Chapter 150
One cloudy afternoon in March, in the main building conference room.
Normally, it should have been a warm social gathering where each department head met to discuss the hospital's direction, the latest medical findings, or just check in on one another....
But today, the atmosphere was especially heavy and dreary.
The murmuring was pretty loud, too.
“...Didn't I say that from the start? That branch site was chosen wrong from the beginning.”
The planning director tapped the desk with his pen, venting his frustration.
“Even if Geoje's population were 200,000 or 300,000, why on earth did they choose a site way out there instead of in the city center?”
“They bragged they'd snag patients from Geoje and Tongyeong, even from Goseong.”
The administrative vice president sitting across from him clicked his tongue.
“Looks like they'll lose all three. Patients only come if access is good. I knew it when I reviewed the business plan. This isn't something you solve by running a few shuttle buses.”
Sighs of agreement and murmurs broke out all over the conference room.
Cheongjin University Geoje Hospital, which had opened ambitiously this time.
It had started with the grand ambition of expanding the brand and becoming the medical hub of southern Gyeongnam, but once the lid was lifted, reality was far from easy.
“The main hospital itself keeps swinging between profit and loss like a seesaw—what gave them the confidence to build the branch that big?”
“What good is a big building? It’s empty inside.”
The head of rehabilitation medicine chimed in with a wry smile.
“Still, didn’t the branch opening at least increase the professor headcount a bit?”
“What’s the point of increasing the slots if there’s no one to fill them?”
The thoracic surgery chief shook his head.
“And the resident slots stayed the same. In the end, they have to split up the main hospital residents and rotate them over there, but do you think the kids will want to go? And the hospital can only run about 250 beds in practice anyway. It’s a half-baked hospital. What is this?”
“Hah....”
But in that gloomy atmosphere, there was exactly one corner that was unusually warm and lively.
It was the corner seat where Park Woong, head of the Emergency Medical Center, and Professor Kang Hyunjun, who had newly taken the title of trauma center director in this personnel reshuffle, were sitting.
“So, what I’m saying is, Chief Park.”
Director Kang Hyunjun leaned toward Park Woong and whispered.
“That Han Hyeonjae kid is the real deal. I saw him ride the helicopter a few times when he was the air medical team leader... wow.”
Kang Hyunjun shook his head over and over in admiration.
“It’s not just guts, either. His hands and his ability to judge a situation aren’t at the level of a third-year resident. Honestly, he’s better than most fellows.”
“Oh, come on....”
Park Woong coughed and tried to keep a stern expression.
“He’s just a little flashy, that’s all. He gets into trouble a lot, too.”
“Ah, what trouble? Trouble that saves lives isn’t trouble—it’s results.”
Kang Hyunjun laughed.
Park Woong was desperately suppressing the corners of his mouth from shooting upward.
‘He’s the real deal. Damn right, the real deal.’
To Park Woong, Han Hyeonjae was both a frightening disciple and a source of pride.
Ever since his first year, he’d caused every bizarre kind of incident imaginable, but almost all of those incidents ended with the patient surviving.
Like him or not, he was a crazy bastard on a different scale.
That was when it happened.
“You two are having a very interesting conversation, aren’t you?”
A man with a folksy dialect and his hand quietly shoved into his pocket suddenly cut into their conversation.
It was Professor Hwang Jun, head of the neonatal intensive care unit and chief of neonatology.
“Oh my, Professor Hwang. You’re here.”
“You’re talking about that kid just now? Dr. Han Hyeonjae from the ER?”
“Yes. Well, there’s been a lot of talk about him lately.”
Professor Hwang Jun.
He was a man the hospital director had personally brought in.
He had once run the neonatal intensive care unit at the giant children's hospital in Seoul, the largest in Korea, helping set the standard for Korean-style neonatal ICU management.
He was the legendary figure whom the hospital director had rushed over to recruit the moment rumors spread that he was considering returning home after retirement, asking him whether he’d like to nurture the next generation in his hometown.
