Chapter 147
“No, doctor! You can’t be so calm about this right now!”
Baek Eun-seo shouted, practically screaming.
The nurses at the station were startled enough to look over, but she went on as if other people's stares meant nothing to her.
“Why not? I mean, people can be calm sometimes in life.”
“No, but this is on a whole different level of insane from everything you’ve done so far! On a helicopter! A UVC!”
‘Hmm, to blatantly call a senior doctor crazy like that.’
She’s got guts too, no joke.
Well, that’s probably why she’s still hanging on in emergency medicine.
True enough.
Even I thought it was insane.
I couldn’t do it with a clear head.
Only because I’d been possessed by a ghost could I pull it off.
“Uh… yeah. I guess it’s not easy to intubate a baby.”
“Not just not easy—it’s practically impossible on a shaking helicopter!”
Baek Eun-seo spilled questions out like a machine gun, unable to calm down.
“How big was the baby? Was it full-term? On the bigger side?”
“Ah, um… 35 weeks. Around 2 kilos?”
“35 weeks?!”
Baek Eun-seo’s mouth dropped open.
“Then the airway must’ve been thinner than a straw! No, doctor, can you even see that stuff? The vocal cords and the epiglottis? Can you really intubate in a situation like that?”
“Turns out I could.”
“Hah….”
Baek Eun-seo was left speechless.
Honestly, I don’t know either.
I couldn’t see it with my own eyes.
Just how insane a doctor had I been in life to see that?
Was I an eagle in a previous life, maybe?
“No, and didn’t you use a different blade too? Babies are supposed to use the straight one! Because you have to lift the epiglottis!”
“Right. I used a Miller 0.”
“I mean, can you even intubate with that….”
Baek Eun-seo murmured, looking down at her own hands as if sunk in self-loathing.
“But if your view is clear, it turns out it can be done.”
I hedged. It wasn’t me who did it, so I couldn’t give tips.
“Nooo!!”
Suddenly Baek Eun-seo cried out in frustration and whipped her finger around.
The tip of her finger pointed to Kang Jeong-hun, the first-year resident who had been quietly drinking bottled water in the corner.
“That guy!!!”
…?
Kang Jeong-hun’s eyes went wide.
“That guy is a perfectly normal adult man lying there! An adult male with an airway that should be super easy to secure, and he couldn’t even intubate him properly, so he shoved the tube into the esophagus and I had to do it for him!!!!!”
“Pffft!!!”
Kang Jeong-hun spat out the water he was drinking and coughed.
Cough, cough. Hack. Cough.
A sudden fact bomb.
And the comparison was a third-year resident who had successfully intubated a premature baby in a helicopter.
Wasn’t that a little too harsh?
“Are you okay? Want oxygen? Need suction?”
I tried to lighten the mood with a joke while patting Kang Jeong-hun on the back.
“Ah, cough! I’m fine! I’m okay! Sorry!”
Kang Jeong-hun bowed his head, his face bright red.
He might feel wronged, but what could he do?
That’s how you grow.
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get too discouraged.”
I wrapped things up and stood up from my seat.
If I got held here any longer, it felt like I’d have to give Baek Eun-seo an anatomy lecture too.
“Don’t just sit here; go around the ER and stretch your legs too. Report back if anything unusual comes up.”
“Yes! Understood!”
Kang Jeong-hun and Yoon Tae-hyun both sprang to their feet.
With that, the two of them left, and only Baek Eun-seo and I remained at the station.
“Eun-seo.”
“Yes?”
“Anyway, I’m technically off-duty now. Since the chief told me to go.”
“Yes, that’s right! Though you did sleep in the hospital.”
“So I have somewhere to go, and I’ll be away for a bit. It’s still in the hospital, but not in the ER.”
I fiddled with the phone vibrating in my pocket.
“If anything really urgent comes up, call me. Actually, the professor’s here too, so you probably won’t need to call me, but just in case.”
“Ah... yes! Understood. Get some rest and come back. You really worked hard today.”
Baek Eun-seo bowed politely.
Finally, this was starting to make sense.
“Alright. I’m going. Take care.”
I naturally left the station.
The automatic door opened, and the cold corridor air touched my face.
I took my phone out of my pocket.
[Son Jongun]
Sleep? - 20:32
Sleep? - 21:11
Sleep? Are you still sleeping? - 22:19
That persistent bastard.
He was practically burning with eagerness to get his money’s worth for the equipment he lent me.
[Son Jongun]
If you’re awake, come to the pediatric department office area at the children’s hospital, or the lobby, whatever—just crawl over here yourself ㅇㅇ - 23:18
“....”
Seriously, why was this bastard being so annoyingly vague about the location?
If it’s near the pediatrics office, say it’s near the pediatrics office. If it’s the lobby, say it’s the lobby.
What do you mean, “crawl over here yourself”?
“Tch, he really does it all.”
I grumbled and shoved the phone back into my pocket.
The emergency medical center building and the children’s hospital are connected by a passageway.
I rolled my stiff neck and started walking toward the dark corridor.
The cost of the equipment I borrowed in the helicopter, and the price of the life I saved because of it.
I should at least buy him a lavish meal, but I wonder if there’s anywhere open this late.
…
Beep.
[The access door has opened.]
With the notification sound, the glass door opened.
Before 2020—before COVID swept the world—the layout of hospitals didn’t seem to be this brutally segregated.
Ah, was that during the 2015 MERS outbreak?
‘The hospital did become safer.’
