Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 211

211. Diameter 10cm, Length 40cm

“I completely understand that you’re angry right now.”

“Understand? Do you know how I feel?”

In Tae-kyung’s mind, he was solely focused on persuading the guardian as quickly as possible.

“Look, Mr. Lee Min-woo! Please calm down and listen to me. We are actually taking on this responsibility to help your wife, even though we have no obligation to do so. It may be hard to believe, but the medical staff at our hospital, including myself, are helping your wife with pure intentions.”

“You! I looked it up earlier, and you’re from that hospital. You’re all in this together, aren’t you? Trying to get more patients here, aren’t you?”

Of course, he could think that way. But Tae-kyung felt wronged by the situation itself.

Compared to Shinhwa University Hospital, our hospital may be smaller and have fewer fancy facilities.

However, I dare to say that the skills of each medical staff member and their dedication to patients are greater than theirs.

This was especially true because we didn’t take in Ji-yeon Gam because the hospital was slow and there were no patients to operate on. We genuinely wanted to help.

Tae-kyung couldn’t reveal the inside story at Shinhwa University, so he was a little perplexed about how to persuade the guardian, who was understandably full of anger.

More than anything, Ji-yeon Gam’s condition was urgent, so he couldn’t afford to waste time like this.

From the moment he entered the hospital, the Fifth Vital [a heightened sense or ability to perceive danger or critical situations] was vibrating intensely.

Stage 4. The smell of formalin [a preservative fluid, often associated with medical settings and, in this context, a sign of serious illness or death].

He needed to persuade him quickly to proceed with the surgery.

“Excuse me, patient’s family…….”

“It’s okay. I’ll explain it.”

Nurse Lim Jeong-sook, who was next to him, tried to stop him, but Tae-kyung stopped her and continued.

“Your wife needs surgery urgently. I’ll explain everything after the surgery. So, let’s start with the surgery first…….”

“Listen! If you were in my position, would you be able to entrust the surgery comfortably? Huh?”

It was at that moment, when Lee Min-woo grabbed Tae-kyung’s doctor’s gown and raised his voice.

“You can trust him unconditionally.”

Everyone at the scene turned around at the sudden, deep voice.

“Ho, how did you get here…….”

Unlike the voice trying not to lose its composure, the person who came in with a flushed face was Congressman Gam Deok-chan.

He glanced at Lee Min-woo and walked straight to Tae-kyung. Then, he bowed 90 degrees.

“Hello? Dr. Kim Tae-kyung. I’m Gam Deok-chan.”

“Ah, yes. Hello.”

“We greeted each other once before, do you remember?”

“Me……. Ah!”

Tae-kyung looked closely at Gam Deok-chan’s face and realized who he was.

Once, when Se-young, a victim of child abuse, was hospitalized, his chief aide had asked for a photo along with a donation.

Gam Deok-chan was the one who apologized for the rudeness of the aide, who kept asking Tae-kyung, who refused at the time.

Even then, he didn’t feel the superior atmosphere typical of a member of the National Assembly, and Tae-kyung felt that he was different from others in the political world because of his sincere apology.

But Tae-kyung didn’t know why Gam Deok-chan had suddenly come.

“What brings you here, Congressman?”

“I see you remember me from your expression. Director, this friend is my son-in-law.”

“Yes?”

“Gam Ji-yeon, the patient who was urgently transferred from Shinhwa University Hospital, is my daughter.”

“Father! I’m sorry to interrupt, but what’s going on is…….”

“Lee Seo-bang [a respectful term for son-in-law]? I already know everything.”

“Yes?”

Lee Min-woo was even more surprised that his father-in-law had suddenly come without any contact between them, and that he knew everything.

In fact, he was so surprised by the news of his wife’s accident that he didn’t even think about contacting him.

“Ji-yeon didn’t want to see me, so I couldn’t contact her, but I’ve been watching the three of you live well. You may be angry and confused about this situation, but you should be grateful that you came to Director Kim Tae-kyung. Director?”

Leaving behind Lee Min-woo, who was dumbfounded by what was going on, Gam Deok-chan looked at Tae-kyung again.

“I’ve known Chairman Kim Geon-hyung for a long time. So I’ve often heard stories about you. Chairman Kim also praised you a lot, and Chief Lee told me. There are hardly any patients that the director can’t cure, and no one can save a patient that the director can’t handle.”

“No. That’s too much of a compliment.”

“Director. As a bad father who has never been a father, I beg you. Please save our Ji-yeon.”

Gam Deok-chan bowed his head with his hands respectfully folded, showing the heart of a parent desperate for their daughter’s well-being.

“Thank you for agreeing to the surgery.”

“Yes, I and the medical staff will do our best. Guardian, do you agree to your wife’s surgery?”

“Lee Seo-bang, trust me.”

“Yes……. Please take good care of my wife.”

After that, the surgical consent form and explanation proceeded quickly.

Tae-kyung, who was running out of time, hurried to the operating room with the medical staff.

“Are you okay……?”

“Yes? Yes. No, actually, I’m scared to death.”

Gam Deok-chan stroked Lee Min-woo’s shoulder as he watched the medical staff running.

“Don’t worry too much. You know best. Ji-yeon is a strong person.”

“I’m sorry.”

In fact, Lee Min-woo had been persuading his wife to go see his father-in-law.

Recently, his wife’s stubbornness had decreased, so he wanted to show her that he was living well with his daughter soon. But he couldn’t bring himself to look his father-in-law in the face after so many years.

It was as if he hadn’t been able to protect his wife.

“I’m really sorry. Father.”

“Lee Seo-bang, what do you have to be sorry for?”