Although some people grumbled behind his back that they didn’t get much recruiting effect from him since he wasn’t from surgery or any department that had to travel all the way to Seoul for special treatment, the hospital director had forced himself to rationalize it by saying it was fine as long as he and the children's hospital director were satisfied.
That kind of heavyweight was now getting worked up over a third-year emergency medicine resident.
“Wow, after seeing him in person, that kid’s completely nuts.”
Professor Hwang clicked his tongue.
“Even you’re saying that, Professor Hwang?”
“Of course. Man, I’m seriously jealous of you, Chief Park.”
Hwang Jun looked at Park Woong with a truly envious expression.
“Don’t you have any plans to send him into pediatric emergency later?”
“Haha, well, emergency medicine doesn’t really have a subspecialty he could branch off into, and... he might want that himself.”
“What kind of teacher says the exact same thing as his disciple?”
Professor Hwang snorted and continued.
“Anyway, I was really shocked. Catching a UVC in a helicopter was already incredible, but later he came to me and just rattled off newborn ventilator settings...”
Professor Hwang thumped his own chest.
“Man, my heart was pounding like crazy then. He understood the mechanisms and pathophysiology perfectly and even applied them, so I thought he was completely insane. Still gives me goosebumps when I think about it.”
“Dr. Han did that? But why was he even there...?”
Professor Kang Hyunjun, the trauma center director listening beside them, asked with wide eyes.
It was a perfectly reasonable question: why was an emergency medicine resident lecturing the neonatology chief about a ventilator?
“I called him because I had some personal questions about the child we brought in by helicopter, and I wanted to ask how on earth he managed to insert a UVC on that shaking helicopter floor.”
Professor Hwang laughed with a hollow expression.
“In the end, I never even got to ask. I just spent the whole time admiring him and that was that. Hohoho.”
“And Hyeonjae seems to have studied pediatrics a bit, too. He’s the kind of guy who knows a little about everything.”
Park Woong scratched his head awkwardly.
“It’s not just that he’s well-read—what was it, Minjae? Lee Minjae, was it? The kid who came in five years ago.”
The trauma surgery chief, Professor Kang, searched his memory.
“Back then, rumors were already flying that that kid was one hell of a piece of work, but this one seems even more impressive.”
“Ugh, don’t even mention it.”
Park Woong waved his hand.
“Seriously, it’s like we’ve developed a tradition of a lunatic coming in every four years. There’s never a quiet day. I feel like my lifespan is shrinking fast.”
“And yet, Chief Park, you’re smiling inside anyway. Your mouth corners are practically hooked to your ears.”
Kang Hyunjun hit the nail on the head.
Park Woong coughed and managed his expression.
It was true.
Though it was hard, wasn’t the reward of raising disciples like that exactly why he stayed at a university hospital?
“But I’m thinking we should just make him a professor as soon as he gets his specialist certification. What do you think, Chief Park?”
When he dropped that bombshell, Park Woong and Kang Hyunjun both widened their eyes.
“Pro... professor? Right away?”
“He has the skills, he has guts, and he has plenty of clinical experience. Why waste time making him a fellow or an instructor? We need to lock him down before he runs off somewhere else.”
He was serious.
“These days, young people are smart, so if anything goes a little wrong, they bolt straight to a local clinic. You have to secure someone like that if the hospital is going to survive.”
“A professor... a professor....”
Park Woong stroked his chin and fell into thought.
In fact, it wasn’t unprecedented.
“Given that emergency medicine handles acute illnesses and resuscitation, honestly there does seem to be a case for placing him there right away.”
“Right? There’s more than enough justification.”
“Justification, huh....”
Park Woong’s gaze deepened.
“Director Kang.”
“Yes?”
“Our hospital’s professor slots increased a bit this year, right?”
“Ah, right. I heard the slots increased overall when the branch opened.”
Park Woong nodded slowly.
There was a seat.
There was a person.