Anyway, after that, whether it was the ward or the resident room, wherever you went, employees had to scan their ID badges, and patients and guardians had to scan wrist barcodes.
‘Good for infection control, I guess. Annoying as hell, though.’
Unlike the interiors of other places, which were mostly cold whites, once I passed through the passageway to the children’s hospital, the mood changed completely.
Even the air itself felt different, I guess.
Bright, colorful paint ran along the walls, and all over the place were stickers of unidentified cute animal characters.
Once little childlike drawings started appearing on the walls, it meant the destination was just about here.
[Children’s Hospital 5F]
[NICU / MFICU]
[Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine Dept. 2 / Professor’s Research Room]
“Here it is.”
I stopped roughly in the middle of the hallway, right in front of the pediatrics resident office door.
It was dawn, so the corridor was quiet, but beyond that door the on-call residents were probably reeking of coffee.
There was no need to ring the bell or knock just to startle the people inside.
After all, my target was only one person.
I took my phone from my pocket and sent a curt text.
[Come out]
The moment I hit send, the number 1 disappeared.
And exactly five seconds later.
Bang!
The door flew open hard enough to break.
And from inside, an exhausted-looking Son Jongun popped out.
His limping leg was just a bonus.
“Hyeonjae.”
“Huh? Why? If you were gonna call, at least say something...”
“You fucking crazy bastard?”
“Why are you suddenly cursing at me like that?”
“How am I not supposed to curse? Helicopter UVC, and then a 35-week preemie intubation? You asshole!!”
Son Jongun limped toward me like he might grab me by the collar.
“Anyway, I saved...”
“It’s a miracle! But for us it’s doom! We’re getting chewed out because they’re saying even the ER can do it too, so what are you guys?”
Good grief.
What a fallout.
“Anyway! Come in! They told me to bring you!”
“What?”
“My job is to kidnap you!”
Bang!
And just like that, I was somehow abducted(?) into the pediatrics and adolescent medicine conference room.
A man with a stern expression had been looking at a monitor, then turned to face me.
He was Professor Hwang Jun, the pediatrics professor and head of the NICU.
“Ah, Dr. Han Hyeonjae from Emergency Medicine?”
“Ah, yes! Hello, Professor. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
I bowed at a ninety-degree angle.
To be honest, not once.
Apart from Son Jongun cursing him as a total old-school jerk every day.
But basic socializing is lip service.
“Yeah, yeah, I thought that punk Son Jongun had picked a good colleague. Haha. Sit down first.”
“Thank you.”
I sat down stiffly in the chair.
Son Jongun stood beside me, grinning.
“Anyway, I watched you place that line in the helicopter, and you were really good. Made me wonder where you learned it...”
“Ah, I just attended a few in-hospital workshops and did some simulations. I’m not that good, really. I just got lucky.”
“Hoho, how modest. If you can get a UVC by luck, then all our fellows would have to go die.”
Professor Hwang burst into a hearty laugh.
The line was a little savage just now.
“It’s nothing much, really. I just wanted you to take a look at this. It’s the baby Dr. Han saved. Thought you might be curious.”
Then he turned the large screen toward me.
‘...Hmm.’
Honestly, I don’t really know just by looking.
I’ve seen thousands of adult X-rays, so I know those, but neonatal X-rays—especially of sick newborns—aren’t my field.
But I do know one expert.
‘First, I should capture it and post it on the gallery.’
I naturally captured the screen I was seeing through the system.
[Dead Physician Gallery]
===============
@Pediatric Ghost 77: Check this out
Author: Hell-Joseon Slave 1
(Photo)
===============
A few seconds later, comments started appearing one by one.
[Comments]
Pediatric Ghost 77: He’s holding up well.
Pediatric Ghost 77: On the echo (*echocardiogram),
it looks like the right ventricular pressure is a bit high. TR
(*tricuspid regurgitation)
too.
Pediatric Ghost 77: Looks like PPHN (*persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn).
Check the ventilator settings.
I glanced over and checked the ventilator mode displayed in the corner of the monitor.
ㄴ Hell-Joseon Slave 1: SIMV.
ㄴ Pediatric Ghost 77: Why wasn’t HFOV used?
ㄴ Pediatric Ghost 77: If meconium aspiration is severe and there are signs of PPHN, HFOV gives a much better prognosis than a regular ventilator. These days, even with meconium aspiration, if it isn’t contraindicated, we just use it, don’t we?
ㄴ Pediatric Ghost 77: Ask him this one thing. See if the professor missed something or if there’s another reason.
Huh.
I’m conflicted.
Pediatric Ghost 77 is, of course, an expert too, which is why they’d be on this gallery.
But the head of the NICU is right in front of me... so if I ask this...
No, the absolute pinnacle of neonatal care at our hospital is standing right in front of me.
If he saw it and still passed over it, there must be some reason, right?
‘But what if he really did miss it by mistake? That means the baby could be in danger.’
We saved that child.
It’d be unfair if we went to all that trouble to save the child only for treatment to be delayed and something to go wrong.
It isn’t like experts never make mistakes.
“Um, Professor.”
“Mm? What is it?”
Professor Hwang looked at me with curious eyes.
I swallowed hard.
“Ah, well, Professor. This is very presumptuous of me, but may I ask one thing about whether HFOV would be appropriate for this patient?”
“Huh?”
For an instant, Professor Hwang’s eyebrows twitched.
Professor Hwang, who had been looking at the monitor, turned his head with a startled expression.
Shit.
I should’ve just looked at the nursing notes.