Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 493

Fifth Vital Sign – Episode 494 (493/502)

494. A4 Paper Crumbled Without Mercy

Clank-

The paramedics wheeled Kana, who was lying on a mobile bed, out of the ambulance and into the emergency room of OO University Hospital.

“We have a trauma alert (TA) patient with multiple fractures that we called about earlier…”

The paramedic was quickly briefing the approaching medical staff when he was abruptly cut off.

“Excuse me, officer!”

The medical staff urgently interrupted the paramedic, blocking their path with a bewildered expression.

“You can’t come in here.”

“What!? You mean we can’t come in? We contacted you a little while ago. What are you talking about?”

“There was an explosion at the OO factory, and foreign workers who were sleeping in the dormitories were injured and brought here.”

In short, the medical staff was saying that OO University Hospital couldn’t accommodate Kana at the moment.

The medical staff wasn’t lying.

“What are you doing! Call the professor, quick!”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Here, get me a tongue depressor.”

“Doctor! Please, take a look here quickly. This person is dying.”

To those standing at the threshold of the emergency room, OO University Hospital was a scene of utter chaos.

The injuries of the foreign workers lying on the beds were severe, even to the untrained eye.

From people with burns on their legs to those with bodies scorched red from head to toe, and others with burns on one side of their bodies. Everyone was writhing in agony, crying out in pain.

In reality, this is what an emergency room is like.

Even if the conditions are right to receive a patient and they respond to a paramedic’s call, unexpected influxes of patients can flood in all at once, just like now.

Just as human life is unpredictable, the daily routine of an emergency room is also impossible to foresee, no matter how skilled the medical staff may be.

“Ha!”

A short sigh mixed with dismay escaped from the paramedic who witnessed the scene.

He knew all too well that this university hospital was in no condition to care for Kana right now.

“I’m really sorry. You’ll have to go to another hospital.”

“What are you talking about right now!”

Oh Si-won, unaware of the overall situation and unable to see beyond the emergency room entrance, shouted in anger.

It was only natural. No one would simply say, ‘Yes, I understand,’ and leave when the woman they love is on the verge of death.

Oh Si-won was at the hospital and only wanted to save Kana, no matter what it took.

He was in a state where he couldn’t see anything else, regardless of the circumstances of the other patients.

“I’m sorry. We don’t have enough staff in the emergency room to take any more patients. I understand how you feel, but we’ve had to turn away other patients as well. I’m really sorry.”

“Shit! Is this something that can be solved with an apology? A person is dying! A person! Can’t you see this person here!?”

Too upset and angry, Oh Si-won cursed without realizing it.

“Please save my sister. Please, I beg you.”

Kyoko, her eyes bloodshot, also pleaded desperately. However, the medical staff, who had to care for the patients inside the emergency room, offered their apologies and went inside.

“Are you even doctors!!”

“Sir, it seems difficult to admit a patient here. There’s no time to waste standing here, so please go to another hospital quickly.”

The paramedic, who barely managed to stop Oh Si-won from shouting and trying to enter, calmed the two down.

Although they didn’t understand the whole situation, Kana’s condition was the priority now.

“Sir, we’ll quickly find another hospital and move her. Let’s go.”

In the end, Oh Si-won and Kyoko had no choice but to turn away from the university hospital with Kana.

“Officer? What do we do now? Is there a hospital nearby?”

“I’ll check quickly.”

“Why don’t we just go to our hospital?”

Another paramedic said to the hesitating paramedic.

“Our hospital?”

“Yeah, they try to accept everyone there, even when they’re busy.”

“Should we contact them?”

“No need to contact them! Forget it. The patient’s condition isn’t good right now, so let’s just go.”

The senior paramedic decided to go straight there without contacting them, fearing they might be rejected if they called.

* * *

-Our Hospital

Rrrrrrr

“Yes, this is the emergency room at Our Hospital.”

A nurse answered the phone as it rang at the station.

-Yes, this is OO firefighter. We have a 20-year-old female TA (traffic accident) patient. She is currently in a coma, with a heart rate below 40 and unstable blood pressure. She has multiple fractures all over her body.

The nurse’s expression was grim.

The nurse had dealt with countless patients and could tell just from this much information that further patient report was meaningless.

To put it simply, the patient’s condition was like a clean sheet of A4 paper that had been crumpled mercilessly.

In addition, all functions to maintain life or to save life were shutting down.

In the case of such a patient, one had to approach the situation assuming that the whole body was ruined.

“Officer? Where are you right now?”

-We’re at the entrance.

At the same time as those words, the paramedics were carrying the patient on a stretcher, pushing it while making the call.

“No! Officer, what are you doing? You can’t do this.”

The nurse continued, looking embarrassed.

“You should have called in advance. If you call as you’re entering the emergency room, we don’t have time to prepare… You shouldn’t do this. How can someone who knows better do this?”

The nurse’s grumbling wasn’t entirely wrong.

Paramedics were supposed to call before bringing an emergency patient so that the hospital could prepare.

The reason was simple.

Just like at the university hospital earlier, the emergency room might not be able to accept the patient. However, the paramedics were so desperate that they forgot their training, so she didn’t say anything harsh and held back. Honestly, she wasn’t happy, but she understood the situation.

