Chapter 145
Ratatatatata....
As the helicopter banked sharply, the hospital building began to come into view outside the window.
“Is our baby okay? Why isn't the baby crying? Everything... is fine, right?”
The mother asked, reaching toward me even through her hazy consciousness.
OB doctor An Hyeon-jeong gripped the mother's hand tightly.
“Yes, yes. Don't worry. The baby was delivered safely, and we're using a machine to help it breathe better, so there's no sound right now.”
“Really...?”
“Yes. As soon as we land, the pediatric doctors will be waiting. We'll transfer the baby straight to the children's hospital and get treatment quickly, so please just think about your own body.”
“Ah, doctor, thank you so much...”
“The blood and medicine are going in now, so you'll be fine. Let's keep going a little longer.”
While reassuring the mother, An Hyeon-jeong kept watching the blood pressure reading on the monitor.
Ratatatata....
The helicopter began to descend.
'What is that thing waiting out there in the distance?'
The crowd waiting on one side of the helipad.
There were far more people than usual.
Portable incubators and adult transport beds were lined up side by side.
They've got newborn and adult transport ready so they can move them right away without the routes getting tangled.
And the people visible behind them.
The pediatrics and neonatology team, and the obstetrics team in green scrubs.
Altogether, around six or seven people were waiting for us against the gale.
Thud—
As soon as the landing gear touched down, ground crew rushed in.
Rattle-rattle!
As the helicopter sliding door swung wide open, the still-cold wind rushed in.
“We'll move the mother first! One, two, three!”
The paramedics and interns waiting there pulled the mother's bed out.
As soon as An Hyeon-jeong got off the helicopter, she saw Professor Kim So-young from obstetrics and immediately started firing off a briefing without even taking a breath.
“She's a 34-year-old primipara with placental abruption, and she delivered inside the helicopter. After the placenta came out, she developed uterine atony, so I massaged it. Right now she's on 1,000cc of mixed oxytocin at full drip, and I gave one ampule of Ervin IM.”
She kept pulling the stretcher while continuing the briefing.
“The uterine contractions are stabilizing now, but because it was a rapid delivery, the perineal tear is pretty severe. I suspect third degree or worse. We couldn't suture inside, so we packed it with gauze and applied pressure.”
Professor Kim So-young nodded and palpated the mother's abdomen.
“Good work. Let's move her straight to the delivery room!”
“Yes!”
Rattle-rattle-
In an instant, the obstetrics team disappeared down the hall.
As An Hyeon-jeong ran toward the elevator, she hesitated for a moment and looked back.
Me... no, Pediatric Ghost 77.
The ghost gave a brief nod.
The Pediatric Ghost 77 walked over to Professor Hwang Jun, the NICU chief.
“GA 35 weeks and 2 days, estimated birth weight in the 2kg range, male infant. Meconium aspiration was confirmed right after delivery, so I suctioned the mouth and airway. I did positive-pressure ventilation for 10 seconds, but there was no chest rise and the bradycardia persisted, so I intubated right away.”
Professor Hwang Jun looked at me as he opened the lid of the portable incubator.
“Tube size 3.0, secured at 8.5 centimeters.”
Rattle-rattle.
Pediatrics residents rushed over and connected the monitors.
While we were moving to the elevator, Professor Hwang checked the baby's umbilicus and asked,
“Did you get the umbilical vein? What is this line?”
Professor Hwang asked in disbelief.
An emergency medicine resident doing a UVC in the helicopter?
“Yes. The initial heart rate was under 50, so we started chest compressions, and when we checked the rhythm, the heart rate still hadn't come back, so we placed a UVC and gave one dose of epinephrine.”
“....”
Professor Hwang stared blankly at the name embroidered on my chest.
“Uh... yeah. Got it. Emergency medicine, good work... That's impressive.”
“Yes. Please take good care of the baby.”
When the elevator arrived, the pediatrics team pushed the incubator inside.
“Uh... you, um, go in slowly. Good work.”
Professor Hwang called out his farewell through the closing door.
Beep.
[Going down-]
Sssrrr-
The elevator doors closed, and Pediatric Ghost 77 was left alone.
Just like that, the ghost borrowing my body slowly opened the emergency exit door and stepped into the stairwell.
Then he raised his right hand, stared at it blankly for a moment, and clenched it into a fist.
We saved it.
That tiny life had not slipped away inside that shaking, hellish helicopter.
The work he had devoted his whole life to—the thing he loved most—and, even after death, was able to do once again.
“Thanks, heli-slave. I'm leaving now.”
Take care.
'Possession released, Pediatric Ghost 77.'
And then the sensation of darkness descending again.
“Hah!”
I staggered, clutching the emergency staircase railing.
“Haa... seriously...”
I sat down heavily on the stairs.
First day of year three.
Neonatal resuscitation, in-helicopter delivery, UVC procedure.
I pulled off the grand slam.
'I need to stop the possession penalty first.'
Twelve hours of horrible muscle pain.
'I'm going to collapse.'
My intuition told me so.
I don't want to earn the nickname of ER floor janitor on the first day of my third year.
Not the time for this.
I hurriedly called up the floating window in midair.
[Store]
Rattle-rattle.
Hurry up and scroll down, will you?
[Fatigue Recovery Medicine (Advanced)]
[Price : 1,000 LP]
[Description : For 9 hours, all fatigue and…]
I don't need this long-winded explanation right now.
[When used to offset the penalty that occurs after using a skill, duration is limited to 5 minutes.]
5 minutes.
'Yeah, let's buy... four of these.'
5 x 4 = 20.