“I feel like I couldn’t protect Ji-yeon.”

“Isn’t it the fault of that department store and Shinhwa University Hospital, not your fault?”

“Yes?”

“Isn’t that right? If such an accident happened in a luxury department store that had only been open for a few days, there’s a high probability that it was due to poor construction. And suddenly transferring a patient from a hospital where they were receiving treatment is also suspicious.”

Gam Deok-chan, who had seen all sorts of things in the dirty political world and had served four terms, was by no means an easy person.

“Lee Seo-bang?”

“Yes, Father.”

“I’m going to find everyone who made our Ji-yeon like that and make them pay the price. I’m going to use everything I can to hold those who committed this kind of act accountable, so don’t worry about anything. Right now, let’s just hope that Ji-yeon’s surgery goes well.”

Gam Deok-chan swallowed his anger with sharp eyes and worried about his daughter.

* * *

Tae-kyung entered the operating room and began gowning.

Ji-yeon Gam had already been put under general anesthesia under the direction of Euijin, and the surgical field was set up with sterilized disposable surgical drapes.

‘It’s toxic! It’s toxic!’

The operating room was filled with the sharp smell of formalin flowing from Ji-yeon Gam’s injured area.

Because there hadn’t been any serious trauma patients for a while, the familiar smell of formalin seemed more toxic today, invading his nostrils.

“Okay, give me the scalpel.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“Then let’s start the surgery.”

Tae-kyung makes a large incision above and below the glass structure protruding from the patient’s right abdomen.

“A really big piece of glass is stuck in there.”

“The mother’s love that made her jump in to save her daughter is really amazing.”

Euijin and Nurse Lim Jeong-sook looked at the glass stuck in Ji-yeon Gam’s abdomen and felt sorry for her.

“Bovie [electrocautery device]!”

Tae-kyung gradually cut through the muscle under the incised skin with an electrosurgical unit. At the same time, he cauterized the bleeding that was slowly flowing from the muscles with a Bovie to stop the bleeding.

“What’s the Bovie power now?”

“It’s currently 30.”

After confirming that it was the appropriate power, he cut the muscles again, followed by the fascia [a layer of fibrous tissue] and the peritoneum [the membrane lining the abdominal cavity] underneath.

“Richardson [a type of surgical retractor] please.”

Choi Mo-na was using the Richardson to pull the retracted abdominal wall to both sides. Looking inside the stomach, blood was thickly clotted.

“Okay, let’s focus now, give me the Debakey [a type of surgical forceps] and cover the ultrasound with sterilization.”

Tae-kyung began to pick up the visible blood clots and pieces of glass one by one with forceps and take them out.

And while moving the small intestine around the large glass structure in the center, he looked closely at the bottom and let out a sigh of relief.

“Ha! Fortunately, all the major blood vessels were avoided.”

He was grateful that the major blood vessels were not damaged.

“Okay, now I’m going to pull out this glass. One, two, three!”

Swoosh-

With the count, a broken glass structure with a diameter of 10cm and a length of about 40cm was pulled out of Ji-yeon Gam’s abdomen.

It was so big that the patient’s back wall was also pierced, so suturing was naturally necessary after the surgery.

“Oh my gosh! A really big piece of glass was stuck in there……. If the patient hadn’t shielded her daughter, it would have fallen on the child.”

“Literally, the mother’s love saved the child.”

“Choi-ssam [term of endearment for Choi] is right. This is really motherhood and a miracle.”

The medical staff all threw in a word with surprise as they looked at the missing glass structure.

“Okay! The surgery isn’t over yet. Everyone, let’s focus.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“Give me a lot of tabs [surgical gauze]. Just give me that whole bunch.”

“Okay.”

Tae-kyung first pushed the gauze in to stop the bleeding from the back wall.

He wanted to push in a bunch of gauze, but he couldn’t for the patient’s sake.

He was worried that the broken pieces of glass would be pushed and damage other organs.

So he was carefully pushing it in deeply with forceps.

“Doctor, the view is not good.”

Choi Mo-na was right.

The bleeding caused by the glass fragments had become clotted, making the view poor.

However, he couldn’t freely irrigate [wash with saline solution] because of the fragments.

Tae-kyung first grabbed the cut surface with an instrument to prevent the contents from flowing out of the cut small intestine to prevent infection.

Postponing the restoration of all the damage caused by the glass piercing, it was important to remove all the broken pieces of glass one by one first.

This was the most important thing now, and restoration was next.

“It looks like it will take quite a while to remove all the pieces.”

“The patient came all the way to our hospital to live, so we have to do it no matter how long it takes.”

As Tae-kyung said just now, it was obvious that this process would take a very long time.

This is because he had to check everything one by one with ultrasound and remove even the smallest pieces.

The reason is that those pieces would obviously damage the surrounding organs. So, for the patient’s sake, he had no choice but to carefully remove the pieces of glass one by one.

“As you all expected, the surgery will take quite a long time. It will be difficult, but don’t let your guard down and do your best to the end. Okay! Give me the ultrasound.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

Giving strength to the operating room staff, Tae-kyung looked at the machine and very carefully moved the small intestine around.

And in the middle, he removes the pieces of glass in his stomach.

Since it is most important to do the surgery thoroughly now, he checked and checked again for a long time.

Tick- Tick-

An hour passed and two hours passed with the small sound of glass colliding with each other.

Sweat was quickly forming on Tae-kyung’s serious and sharp eyes, which were focused on removing the small glass, and the nurse was quickly wiping it off.

Again, time passed in the operating room, and four hours had passed since the glass fragments were removed.

“Ha!”

Tae-kyung, who had been working in the same position for four hours, raised his head and let out a short sigh.