“Nurse!”

The nurse who was dealing with the paramedics called out to the other nurses urgently.

“Nurse Choi! New patient. It’s an emergency.”

“Yes, I’m coming!”

With that shout, several nurses approached, and soon Choi Mona ran over.

In the meantime, the doctor’s orders to the nurses and the senior nurse’s orders to the junior nurses poured out in rapid succession.

“Kana!”

“Sister!”

The paramedics in charge of the transport finished the handover, left the emergency room, and Oh Si-won and Kyoko followed, calling out Kana’s name.

“Are you the guardians?”

“Yes, I’m her husband, and this is her sister.”

“I’m sorry, but you can’t come in here. Please wait in the waiting room for guardians.”

The nurse told the two, but they couldn’t bring themselves to leave. They just looked longingly at the treatment room where the door was closing.

“Okay! One, two, three!”

First, the medical staff moved Kana into the treatment room, which looked like an operating room, and frantically cut off her clothes with scissors.

Next to them, Choi Mona quickly scanned Kana’s chest, sides, and abdomen with an ultrasound probe and shone a light into her eyes.

Everywhere she looked, there was blood, and her bodily functions were a mess. And it was questionable whether her pupils were reacting.

“Ah…”

Choi Mona let out an involuntary sigh of dismay.

She would be enthusiastic if there was some possibility, but with blood pooling all over her body like this, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“Nurse Soo!”

“Call the head doctor in the operating room.”

“I’ll go right away.”

Nurse Im Jeong-sook, who was calling the operating room, left the treatment room when she couldn’t get through.

“Give her epinephrine [a type of vasopressor that is powerful in raising blood pressure] right now, and prepare for a blood transfusion immediately.”

“Nurse Choi!”

The nurse who had just received the order urgently called Choi Mona.

“The blood bank says they’re not prepared for a massive transfusion.”

Choi Mona was lost in thought after hearing the nurse’s words. She would have the energy to fight and pressure the blood bank if there was a possibility.

But she honestly couldn’t decide whether to pour precious blood into this level of trauma. It was because she knew the patient’s condition well as a doctor.

“Nurse Choi! What should we do?”

“First, then, squeeze in all the fluids and quickly squeeze in any blood we have. Push it in with the machine.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“ABGA (arterial blood gas analysis) results are in.”

“Ah…”

All the numbers were heading for the worst.

Acidosis-related numbers, which appear when organs fail due to lack of blood, were already starting to rise.

At this point, it was honestly amazing that the patient’s heart was still beating.

“Excuse me! Is… is our Kana okay? Is there anything wrong?”

Oh Si-won and Kyoko, who couldn’t leave, were standing in front of the treatment room, calling out to Kana.

They were curious and worried about what was going on, what the current situation was, and whether she was okay.

“Keep the guardians from coming in.”

The nurse inside the treatment room shouted to the staff outside. It wasn’t because she disliked or was annoyed by the guardians’ actions.

The reason she raised her voice like this was to prevent the medical staff inside from being disturbed and to prevent the guardians from being hurt by seeing the patient’s tragic appearance.

Sliding-

“Nurse Choi!”

The treatment room door quickly opened and closed, and Nurse Im Jeong-sook, who had gone to the operating room, returned.

“The head doctor said not to inject contrast and to take a full-body CT scan immediately and bring her straight to the operating room.”

“I don’t think that’s possible. The patient will die while taking the CT scan in this condition.”

Choi Mona said as she stabbed a long needle into the side of her neck to secure a central venous catheter.

“Got it. I’ve secured a line here. Give her fluids through here! Quickly! Hurry.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Beep— Beep—

* * *

At that time, in the ward of Our Hospital-

“Your current condition is very good, so don’t worry and rest comfortably. You saw the baby earlier, right?”

“Yes, Doctor. Thank you so much.”

“Just think about yourself, Mom. I’ll come again.”

Sliding-

Doctor Lee looked at the patient’s condition in the ward and came out.

“If the mom in room 203 calls again, please let me know right away.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“Doctor Jung?”

While Doctor Lee was talking to the ward station nurse, a nurse who had come up the stairs approached urgently and called out.

“Yes. Did a patient arrive?”

“No. It’s not that, but an emergency patient was brought to the ER treatment room, and it’s Kana.”

A nurse who had stopped by the emergency room for business happened to see Kana being carried in.

The nurse remembered her face because she had dealt with Kana when she had received obstetrics and gynecology treatment from Doctor Lee at Our Hospital.

“Um, Doctor. But the situation seems very bad right now.”

“Are you talking about Fujiwara Kana?”

“Yes, that Japanese woman.”

“No, suddenly coming in as an emergency, what are you talking about?”

Doctor Lee also remembered Kana. She remembered her more because she was a foreigner.

Moreover, she was a patient who had just finished registering her marriage and left the examination room with a smile, looking happy with the satisfactory examination results.

In particular, the image of Kana, the bride-to-be who was happier than anyone else before her wedding, was still vivid in her mind.

But an emergency. Critical condition. It was truly unbelievable.

Doctor Lee, who was at the ward station, hurriedly started running to the emergency room.