was a mess.

Of course, when I’m mindlessly busy, my dorm is often a complete disaster, so I don’t have much to say.

“Sunbae-nim [term for senior colleague]~ I brought late-night snacks!”

Ahn Gyeong-sik said excitedly.

Then, something lying on the lower bunk of the bed stirred.

Rustle—

I was startled.

I thought it was just a pile of clothes, but a person came out from inside.

Looking closely, it was Dr. Song Yu-ju.

She was small and thin, so I couldn’t see her well.

“When are you going to stop calling me ‘Sunbae-nim’ in that cringey way?”

“Come on, once a sunbae-nim, always a sunbae-nim. How much have I respected you since I was a little med school newbie—”

“Stop talking nonsense and let’s eat.”

Song Yu-ju, with a face still half-asleep, was cleaning the table when she suddenly noticed me and said,

“Jinjeonghan?”

“…Sin Seon-han.”

I wonder when she’ll get my name right.

Surely she’s not doing it on purpose, is she?

“Ah, Sunbae-nim, I found him wandering around the ward station, so I brought him here. It seemed like a bit too much for us to eat alone.”

“Good job.”

“Hehe.”

Dr. Ahn Gyeong-sik smiled and unpacked the food on the table.

Then, with an anxious expression, he asked Song Yu-ju.

“Sunbae-nim, by the way, you do remember my name properly, right? We’ve known each other for years, surely……”

“Glasses.”

“……Sniffle.”

“Don’t stand there making a fuss, just sit down and eat.”

Dr. Ahn sat on the sofa with a sad expression and unwrapped the packaging.

I also took a seat next to him and helped set up the packaged food.

Then, as if he had never been gloomy, Dr. Ahn spoke to me in a cheerful voice.

“Come to think of it, we haven’t even properly introduced ourselves! I’m Ahn Gyeong-sik.”

“Sin Seon-han.”

“I know. You’re famous! They say you’re already doing things that even I, a first-year resident, struggle with?”

“Not at all.”

I poured a drink into a paper cup and smiled awkwardly.

It could have been an awkward situation.

But thanks to Dr. Ahn Gyeong-sik’s non-stop chatter, I was able to talk comfortably.

“This jokbal and bossam is really delicious. Think of it as learning something good today and give it a try.”

‘Is it that good?’

I picked up my chopsticks after seeing the residents start eating.

“Thank you for the meal.”

With that, I put a piece of jokbal in my mouth.

Wow…….

It’s shocking.

The chewy, fatty meat melts softly on my tongue.

It’s a taste that makes the worries of the world disappear for a moment.

I almost forgot the real reason I came up to the ward.

“How is it?”

“It’s amazing.”

As I exclaimed, Dr. Ahn Gyeong-sik smiled and started mixing the spicy noodles.

“Right? This is Dr. Song Yu-ju’s favorite jokbal place.”

“Why are you saying such nonsense? What’s he going to do with that information?”

Huh? That’s high-quality information.

I think Ryu Myeong-in would be ecstatic if I told him this?

I briefly considered selling this information to Ryu Myeong-in, but then stopped.

If I told him, he might just buy jokbal for every meal and offer it as tribute.

“Anyway, if you’re curious about good restaurants in the future, just ask me! I may still be lacking in cardiothoracic surgery knowledge, but I’ve got a firm grasp on the delivery food restaurants in the area!”

“Such a boast.”

Dr. Song Yu-ju chided from the side, and Ahn Gyeong-sik scratched his head with an embarrassed expression.

‘Come to think of it, Dr. Song Yu-ju eats late-night snacks too.’

I glanced at Dr. Song Yu-ju across from me.

It was fascinating.

Is it because of her robotic image?

I somehow had the impression that she would only consume fixed nutrients at fixed times…….

It seems that Song Yu-ju is also an ordinary person when you get to know her.

“By the way, what were you doing in the ward earlier? There’s no patient in bad condition, is there?”

Dr. Ahn asked me.

I had been thinking about the right timing to ask a question, so I immediately said,

“Actually, I had something I was personally curious about, so I was going to ask the resident doctors.”

“What is it? Tell me.”

‘How should I explain it?’

I have to give the most natural reason possible.

I paused for a moment before saying,

“…I happened to see a lung photo on a search engine, and the entire lung was completely black. I was wondering what kind of case that would be.”

Then the two of them looked at me with strange expressions.

It was like looking at an unknown creature discovered in the deep sea.

“That’s all?”

“Yes.”

“You came to the ward at this hour because you were curious about that?”

“Well… I can’t sleep if I have something I’m curious about.”

“Puhaha.”