And a very certain piece of work at that.
‘Appointing him as a professor right after he gets specialist certification....’
It was radical.
But if it was Han Hyeonjae...
‘I’d never be able to watch that kid go off to a local clinic and just see cold-and-flu patients, not even if dirt got in my eyes.’
Park Woong had begun to seriously think it over.
***
One weekend morning in March.
I was heading to the hospital with an iced Americano in one hand.
My commute felt unusually peaceful today.
‘Maybe because this is my first weekend shift as a third-year resident?’
The interference from the fourth-years had decreased, and below me there were now three quick first-years.
Was this the ease that came with being a senior resident?
Beep-
[The entrance door has opened.]
The moment I stepped into the Emergency Medical Center, a very fundamental question flashed through my mind.
‘...But isn’t working on the weekend supposed to be bad?’
Why was I feeling refreshed while walking into prison of my own free will on a spring day when everyone else was out enjoying the cherry blossoms?
Was I crazy?
Why does this feel so good?
I must have gotten so used to slave labor that my brain structure had been remodeled.
I shook my head and headed for the station.
“Ah! Hi, Dr. Hyeonjae!”
A first-year I ran into in the hallway greeted me cheerfully.
“Oh, hey. You... uh, Jeong-ho? Hello~ you got here early?”
I gave him a kindly senior-resident smile.
“It’s Jeong-hun.”
“....”
Kang Jeong-hun looked at me with a slightly hurt expression.
“Sorry, Jeong-hun. Your name is just... really warm and friendly. Very likable.”
“...Thanks.”
I shamelessly got out of the bind and quickly fled deeper into the station.
‘Sorry. Honestly, I still can’t quite match your faces to your names.’
In the station, Jo Soo-yeon, who had just finished an overnight shift, was staring at the monitor with hollow eyes.
“You’re here?”
“What happened to your face?”
“Don’t even ask. Yesterday’s troublemakers were a total mess.”
Jo Soo-yeon shook her head as if fed up and handed over the handoff sheet.
“All the critical patients have been moved to ICU, and now the only beds left are mild cases. Nice and clean, right?”
“I love you, classmate.”
“Shut up. You’re disgusting.”
Jo Soo-yeon slung her bag over her shoulder and flipped me the middle finger.
I fired back with the same gesture, refusing to lose, and proudly displayed our heartwarming classmate bond.
“Take care. I’m going to go pass out, so don’t look for me.”
“Go on. Work hard seeing patients even in your dreams.”
Once Jo Soo-yeon got off work, I sat down and started my peaceful weekend duty.
...
The needle passes through flesh.
Tie the knot.
“You can get the stitches removed at a nearby hospital in a week. Be careful not to let it get wet...”
Mm, good.
Nice and clean.
“If it opens back up or anything, you need to come back to the hospital right away. Alcohol can cause inflammation, so please avoid drinking for a while.”
I was in the middle of stitching up the forehead of a patient who'd simply fallen over.
Ring-ring-ring-
The emergency room phone rang.
‘Hmm, what kind of patient is it.’
I casually took off my gloves and tossed them in the trash can.
The nurse at the station picked up the receiver.
“Hello? This is the emergency room. Yes, yes.”
Suddenly, the nurse’s tone changed.
“What did you say? No, how many are there?”
How many?
Usually when patients come in, you ask what kind they are, not how many.
That meant it was a group visit.
I reflexively turned my head and looked at the station.
“No, I mean how many are coming roughly? You still don’t have an exact estimate?”
The nurse’s expression was hardening ominously.
Foreboding words lodged in my ears.
How many.
Unable to estimate.
And then.
“Well then, we... yes. Yes. DMAT (* Disaster Medical Assistance Team)?”
DMAT?
“Then we’ll contact the person in charge right away. Yes! Understood!”
Click.
The nurse set down the receiver.
“Doc.”
Her voice came out cracked.
“There’s been a fire accident, and it looks... pretty big.”