Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 78

78. 50%

“Choi Mona?”

“Yes.”

Contrary to her expectation of being scolded, Tae-kyung asked Choi Mona an unexpected question.

“Have you eaten? Or not?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m asking if you’ve eaten! Food!”

“I’m… fine.”

Choi Mona paused slightly at the sudden mention of food.

“What do you mean you’re fine when I asked if you’ve eaten?”

“I haven’t eaten yet.”

“You haven’t eaten, or you couldn’t eat? Go and eat first.”

“…….”

“What are you doing? Can’t you hear me? I said go eat first.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Eat even if you force yourself. My principle is that doctors work with the strength of food.”

Choi Mona couldn’t understand why food was so important that he was talking about it in this serious situation.

Tae-kyung was always someone who defied all her expectations.

He was her mentor and the head of their hospital, but still a person she couldn’t truly understand.

“Do you think anyone will recognize you for working so hard?”

“I’m not working with the hope that someone will recognize me.”

“Then you should eat well while working even more. Don’t you think so? You take care of your own body.”

“You’re absolutely right, Doctor. Choi, stop and go eat quickly.”

Nurse Lim Jung-sook, who had been seeing a patient, chimed in from the side.

“If you don’t go now, you’ll be late again and get scolded by the madam [head nurse]. Hurry.”

“What are you doing? Not going?”

“Then I’ll go eat.”

“Yes, enjoy your meal.”

As soon as Choi Mona left the emergency room, Nurse Lim Jung-sook couldn’t hold back her curiosity and asked.

“Weren’t you going to scold her?”

“I was going to. But Lee Chan-hee told me that Choi Mona hadn’t had dinner yet.”

“Did that soften your heart?”

“I felt bad seeing her collapse from being exhausted by patients without even eating.”

Doctors working in private hospitals, especially those larger than local clinics, often skip meals, especially those working in the emergency room.

Patients don’t wait for doctors to eat before getting sick. Therefore, the moment you put on the gown with the name of a doctor, patients inevitably take precedence over yourself.

That was a doctor’s instinct, and Tae-kyung knew it better than anyone. So, he hoped that at least the hospital staff working with him would eat well.

“And yet, when you focus on a patient, you don’t eat anything all day and don’t even know if the hospital is your home or your home is the hospital?”

“If you put it that way, I have nothing to say.”

“That’s why I’m saying you should take care of yourself too.”

“Well, I ate. I have surgery tomorrow, so I need to eat to keep my mind sharp.”

“Good job. You must be worried about the Lee Go-cheol patient?”

“It’s because of the patient’s guardian’s situation.”

“Doctor, Choi Sung-pil’s images are out.”

“I’ll go treat patients 13 and 14.”

After checking the monitor at the nurse’s station, Tae-kyung headed to the ward to treat the men who had caused the commotion.

* * *

“This is so annoying.”

Choi Mona couldn’t help but express her annoyance as she left the emergency room.

It was the first time she had felt so inexplicably annoyed since working as a doctor.

‘Where did it all go wrong?’

Not yielding her position to the teacher? Or favoring certain patients? Or deciding to stay at this hospital?

“Ha!”

Just when she thought she would be scolded, Tae-kyung always said the opposite. She would have felt better if she had just been given a mouthful of insults.

Choi Mona hated understanding, accepting, and harmoniously blending into a group. It was because she had grown up that way because of her grandfather and father.

‘Choi Mona? She’s completely on her own path.’

‘She hasn’t even exchanged numbers with any colleagues at the hospital so far.’

‘I couldn’t live like that even if I was told to. Why is she so rigid?’

‘But it’s easier for the people around her if she just stays an outsider like that.’

‘That’s true. But to grow as a doctor, you have to learn and gain experience, and with that personality, which doctor would want to teach her?’

‘Oh, you didn’t know about Doctor Go? I heard recently that Choi hasn’t stayed at a hospital for more than three months after getting her board certification [official recognition as a specialist].’

‘See? I told you. She’s probably never going to settle down.’

She didn’t care about the gossip that piled up like mileage at every new hospital. Rather, she felt relieved that she wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.

But the people at our hospital are a bit strange. There were still people who gossiped, but most of them didn’t want to leave her outside the fence.

She felt it even more after Tae-kyung came.

‘Am I unnecessarily holding out at this hospital?’

While thinking about this and that, Choi Mona changed direction and headed to the doctors’ office instead of the cafeteria. She felt like she needed to put something sweet in her mouth to calm her head.

