Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 241

241. Is This Even Possible?

‘Was I feeling wrong? Is this the first time something’s off?’

I wondered if the Fifth Vital [Tae-kyung’s intuition or sixth sense, often reliable in medical situations], which had never been wrong before, was mistaken. But even if that were the case, as a doctor, Tae-kyung’s intuition kept nagging at him.

‘Ha! This is driving me crazy.’

It was an uncomfortable feeling, like an invisible thread stuck in his eye.

“Okay! Give me the suture to close the abdomen.”

As soon as Tae-kyung finished speaking, the suture for closing the lowest layer of the abdomen was handed over, the needle already secured in a needle holder.

“……!”

However, Tae-kyung, who received the needle holder, didn’t move.

“Doctor, what’s wrong?”

Lee Chan-hee asked, curious about his momentary pause.

“I think I need to check something.”

“Yes? We’re all done, though?”

“No, there’s still one place we haven’t checked.”

“Where?”

“The stomach and liver!”

“The, the stomach and liver!!!!”

Lee Chan-hee reacted with much greater surprise than usual.

“Why are you so surprised?”

“To be honest, I was wondering whether I should suggest checking the stomach and liver, since I couldn’t find anything strange no matter how much I looked.”

Lee Chan-hee didn’t have any specific medical reason; he just thought it might be worth checking the stomach and liver since nothing seemed wrong.

“Why are you hesitating? You should speak up in such cases.”

“The chances are high that we won’t find anything even if we look, right?”

“Still, let’s check. We need to check everything. Opening the abdomen is a burden for the patient, so let’s examine everything since we’ve already opened it.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

In fact, the large intestine they had checked earlier was illogical in terms of distance and direction, but the stomach was even more absurd.

Simply put, the direction wasn’t even towards the stomach. And the main reason they hadn’t looked at the stomach and liver until now was that it required making more incisions.

It could only be seen by making further incisions from the initial wound.

However, simply closing the abdomen felt unsettling as a doctor, and the Fifth Vital, which was teasing his senses like a game of hide-and-seek, was significant. And above all, he wanted to find the cause of the patient’s persistent pain.

Tae-kyung made additional incisions in the abdomen and examined it meticulously again.

Then, just as his gaze moved from the bottom to the top of the stomach, that’s when it happened.

“Huh!?”

“……!”

In that instant, both Tae-kyung and Lee Chan-hee were astonished.

“Ha!”

“No!”

A sense of bewilderment spread across their faces, and that bewilderment burst from their mouths.

“W, what on earth…….”

“How could this be? Seriously!”

“Oh my gosh! How can this happen?”

“How is that possible?”

Not only Tae-kyung and Lee Chan-hee but also the surgical team, including Ui-jin, were equally surprised.

“This is unbelievable.”

“I know, right? Ah, no. It’s really amazing. Is this even possible?”

Just as Lee Chan-hee said, it wasn’t possible. It was hard to believe. Could this really be happening?

“Ha!”

Tae-kyung, wearing a surgical mask, continued to exhale short sighs.

The reason was that they had finally found the wound they had been searching for so desperately.

They finally found the odd one out. However, they were bewildered because the wound was in a location where it shouldn’t be.

The stomach was wounded right above. Unless the scalpel had teleported, there was no way there could be an issue on the upper side of the wound. But Tae-kyung and Lee Chan-hee could see the torn wound on the stomach.

The wound wasn’t large. The stomach was punctured about 0.5cm, enough for the contents to leak out.

“Hey! Did our Chan-hee just pull off something big?”

“Excuse me? What are you talking about? You were the one who suggested we look at the stomach and liver.”

“You had the same thought, though. Good thinking.”

Tae-kyung praised Lee Chan-hee for having the same thought when he suggested looking at the stomach and liver. He was proud of his junior for focusing so intently on the surgery and thinking about the patient one more time.

“Alright! Shall we take a closer look then?”

“Yes!?”

Lee Chan-hee looked completely clueless, making the compliment he just received seem wasted.

“Why are you so surprised again? If there’s a wound on the upper side of the stomach, does that guarantee the back side is normal?”

“Ah! You’re right, Doctor.”

“Then let’s lift up the stomach a bit.”

“Malleable, please [a surgical instrument used to retract or manipulate tissue].”

“Yes, Doctor.”

Lee Chan-hee lifted the stomach, but Tae-kyung couldn’t see the lower part very well.

“Mix povidone [an antiseptic solution] with N/S [normal saline solution] and give it to me. And give me new gloves, too.”

“Yes.”

At Tae-kyung’s words, the circulating nurse, who was outside the sterile operating field, tore open a new pair of gloves on the sterile table and removed the gloves from Tae-kyung’s hands.

Then, the scrub nurse inside the operating field held the sterile gloves open so he could put them on right away.

“No, wait.”

Tae-kyung, who had put on the new gloves, stopped as he was about to receive the syringe with the povidone mixture.

“Make it as diluted as possible. Povidone is a disinfectant, but it’s so strong that it can be harmful itself, so it needs to be very diluted.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Doctor, what are you planning to do with that…”

With Lee Chan-hee’s question, Tae-kyung carefully slid his hand, wearing a clean new glove, under the lower side of the stomach.

“Put it into that wounded area with a syringe.”

“Ah! If there’s a wound on the back, it’ll leak out. I understand.”

Since they couldn’t cut open the stomach to see the back, this was the best option.

Lee Chan-hee pushed the diluted povidone solution from the syringe into the wound.

