Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 494

Fifth Vital Sign – Episode 495 (494/502)

Episode 495. The Scent of Death

Beeeep— Beeeep—

While securing the central venous catheter and administering fluids, a mechanical sound echoed in the treatment room.

Thump-

Meanwhile, Nurse Im Jeong-suk returned from the operating room and relayed Tae-kyung’s orders to Choi Mona.

“Cardiac arrest!”

Normally, Choi Mona and the other medical staff in the treatment room would have been startled. However, perhaps because they anticipated cardiac arrest given the patient’s dire condition, no one panicked.

The medical staff simply began CPR as they always did, without needing to be told.

Choi Mona interlocked her hands and compressed the chest with a steady rhythm, maximizing both compression and relaxation.

The key here is not just the compression, but the relaxation.

Blood flows to the coronary arteries during relaxation, and the heart rhythm returns depending on the extent of that blood supply.

Another important factor was oxygen supply.

“Ambu bag [a manual resuscitator], please.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

The nurse held the Ambu bag to Kana’s mouth on the opposite side of Choi Mona, who was performing CPR.

Choi Mona continued to focus on the patient and continued CPR.

‘Please, come back.’

To be honest, Choi Mona knew better than anyone Kana’s current condition and that it was not going to be easy.

Nevertheless, because doctors must never give up until the very end, she desperately hoped the patient would overcome this crisis.

One, two, one, two.

Choi Mona counted internally, focusing all her attention on the patient and performing CPR to the best of her ability.

“J-Just a moment……”

Beep— Beep— Beep–

After about a minute of CPR with all her might, Kana’s heart rate thankfully returned.

But something was strange.

Usually, when a patient’s heart starts beating again, the medical staff’s faces show at least a hint of relief.

But that wasn’t the case.

The expressions of the medical staff gathered in the treatment room were grim.

No one was relieved or thought it was fortunate.

Blood was flowing from Kana’s ears as she lay on the treatment room bed, and there was no unscathed place on her abdomen or arms.

Everyone could tell at a glance that there was no unscathed place, even without a CT scan.

After forcefully inserting an endotracheal tube that wouldn’t go in easily, they quickly wheeled the bed with the patient on it for a CT scan.

“Let’s move to the CT room quickly.”

“Yes!”

At Choi Mona’s words, the medical staff hurriedly left the treatment room together.

Thump-

“Kana!!!”

“Sister!!!”

The two, who didn’t know exactly what was happening inside, screamed and tried to rush in as Kana was wheeled out.

“Please take care of these guardians.”

“Is my wife okay? What’s her condition now? Will she live?”

“Sister? Can you hear me!”

The two desperately called out to Kana, who seemed to be on the verge of death, but there was no response.

“Kana? Kana!!!”

“Sister!”

Oh Si-won and Kyoko looked utterly distraught. Tears blurred their vision.

The sight of the two was so heartbreaking that the other patients in the emergency room fell silent for a moment.

Even the patient who was shouting, the patient who was causing trouble while drunk, and even the patient who was demanding to be seen quickly, and even the guardians beside them, all eyes were on the two, and they became silent as if they had forgotten how to speak.

“Guardians, please calm down a little. The patient is being moved to the CT room now.”

Security guard Jang Deuk-chil and another nurse barely calmed the two down, and Kana was moved to the CT room with the medical staff.

“Guardians, what is your relationship to the patient?”

Nurse Im Jeong-suk faced Oh Si-won, who seemed to be losing his mind.

She felt like she couldn’t leave them like this.

“She’s my wife.”

“It must be very difficult and worrying, but our medical staff is doing their best. Please try to pull yourself together, even if it’s hard. Your sister-in-law is here with you.”

Hearing Nurse Im Jeong-suk’s words, Oh Si-won turned his gaze to Kyoko, who was sitting on the chair.

He had been so busy shouting like a madman that he hadn’t even thought of checking on Kyoko.

Kyoko, covered in tears and snot, continued to call her sister’s name with eyes that looked like she was about to collapse.

“Sister……. Sister! Sob!”

As Nurse Im Jeong-suk said, Oh Si-won took a deep breath and tried to calm his mind with all his might.

* * *

Meanwhile, the medical staff arrived at the CT room.

“Okay! Carefully move the patient.”

It was when the medical staff moved Kana to the CT machine and were about to start the scan.

Beeeep—– Beeeep—–

“Cardiac arrest!!”

Choi Mona shouted as cardiac arrest occurred again.

And at the same time, Dr. Eui-jin and the medical staff who came down from the ward hurriedly ran into the CT room.

“I’ll do it.”

Eui-jin, who had run in quickly, took a place next to Kana and started CPR.

“One, two, three, four……”

Eui-jin interlocked her hands and moved them steadily.

“One, two, three, four, five……”

Come back. Please come back.

Eui-jin focused all her attention and concentrated on CPR.

‘You have to live. Kana, please hang in there. Please hang in there.’

“Doctor, I’ll take over.”

“I’m still okay. I’ll do it.”

Choi Mona stood next to her to take over, but Eui-jin continued CPR.

She was really okay.

She wasn’t tired yet, so she could do more for the patient as she was.

Eui-jin continued CPR with the same force from the beginning, very carefully, just like the textbook.