‘Headache. I don’t know……!’

“Doctor!”

Just as she was turning a corner in the hallway, Woo-jin popped out. In an attempt to avoid the child, Choi Mona tripped and fell.

“Ah!”

“Are you okay, Doctor?”

“Why are you here?”

Choi Mona, already in a bad mood, felt her annoyance rise again as she fell.

“I heard that if I wait here, I can meet you.”

“Hey? Lee Woo-jin. Listen to me carefully from now on. Don’t think that just because I went to the bathroom with you yesterday, we’re friends. I’m a doctor, not your mother or someone who plays with you. If I pretended not to see you, you should have stopped. Why do you keep chasing me and making me uncomfortable? If you’re bored, tell the person who’s taking care of you or your parents. Got it?”

Choi Mona coldly lashed out at the child and walked past Woo-jin without looking back. But after only a few steps, her legs stopped.

‘What did I just do?’

She regretted taking her anger out on the child when she could have just ignored him.

‘Today is a really bad day.’

Choi Mona turned around, thinking that the child would be crying and that she should appease him appropriately.

“This.”

But Woo-jin was smiling brightly at Choi Mona, not at all discouraged.

“I waited to give this to you.”

Woo-jin took out a Pororo juice box [a popular children’s drink] from his small bag.

“You gave way to me, Doctor. So, I’m going to give way too.”

“Lee Woo-jin, you waited for me because of this?”

“Yes, I heard that doctors are busy, so I shouldn’t bother them.”

“……!”

Woo-jin forcibly put the juice box in Choi Mona’s hand, who was standing still without saying anything.

“Woo-jin? Lee Woo-jin?”

In the meantime, the child’s mother, realizing that he was gone, came down to the first floor.

“Then I’ll go now, Doctor. Bye! Mom, I’m here.”

“Where did you go while Mom was on the phone?”

Woo-jin returned to the hospital room with his worried mother. And Choi Mona, who had been staring at the drink for a while, also entered the doctors’ office.

Click-

Even at this moment, Choi Mona didn’t know. That she, a person with impaired communication, was gradually, very gradually, being permeated by the drizzle [influenced by kindness and connection].

* * *

The next day, Lee Go-cheol was lying on the bed with a calm look in his eyes.

“Lee Go-cheol, you will be moved to the operating room now.”

Whirr- Whirr-

Lee Go-cheol, lying on the bed, looked a little excited as he headed to the operating room.

Holding Phuong’s hand tightly with one hand, he stared blankly at the ceiling lights without saying anything.

After getting off the elevator and going a little further, the moving bed stopped. It had reached the front of the operating room.

“This is the operating room, so guardians are not allowed to accompany you any further.”

“Ah, yes. Honey, Kkan Dam’s dad. It’ll be alright. I’ll be here. Don’t worry and have a good surgery.”

“You shouldn’t worry either and rest comfortably with our Kkan Dam. I’m Lee Go-cheol. I’ll be back.”

“Superman, fighting! [a Korean phrase of encouragement]”

“I’ll guide you to the waiting room.”

Phuong waved her hand as she was guided by the staff, and the bed with Lee Go-cheol lying on it headed into the operating room.

“Hello.”

“Yes, hello, Doctor.”

Tae-kyung greeted Lee Go-cheol, who had entered the operating room.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Strangely, I slept well. I slept so soundly that I felt embarrassed thinking about what if I couldn’t sleep.”

“Good job. Fortunately, today’s morning test shows that there are no metastases [spread of cancer] other than the right shoulder.”

“That’s a relief.”

Lee Go-cheol’s eyes slowly turned red. He had pretended to be strong when his wife was by his side, but the person diagnosed with cancer is the most vulnerable.

From this moment until the end of the surgery, Lee Go-cheol was not someone’s husband or someone’s father.

He was just in front of Tae-kyung, able to be one patient, and the emotions he had been holding back came up.

“Lee Go-cheol?”

Tae-kyung, knowing the patient’s feelings just by looking at his eyes before the surgery, grabbed his right hand. And as the doctor who would soon be performing the surgery, he spoke to the patient on the bed.

“You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?”

“Not much, just a little. Doctor, I feel nervous now that I’m about to have surgery.”

“Of course. Everyone will feel that way. I’ll do my best.”

“Thank you.”