That should be enough, I guess.
[Would you like to purchase?]
Yes.
[A total of 4,000 LP will be deducted.]
[Current LP : 84,330]
'That's a hell of a lot.'
I pressed the purchase button without hesitation.
By the way, this energy drink isn't a physical item; if you buy it from the system shop, it's treated as auto-use and applied to my body immediately.
The moment I bought it, a cool, refreshing sensation spread from deep within my bones.
But this is fake.
“All right, let's clean this up.”
I went down the rooftop emergency stairs.
***
Whirr-
As soon as the door to the emergency medical center on the first floor of Building E opened, the familiar smell of disinfectant and the murmur of voices greeted me.
I ran straight down the corridor toward the department chief's office deeper inside the ER.
“Ah, Doctor! You're back—!”
Baek Eun-seo, who had been sitting at the station, spotted me and sprang to her feet.
Her eyes were at least twice as big as usual.
Maybe she'd heard my exploits from An Hyeon-jeong or the pediatrics team who got off the helicopter, or maybe she was just curious about what I had done.
The former is unlikely given the timing, so I guess she was just curious about what I did.
The three first-year residents beside her were also looking at me with sparkling eyes.
“You came in by helicopter...”
“Doctor, good work!”
Baek Eun-seo called to me with an extremely intense stare, but now wasn't the time to answer.
If I got caught now, I'd waste all 20 minutes telling my heroic tale.
Then I'd die here.
Of course, not literally die—but I would die of embarrassment.
I raised a hand in a gesture saying I'd tell her later and breezed right past them.
'Eun-seo, sorry. Just this once.'
....
As I walked down the hall, I recalled an old memory.
That is, last winter. Around the point where my second year was ending.
I had once made a secret promise in a private meeting with Professor Park Woong, the chief of emergency medicine.
At the chief's office back then.
“...So, Han Hyeonjae, did I hear you right? You want to rest whenever you want?”
The chief pushed up his glasses and stared at me.
“I'll be blunt, Chief. You probably know that I can pull off truly insane procedures, occasionally make absurd diagnoses, and, with ridiculous concentration, basically do crazy things.”
“That's true. You are a bit unusual even among our residents. Are you interested in procedures from other departments and all that miscellaneous study stuff, or do you just have some kind of divine knack...”
The chief gave a somewhat positive reaction.
Because I'd caused so many incidents over the past two years.
“I actually have a kind of mental illness related to this.”
“Huh? A mental illness?”
“Yes. It's kind of like savant syndrome, but not quite. Anyway, once that hyperfocused state ends, I get a sudden burnout and physical exhaustion.”
I shamelessly lied.
Actually, since it's the possession penalty, half of it is true.
And so I kept persuading him for a long time.
“...So if I ever show some huge performance that other people can't, I need rest right afterward. Otherwise, I'll collapse.”
“Heh...”
“Hard as it may be to believe, it's the truth.”
The chief gave a dry laugh.
But he must have seen me collapse and get hauled away a few times.
“Hmm, so if you suddenly do something amazing and immediately want to use sick leave or leave early, you're saying I should just let you do it without asking questions?”
“Yes. That's right. In return, I'll normally do more than my share so it won't affect the work. And I'll come in the next day, whether I'm off duty or not.”
“...Hahaha, wow, I've lived a long time and never seen a lunatic make a deal like this. Are you gutsy, or are you just plain crazy?”
The chief laughed, drumming on the desk.
“Then what, you want me to do things like arrange substitute staff too? You know this is a perk most residents, no, even specialists, wouldn't even be able to bring themselves to ask for, right?”
“I know. But as you know, I've already got a record of collapsing and losing work several times. Then rather than just lying around sick and wasting time, I thought it'd be better to agree on this in advance and let you get one more day out of me.”
“Jeez, fine, whatever. But you'll have to surprise me. Bring me a crazy stunt I can actually accept, and I'll let you go.”
“Thank you.”
The moment I opened the door and was about to leave, the chief shouted,
“Hey, hey, hey, you're not going to faint during a procedure or anything, are you?!”
“No, sir.”
“Got it. Go on.”
***
Phew.
It was time to put that promise into action.
'Talk about perfect timing.'
I never thought I'd be using this card from the very first day of year three.
I stopped in front of the chief's office.
Bang—!
I immediately shoved the chief's office door open.
“Chief!”
“Oh my, you scared me!”
The chief, who had been carefully tending to an orchid inside, jumped in surprise.
“Knock before you come in, you brat! ...What's the matter? Why do you look like that? You're drenched in sweat.”
I went on quickly without even catching my breath.
“I'm taking the rest of the day off.”
“What? Ah... haha. You mean that story right now?”
The chief laughed in disbelief.
“Wow, I really wasn't joking when I said that, and now there's actually a lunatic using that deal... no, no, fine. You've barely been at work, so what amazing thing did you do today?”
“I intubated a newborn and placed a UVC.”
“....”
The chief froze.
“Where?”
“Inside the medical helicopter.”
Silence.
The chief's eyes widened.
An emergency medicine resident.
In a swaying helicopter.
Intubated a newborn and inserted a UVC?
“You're not lying, are you?”
“Check the chart. You can even call Professor Hwang in the NICU.”
I was confident.
The chief stared at me blankly.
But the chief was, after all, a real man.
“Go.”
The chief waved his hand.
“Yes, sir! Thank you! Loyalty and love~!”
“But you'll be able to come in tomorrow, right?”
“Once I sleep, I'll be fine.”
“Then hurry up and get going, you punk.”
As expected, a real man.
I dashed out of the chief's office without looking back.