Dr. Ahn laughed as if it was funny and said,

“There are a lot of rumors that you’re a bit of a unique character, and it seems that’s true. Anyway, the entire lung was black?”

“Yes.”

“People who smoke a lot might have black blotches on the surface of their lungs.”

Dr. Ahn began to speculate.

It’s a natural reaction.

When you say a lung is black, you usually think of a lung covered in black spots caused by heavy smoking.

But, no.

I also know roughly what the lungs of a heavy smoker look like.

But…….

The image I saw in my dream was a little different.

Moreover, there’s no way Song-yi’s lungs, who hasn’t even put a cigarette in her mouth, could have changed that much in two weeks.

It’s impossible even if she smoked cigarettes non-stop for the remaining two weeks.

“I don’t think it was like that… It wasn’t a dirty black spot, but the entire lung was uniformly black.”

At my words, Dr. Ahn Gyeong-sik continued, puzzled.

“Hmm… Or, if a tumor gets too big, the inside can become necrotic and turn into a blackish-brown mud. So, a tumor could look black in the place where the lung should be? It didn’t look like black mud, did it?”

A tumor?

I thought for a moment.

Did a tumor grow that big in Song-yi’s lung in just two weeks?

That doesn’t make sense either.

If there was a tumor, it would have been seen during the surgery a few days ago.

I continued the question.

“No, I don’t think so. I tried to find the picture again, but I couldn’t find it.”

“Hmm.”

“Is it possible that blood doesn’t flow to the lungs? I was wondering if it could turn that black if blood doesn’t flow.”

“Well……?”

Dr. Ahn scratched his head as if he wasn’t sure.

‘Was it too much after all?’

There’s a limit to trying to explain it with words alone.

This is like…….

It’s like describing someone’s appearance with words alone and asking a painter to draw a portrait.

Then Dr. Song Yu-ju said,

“Torsion.”

“Excuse me?”

“Lobar torsion can rot to that extent.”

Ah……!

My eyes widened.

It felt like I had been hit in the back of the head.

Then Dr. Ahn Gyeong-sik asked, as if he didn’t understand well.

“Sunbae-nim, torsion?”

“First time hearing about it?”

“Well, I think I learned it a long time ago, but I’m not sure… I think I’ll remember it soon if Sunbae-nim explains it… Hehe.”

“In simple terms.”

Song Yu-ju picked up the packaging bag next to her.

Then, she put air in it to make it puffy and said,

“This is the patient’s lung.”

Crumple!

Suddenly, Song Yu-ju twisted the opening of the bag around once, as if twisting a chicken’s neck.

“What if the patient’s lung can’t stay still in its place and turns like this? What would happen?”

“Ah…….”

“Air wouldn’t pass through, and blood wouldn’t pass through either.”

At our words, Song Yu-ju nodded.

“That’s right. It’s obvious that air can’t pass through, and the tissue itself gradually rots because blood doesn’t circulate. We express this as the lung has turned [lobar torsion].”

Only then was I able to understand the meaning of what Yeo Bong-cheol and Ma Dong-seop had said in my dream.

It’s completely turned, hasn’t it?

It’s turned.

‘That’s what it meant!’

I just thought it was an exclamation…….

Literally, it meant that the lung had turned around once in the body.

‘Right. Why didn’t I think of this sooner? It’s a perfectly possible thing!’

Song-yi has had one-third of her lung removed.

In other words, it means that there is a ‘empty space’ near the lung that wasn’t there before.

What does it mean to have space?

It means that the lung can move that much!

The remaining right lung could unexpectedly twist and turn.

“Wow, Sunbae-nim, does that actually happen? I’ve never seen a patient like that before.”

“It happens. Especially after a right upper lobectomy [surgical removal of a lobe of the lung], it’s common for the right middle lobe to turn.”

I recalled the surgery Song-yi had received.

It was the very surgery that Dr. Song Yu-ju had just mentioned.

‘Song-yi had a right upper lobectomy!’

The puzzle pieces fell into place.

I think I found the answer.

Soon after, Dr. Ahn Gyeong-sik asked exactly what I wanted to ask.

“Then what happens if it becomes torsion?”

“What do you mean what happens? Of course, you have to do emergency surgery.”

Dr. Song Yu-ju answered simply, as if it were nothing.

I continued the question.

“Doctor. Then what happens if you receive treatment too late in the state of torsion?”

“Why? Do you know a patient?”

“……Excuse me?”

“You’re talking like you’re worried because there’s a real patient like that.”

Dr. Song Yu-ju’s eyes were shining sharply like a famous detective in a mystery comic, and she was looking at me.