‘Please hang in there. Please don’t give up like this. Please live.’

The patient living or dying.

People who were fine suddenly crossing the boundary of death due to an accident or sudden illness and losing their breath overnight.

These things, which are difficult for ordinary people to experience, were like breathing for doctors.

When she started her hospital life and stood on the starting line as a doctor, her emotions surged like waves every time she faced these patients.

She laughed and cried as if it was her own business.

When the patient’s condition was not good, she felt like something was wrong with her family, and she cried outwardly and inwardly.

Meanwhile, her emotions rode a roller coaster according to the patient’s condition, and she prayed for their well-being.

She was nervous about each test result and prayed that all patients would be discharged in good health.

However, as she gained more and more experience, she became desensitized to these things.

That desensitization doesn’t mean that she doesn’t care when she sees a critically ill patient.

It’s because expressing emotions every time and working would interfere with treatment, so she doesn’t show it outwardly.

Eui-jin was already at that point, and her emotions didn’t fluctuate greatly when she saw these patients.

But this time, something felt different.

The image of the bride-to-be, who was just entering the door of happiness and was about to get married in Korea, kept coming to mind, and Eui-jin’s emotions became heavy.

‘Please hang in there.’

After 3 minutes of fighting that felt like 3 hours, and when small beads of sweat appeared on Eui-jin’s forehead, the heart rate returned.

“Haa!”

A sigh of relief burst from Eui-jin’s mouth. It was a very heavy sigh.

“Pulse is back.”

“Haa!”

“Oh, my……”

With the exhausted medical staff’s sighs and heavy breathing, they took Kana’s CT scan.

No one spoke after the CPR that had exhausted all their energy.

“CT results are out.”

After a while, the CT results came out, and the results were devastating.

“Dr. Jung……”

“……!”

Choi Mona, Eui-jin, and the nurses next to them had already anticipated Kana’s condition, but when they saw the results with their own eyes, they were speechless.

In particular, Eui-jin’s expression was not good.

It was as if her own family member, not a patient, had come in as a patient.

It wasn’t the usual bright, encouraging, and calm doctor Jung Eui-jin who always gave strength in front of patients.

As a doctor, she had experienced many things and had experienced things that others had not, so she felt that she was strong inside.

She believed that she could be indifferent to any patient, and she had been so far. But strangely, she seemed to have empathized with Kana, who was not a patient she had seen for a long time, but just a patient she had seen a few times.

“Doctor, what should we do with the patient? Shouldn’t we inform the guardian?”

“Director, is the surgery over?”

“I called the operating room, and they said the director finished a moment ago and went out.”

The medical staff’s voices were heard, but Eui-jin, who had fixed her gaze on Kana, did not show any movement.

Choi Mona, who was watching the scene, also felt bad.

“Doctor……”

It was just when Choi Mona approached Eui-jin and was about to talk about the patient.

Beeeep—– Beeeep—–

Kana had another cardiac arrest.

“Cardiac arrest.”

Before Choi Mona could get into position, Eui-jin started CPR on the patient again, and the medical staff also moved again.

* * *

At that time-

Tae-kyung, who had finished Lee Jung-bon’s surgery and finished talking with Lee Jung-mi in the guardian waiting room, headed to the emergency room at a fast pace.

“……!”

As Tae-kyung walked out of the waiting room and quickened his pace toward the emergency room, a deep Chinese character ‘cheon (天)’ [heaven/fate] seemed to appear above his eyebrows.

‘Ha! This shouldn’t be happening…….’

The feeling is not good. No, it wasn’t just not good, it was serious.

The corridor leading to the emergency room seemed to be saturated with the fifth vital sign of someone he didn’t even know.

Above all, the degree was quite severe.

It wasn’t stage 1, stage 2, or stage 3.

It wasn’t even stage 4, which is usually considered the golden time to save a patient based on the fifth vital sign.

It was the last real stage, stage 5, which was even worse than that.

It smelled worse than the rotting corpse of an animal, and it smelled like sulfur, a scent you don’t easily encounter while living.

Tae-kyung always felt a sense of foreboding whenever he smelled the stage 5 scent.

It was the smell of death.

If the word death were expressed as a smell, it would be like this.

At the same time, he immediately knew that this smell was from the TA (traffic accident) patient that Nurse Im Jeong-suk had mentioned during the surgery earlier.

And Tae-kyung thought.

This patient is going to have a hard time. He thought it wouldn’t be easy anymore.

At the same time, he desperately hoped that the smell of the fifth vital sign that only he could smell was wrong.

No, please let it be.

There had never been a time when the smell emanating from a patient had been wrong, but this time he hoped it would be.

“Director?”

As Tae-kyung entered the emergency room, Nurse Im Jeong-suk hurriedly approached him.

“Where is the TA patient now? What’s her condition? Is she in the treatment room?”

“It’s not good. She had several cardiac arrests while receiving emergency treatment in the treatment room. Each time, Dr. Jung and Dr. Choi performed CPR and she came back, and she is currently in the CT room for a scan, but her condition is not good.”

“Okay.”

After receiving a detailed briefing from Nurse Im Jeong-suk, Tae-kyung headed straight to the CT room.