Tae-kyung’s words and actions, holding his hand and saying that he would do his best, calmed his worried mind. Lee Go-cheol was sincerely grateful as a patient for that warm word.

“Thank you so much.”

Medicine is, after all, a realm of science. But at some point, Tae-kyung and many other surgeons realize.

That there is a place that is not quite in the realm of science.

One of them was the change in patients caused by a doctor’s words. A doctor’s sincere words have a great impact on the patient.

‘I will be with you.’

‘Our medical team will help you well.’

Words that give strength, or words that break strength, come out of the doctor and are sown in the patient’s heart, causing great changes.

Of course, it is most clear when it is a bad effect, but Tae-kyung is constantly saying words that give strength, hoping for the opposite case as well. But he never gives false comfort.

Because he thinks that is an insult to the patient.

Even if it’s not something fancy, a small word of encouragement sprouts ‘courage’ in the patient’s heart and becomes a good foundation for overcoming the disease.

“Hello. Patient. I’m Jung Ui-jin from Anesthesiology.”

Ui-jin knew Lee Go-cheol’s name, but asked again to confirm.

“What is our patient’s name?”

“Lee Go-cheol.”

“Lee Go-cheol, what kind of surgery are you having today?”

“Thyroid cancer surgery.”

“Okay! I’ll start the anesthesia. This is oxygen. Breathe in deeply and exhale, that’s right.”

Ui-jin started general anesthesia. Tae-kyung, who was watching the scene, went outside to wash his hands and thought about the surgery.

In fact, Tae-kyung had been thinking only about this surgery since last night. He kept thinking about it while eating, going to the bathroom, and treating patients in the emergency room.

“If it doesn’t invade that area, it’s worth trying…….”

He was thinking only about a specific area.

“Thoroughly. Thoroughly.”

While running the simulation in his head, he turned his head sharply at the sound of Lee Chan-hee next to him.

“What are you doing scrubbing with your mouth?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why? Are you nervous again?”

“No. I’m not nervous.”

Today’s assistant was Lee Chan-hee.

Yesterday, after Lee Go-cheol’s surgery was confirmed, Tae-kyung gave the patient’s information to both Lee Chan-hee and Choi Mona and had them each prepare for the surgery.

‘Doctor, are we both going in as assistants?’

‘No, one of you will go in. Send me what you’ve each organized by email by morning.’

The reason he had them both prepare was to see their attitudes toward the surgery.

Lee Chan-hee, who had a good understanding and empathy for the patient, but was still nervous about the surgery. And Choi Mona, who didn’t have any particularly bad points, but lacked understanding and empathy for the patient.

The files they sent by email in the morning were similar.

Points to note for today’s surgery, things to pay special attention to, and Lee Go-cheol’s current condition and surgical characteristics. Neither Lee Chan-hee’s nor Choi Mona’s was superior.

But the reason he chose Lee Chan-hee was his attitude.

‘Doctor Lee, why did you come so early today?’

‘I wanted to check the patient’s condition and find more information.’

‘But it hasn’t been confirmed yet whether you’re going into the operating room.’

‘That’s true, but I just wanted to come early.’

Today, before the surgery, Choi Mona adhered to her usual work hours. Or, to be precise, she came exactly three minutes later than usual.

On the other hand, Lee Chan-hee came an hour early to check the patient’s condition.

What he had naturally seen and learned from Tae-kyung was manifested in his actions.

For that reason, Lee Chan-hee became today’s assistant.

“Lee Chan-hee?”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“Really not nervous?”

“I’m about 50% nervous.”

He said 50%, but in fact, Lee Chan-hee was a little more nervous than that. Still, the surgery he had been training for recently was thyroid surgery, and he was excited about being able to see Tae-kyung’s surgery.

Above all, the nervousness that was like fear at first seemed to be changing into a pleasant nervousness of going into the operating room.

“Shall I tell you how not to be nervous?”

“What is it?”

“Think that the patient’s life is in your hands. How about it? Does that make you come to your senses?”

“Doctor. That’s not just nervous, that’s scary?”

“Really? Then. It’s not too late to switch with Doctor Choi.”

“I can’t do that. I’m going to be an assistant today.”

“First, focus on the patient. Second, listen to me. Third. Don’t be dazed or spaced out. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll kill you if you make a mistake.”

“Doctor, even so, don’t say you’ll kill me. I thought it was real for a moment.”

“Is it real? Three people’s lives depend on this surgery. So, be alert!”