“One more time!”

At Tae-kyung’s direction, he put another 50cc of the solution into the stomach.

“Should I do it again?”

“No, wait about 3 minutes… Now, empty the stomach with suction.”

“Yes, I understand.”

With those words, the suction machine went into the wound, and Tae-kyung lifted his hand to see if the glove had any povidone solution on it.

Fortunately, there was no leaking fluid.

“Okay. Let’s close it with peace of mind. The back is fine.”

“Yes.”

After that, a needle holder was handed to Tae-kyung, and it was time to suture the stomach.

Since they had found the most important issue in the exploratory surgery, all that was left was to close it as usual.

Tae-kyung took a stitch on both sides of the wounded area of the stomach and tied it in the opposite direction of the needle.

Then, he continuously sutured at regular intervals of less than 0.5cm, as close to the wound as possible but not too far to cause tension.

The sutures were so regular in spacing and strength that it was as if a machine had done it.

The stomach has a more than sufficient blood supply compared to other organs, but of course, too much force could lead to ischemia [restriction of blood supply].

Conversely, the stomach is such a muscular organ that the contents could leak out again if the sutures were too weak.

“Alright! That’s the first round done, give it to me again.”

This time, he slightly pierced the stomach surface with the needle, a little further away from the sutured wound, as if skinning it. He did the same on the opposite side of the wound and performed a surgical tie.

This way, the outer surface of the stomach is folded over and covers the sutured area.

Internal organs need to be treated this way to prevent the contents from leaking out and to ensure safety. In the case of the small intestine, this process can narrow it if done excessively, but there is no such concern with the stomach, so the more thorough this process, the better.

“I’ll do it one more time.”

“One more time.”

“This is the last one.”

After that, he made the same knot 7 more times along the wound.

“Alright! Neat and tidy. Let’s close it up.”

“Oh! It’s really neat.”

“Let’s close it up quickly.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Lee Chan-hee replied energetically, finishing up, pleased that the patient’s pain had lessened.

“Everyone, you’ve worked hard. I was worried about what we would do if we couldn’t find it, but thankfully we did.”

Tae-kyung’s expression, having completed the surgery, also looked much more relaxed.

Correspondingly, the fifth vital sign [blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, temperature, and oxygen saturation], which had been strutting around the operating room showing off, lowered its tail as if nothing had happened, erasing the traces of its pungent odor.

“How could we not find it? I knew you would find it, Doctor.”

“Me too. Actually, when you said to close up earlier, I was sure you wouldn’t end it like that! Hahaha!”

As Lee Ui-jin spoke as if it were obvious, Lee Chan-hee added, reinforcing the statement.

“Thank you all for believing in me. Doctor Lee really did a great job today.”

“It was nothing, Doctor.”

“Doctor Jung, you also worked hard, and everyone else, thank you for your efforts.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“Thank you for your efforts.”

The operating room staff all exchanged greetings with bright expressions.

“Are you that happy?”

Tae-kyung asked Lee Chan-hee, who was beaming as they left the operating room.

“Of course. We searched every nook and cranny, and we were about to close when we found it. How could I not be happy?”

“Doctor Lee, you worked hard today. Keep doing what you did today.”

“What did I do? You did everything, Doctor.”

“You kept thinking and thinking about the patient until the end.”

Tae-kyung praised Lee Chan-hee once again as they left the operating room.

“Keep doing that in the future. Don’t dismiss what the patient says, check with your own eyes, and don’t just pass by if a wound isn’t where it should be. Always suspect the patient’s pain and persistently search for it.”

“Yes, I will keep that in mind. But, Doctor?”

“Why?”

“Why on earth was there a wound on the stomach?”

“Well, wouldn’t that be the mystery of the human body?”

In fact, Tae-kyung had thought about the reason for the wound on the stomach in many ways, but he couldn’t figure out the answer.

Occasionally, when operating on patients, there were very rare and absurd cases, and this was one of them.

“It’s really a mystery. Seeing things like this, I think the human body is truly amazing and mysterious.”

“That’s why you need to study harder.”

“That’s right.”

Tae-kyung, having finished talking with Lee Chan-hee, headed straight to the guardian waiting room.

* * *

Hospital Guardian Waiting Room-

“Sigh!”

“Don’t worry too much. Mom will be okay. The doctor performing the surgery is skilled and famous.”

In the guardian waiting room, Kim No-dam and Lee Han-soon’s eldest daughter had rushed over after hearing the news.

“How can I not worry when Mom is undergoing surgery? Dad? Do you know how surprised I was when I heard from the landlady that Mom was taken to the hospital after you and Mom fought?”

“L, landlady?”

“Do you know what? I asked the landlady to contact me if an ambulance ever came because you and Mom were fighting.”

Only then did Kim No-dam, who had been too preoccupied to wonder how his daughter knew, become quite flustered.

“Seo, Seon-ah, that’s…”

“Dad, please stop now.”

His daughter, who had been sitting in a chair with her face buried in her hands, slowly raised her head and spoke.

Her face was exhausted, as if she carried all the worries of the world.

“Stop what?”

“I’m saying you and Mom should let each other go now. Get a divorce…”

She was a daughter who had never once mentioned the word divorce, even though there had been frequent arguments.

She was a child who always comforted her parents over the phone, even after she had become independent because she was tired of her parents’ fighting.

But when the word divorce came out of such a daughter’s mouth, Kim No-dam looked quite shocked.

“Seo, Seon-ah. What are you talking about? Divorce…?”