Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 80

80. 24 Hours in Water-Soaked Hanji [Traditional Korean paper, known for its delicate yet durable nature.]

Guardian Waiting Room-

Fidgety.

If you had to describe Phuong’s current state in one word, “fidgety” would be it.

Patient Name: Lee ○ Cheol Gender: Male

Progress: Undergoing surgery

Surgery Time: 17:05~

Phuong stared at the monitor and sat down.

‘It’s okay. Everything will be alright.’

Immediately after Lee Go-cheol entered the operating room, she couldn’t even sit on the waiting room chair.

Her husband was fighting for his life, and even sitting down felt somehow guilty.

As Phuong paced back and forth in the waiting room for over an hour, a passing nurse noticed and made her sit down.

“Guardian, you’re not even in good shape, please sit down. Your legs must be hurting.”

Only then did Phuong think of Kkan-ddam [Korean term of endearment for a baby or unborn child] in her belly and sat in the chair.

“Honey, you’re Superman.”

Looking at Lee Go-cheol’s smiling photo on her phone, Phuong kept whispering.

“Superman always wins. You’ll beat cancer. Me and Kkan-ddam are cheering for you.”

Stroking her slightly protruding lower abdomen, she cheered and cheered again so that the baby in her belly could hear.

“Doctor, please save our Kkan-ddam’s dad. Please make the surgery go well.”

Phuong didn’t forget to cheer for Tae-kyung, praying for the surgery to go well.

* * *

‘Huh? What is it?’

It was right then, as the staff were wondering about Tae-kyung’s actions.

Tear-

A ridiculous thing happened before their eyes.

Tear- Tear-

All of a sudden, Tae-kyung grabbed his disposable surgical gown and tore it off.

“……!”

“Huh!?”

At that moment, the pupils of the shocked staff members gradually widened.

Just when they were wondering what on earth was going on, Tae-kyung’s second unexpected action followed.

Zhiing-

In the middle of a successful surgery, he tore off his surgical gown and this time, he even left the operating room.

“…….”

“What’s going on? Dr. Im, what’s the situation right now?”

“I don’t know either.”

“No, the surgery was going smoothly, why all of a sudden…….”

“He’s washing his hands.”

A nurse in the operating room said, tiptoeing and looking outside.

“Scrubbing?”

“Yes.”

While everyone was dumbfounded by Tae-kyung’s sudden actions, Tae-kyung, who had left the operating room, came back inside. And once again, he put on a surgical gown and took his position.

“Doctor, why did you do that?”

When Nurse Im Jeong-sook asked as a representative, all eyes, including those of Doctor Lee Ui-jin and Lee Chan-hee, turned to Tae-kyung.

“It’s important.”

“Yes?”

“From now on, it’s really important.”

At the simple answer that was almost bland, the staff didn’t say anything.

‘Important?’

However, Lee Chan-hee was a little puzzled. He didn’t know what was left and how important it was because he had removed all the cancerous thyroid.

It was understandable that Lee Chan-hee reacted that way because he was seeing such a severe thyroid cancer patient for the first time during his residency.

Tae-kyung, who had taken his position, grabbed a tooth forcep and pulled on the side of the thyroid on the right.

“No, give me an Allis forcep.”

Again, he grabbed the cells under the skin and pulled, and continued to dissect the skin to the right of the right thyroid.

‘It’s the turn of the metastasized ones…….’

Now is the stage to dissect all the right lymph nodes, which are thought to have metastasized from the thyroid. But this was an absurd task.

This was because these lymph nodes were all located side by side below between two blood vessels.

The two blood vessels were the internal jugular vein, which supplies the head and returns to the heart, and the common carotid artery, which supplies blood to the head.

Just hearing the words ‘head’ and ‘heart’ made it clear how important and dangerous these two blood vessels were.

These blood vessels, each a vein and an artery, are about 1 cm in diameter.

Gulp-

Lee Chan-hee’s Adam’s apple heaved greatly. He swallowed, looking at the terrifying blood vessels.

‘Why am I so nervous?’

The feeling of relief was overshadowed by tension. That’s because even the slightest damage to either of these two blood vessels could lead to death within 5 minutes.

The problem is that if the cancer that has metastasized to the lymph nodes invades the walls of these blood vessels and causes severe adhesions, wounds can naturally occur during dissection.

‘What is the doctor thinking of doing…….’

Lee Chan-hee glanced sideways. Unlike himself, who was nervous, Tae-kyung’s eyes facing the blood vessels seemed calm.

But Tae-kyung also had a lot on his mind. In fact, he had been worried about the wounds that would occur during the dissection since last night, or even when he was looking at the ultrasound.

If that happened, the operating room might soon face a disaster.

The disaster that is limited to preventing, no matter how careful you are, is now in front of you. That’s how unbelievably difficult the part he’s about to start is.

Tae-kyung, who had briefly organized his thoughts, calmly opened his mouth.

“Scalpel.”

Tension is in Tae-kyung’s eyes, but there is no trembling. It was an important and dangerous moment, but his boldness coped with it.

Believing in his past experiences and knowledge, he is now operating on the boundary between the patient’s death and life.

‘Let’s stay calm.’

He pushed the sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM muscle) outward and fixed it.

Bang- Bang-

Then, two large blood vessels bouncing majestically were visible. It was the blood vessel in question right under the lymph nodes.

These should not be damaged even a little, so they should not be electrocauterized.

“Roll up a gauze and soak it in an Allis and give it to me.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

At that, the nurse made the gauze firm and blunt, a little less than 2 cm in size, and handed it over.

Tae-kyung pressed the two blood vessels with it and gently scraped off the membranes above with a scalpel.

‘……!’

It was a careful but bold touch.

‘He’s crazy. He’s really crazy.’

Lee Chan-hee, who was watching it, got goosebumps all over his body. Anyone would. Scalpel work on those two blood vessels was an act that would give anyone goosebumps.

If fledgling interns had attended this place, they would have paid their respects. It was not an exaggeration.

Venous and arterial blood vessels were a really difficult area.

‘How many doctors can do that kind of surgery? I want to be like the doctor.’

Just as Lee Chan-hee’s tension turned into emotion, Tae-kyung peeled off the membrane and dissected the lymph nodes above it in a row.

‘Good. Let’s keep this pace.’

That’s how he was dissecting the first, second, and middle when it happened.

Swaa- Swak-

It wasn’t an illusion. It was a sound that could be seen and heard.

Blood was gushing out.

Swaa-

The space, about 5 cm wide and 15 cm long, that had been opened to dissect the lymph nodes, became a river of blood in less than 5 seconds.

The operating room was like a disaster had struck in an instant. At the same time, the intensity of the odor began to rise like crazy as if tear gas had been set off.

‘T, this!’

At that moment, Lee Chan-hee thought.

‘Table death [Death occurring during a surgical procedure].’

He thought that patient Lee Go-cheol would surely have a table death. In fact, Tae-kyung was able to do this much with those enormous blood vessels.

Thyroid cancer. Cancer that had already passed the early stages and started to metastasize to the lymph nodes.

In addition, it was a case where he had no choice but to touch those blood vessels in order to dissect the lymph nodes.

If Lee Go-cheol had met a doctor other than Tae-kyung, it was a case that would have been abandoned without even starting the surgery.

‘Bleeding… there’s a lot of bleeding.’

Lee Chan-hee’s tension started to jump again due to the enormous amount of bleeding. The fingertips holding the instrument trembled slightly against his will.

‘Let’s get a grip. Let’s get a grip. The doctor is…….’

Lee Chan-hee quickly looked at Tae-kyung. Come to think of it, something was strange.

‘Damn it!’

‘Ah! Shit.’

‘Damn! Close it.’

The words that usually come out of the mouths of surgeons who have become as sensitive as possible in this situation were not heard at all.

It wasn’t because he had a foul mouth or a grumpy personality. In this situation, even a saint would have a hard time maintaining composure. But Tae-kyung’s expression and eyes were strange.

‘What is it……!’

He was still maintaining his composure.

‘He’s not shaken.’

Even if you do a thorough examination before surgery, there are exceptions in the operating room.

That’s why Tae-kyung simulated countless times with Thai practice the day before, thinking and studying a lot.

He had calculated in advance the emergency situations that could occur while operating on Lee Go-cheol.

And the disastrous situation in front of him was also included in that number of cases.

The moment a doctor acknowledges his skills, he becomes arrogant, and the moment he becomes intoxicated with that arrogance, he loses the patient.

This is why Tae-kyung still doesn’t acknowledge his skills and ‘tries’.

‘The bleeding rate is fast.’

Tae-kyung faced the bleeding that was coming out at a rapid rate. The speed was so fast.

It was only natural that the speed was fast.

Among the papers, there is a paper called Hanji, which is particularly thin. Even if you stack several sheets, it was thinner than regular paper.

If you put regular paper in water, you can take it out while maintaining its shape for a while. But if you put Hanji in water, it is difficult to take it out while maintaining its state.

It’s so thin that it dissolves quickly.

These two blood vessels were like that.

It was as if thin hanji sheets, stacked in several layers, were soaked in water for 24 hours. That state was the normal state of the two blood vessels.

So, doing surgery was an unbelievably difficult task.

“I’ll save him!”

Tae-kyung said as if talking to himself. He could even feel the determination in his eyes.

The smell of the fifth vital [Likely a euphemism for blood] was getting stronger and stronger as much as the bleeding was gushing out, but he didn’t waver.

“I will definitely save him.”

He was the only one who could restore the wound in this blood vessel and save the patient from death.

“Lee Chan-hee!”

“Yes, yes. Doctor.”

“What are you doing! Aren’t you going to do what you have to do now?”

“No, I’ll do it. Suction!”

Lee Chan-hee, who had come to his senses at Tae-kyung’s resounding shout, began to suck up the blood with the suction he was holding.

Shuk- Shuk-

The large amount of blood is quickly sucked into the instrument.

The suction power of the operating room is quite strong. It sucks up 500cc of water in less than 20 seconds. But this bleeding was not easy.

Even if the end of the suction was slightly off the wound, the entire field of vision would be obscured by blood.

Shuk- Shuk-

“Give me a bulldog [A surgical clamp used to temporarily stop blood flow in a vessel] and give it to me.”

“……!”

Bulldog?

Lee Chan-hee, who was listening to the order with suction, was puzzled.

If you clamp the blood vessel with a bulldog, all bleeding will stop at that moment. Of course, securing the field of vision and subsequent treatment becomes easier. But that action was not easy to do.

‘There will be a timeout…….’

This is because the moment you use this surgical tool, blood flow is completely blocked and a time limit is imposed.

Furthermore, such a large blood vessel requires accurate restoration as much as the damaged area, and there is not much time.

While the operating room staff was paying attention to Tae-kyung, the next order poured out.

“Give me a micro forcep [A small, precise surgical instrument for grasping tissue] and a needle holder. And give me my loupe too.”

“Loupe!?”

The nurse, who was handing over the forceps accurately, paused and asked back.