Chapter 182
I untied the string on the envelope with trembling hands.
And the moment I pulled out the documents inside, I froze.
[Plan for the Establishment of Cheongjin University Medical Center Acute Care Treatment Center and TF (A)]
…
Rustle.
Rustle-rustle.
The rough sound of pages being turned filled the medical center director's office.
The professors darted their eyes around busily, and their expressions changed from puzzlement to shock, and then to utter disbelief, as if they couldn't make any sense of it.
[1-STEP Treatment Model]
[Establishment of an independent acute care department located within the emergency medical center, or in an adjacent area]
[From internal medicine diagnosis to surg…]
[…a hybrid team that handles intensive care management]
“….“
Neurology Chief Hwang Seong-jin slapped the paper down and let out a deep sigh.
“Director. What is this.”
“What do you mean, what is it? Can't you tell by looking? It's the future our hospital is headed for.”
“Director, this plan is….”
Hwang Seong-jin, one of our hospital's most rigid sticklers for principle, couldn't finish his sentence and bit his lip.
“Why, what's the problem? The budget? I'll fund everything.”
“This isn't about money! Think about it rationally. If a department like that existed, it would be utopia. I admit it! Patients would be diagnosed and operated on the moment they arrived. There'd be no need to hand them from one department to another—how great would that be?”
Hwang Seong-jin raised his voice.
“But this is a plan that is realistically impossible. Under Korean medical law and systemically, it makes no sense!”
“In the U.S., a similar model has already taken root around trauma surgery.”
“Even in the U.S., departments like this don't exist outside trauma centers! Covering every disease from cerebrovascular and cardiovascular cases to abdominal cases? What kind of plan is this, exactly?”
“Hey now, not every disease. Chronic diseases and cancer are excluded. It says here that we only see acute patients who look like they're about to die any second.”
“No, what kind of wordplay is that…!”
Hwang Seong-jin thumped his chest in frustration.
I also couldn't take my eyes off the proposal in front of me.
One team does all this?
'The director is overestimating me way too much.'
Then, Professor Park Seung-woo of Neurosurgery, who had been quietly reading the document, raised his hand.
“Director. I've skimmed it. Let's make one assumption first. Let's say, for argument's sake, we can build the system. Let's say you even provide the space and buy the equipment.”
Park Seung-woo pointed at me with his finger.
“So you're saying the core member of the team is this resident here?”
“That's right. Dr. Han Hyeonjae will be the center of the team.”
“Huh….”
Park Seung-woo let out a dry laugh.
“Dr. Han is certainly outstanding. No, after seeing the test results from earlier, outstanding doesn't even cover it. This kid is a genius. Yes, that's right. I admit it. Director, your judgment was spot on.”
Professor Park Seung-woo of Neurosurgery looked back at the director.
“Everything you said is right, Director, but what about surgery?”
“Surgery?”
“Yes. Surgery. Diagnosis? Drug treatment? Sure, if you're smart and study hard, Emergency Medicine can do that too. But holding a scalpel is different.”
Professor Park Seung-woo tapped his own head.
“Has Dr. Han ever opened a skull? Fixed a spine? Performed clip ligation? There are plenty of staff and residents in neurosurgery who aren't naturally gifted. But they still do it. Why? Because it's a matter of training. Brain surgery requires highly advanced training!”
“Dr. Han perfectly assisted a thoracotomy at Geoje Hospital.”
Lee Jae-yoon replied calmly.
“He even kept pace with my own operating speed. He'd probably never even stood at the operating table before. He has innate talent. I guarantee that. I don't know whether he can produce similar performance in neurosurgery, though.”
“Director, no matter how much innate diagnostic talent and procedural skill Dr. Han has, deciding to operate personally and actually putting the scalpel to work is a completely different matter.”
Professor Park Seung-woo of Neurosurgery squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again.
“Emergency Medicine isn't a surgical department. A non-surgical resident picking up a scalpel and opening a brain is grounds for dismissal on the spot.”
“Isn't the point just to save them? You've seen people die because emergency surgery can't be done every day, haven't you?”
“That's a system problem. It doesn't justify an unqualified person performing surgery!”
“Unqualified? I have a medical license!”
“I'm talking about specialist certification! He isn't a specialist, is he.”
Amid the tense standoff, I couldn't even breathe and could only watch.
'Ugh, I shouldn't have come.'
Then Chief Shin Young-jun of Endocrinology spoke up quietly.
“Director.”
“Go on.”
“We're not doing this because we're belittling Dr. Han Hyeonjae. You saw the test, didn't you? This guy really is a monster. We want him too—so much that we'd like to drag him over right now. But Professor Park is right. We're not saying Dr. Han lacks ability, are we?”
“Then.”
“What if a patient goes wrong during surgery? What about the criticism and legal responsibility that would pour in then? The excuse that we made him do it because he's a genius won't hold up in court, Director. It wouldn't be right for Dr. Han Hyeonjae either.”
All the professors' gazes turned to Lee Jae-yoon.
Their eyes were all saying the same thing.
'Face reality.'
Lee Jae-yoon fell silent for a moment.
He seemed to be lost in deep thought.
I too lowered my head.
They were right.
No matter how much godlike skill I showed after possessing this body, my affiliation was still Emergency Medicine.
If I'd majored in surgery from the start, maybe it'd be different, but at this point, after already becoming a senior resident, it's an area I can't do anything about now.
The director fell into deep contemplation.
“…….”
Professor Park Seung-woo of Neurosurgery spoke again.
“No matter how much of a genius he is, what's not right is not right. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that his answers during the test earlier were perfect, and that he perfectly assisted in thoracic surgery in Geoje. Maybe Dr. Han had been frantically watching thoracic surgery videos and teaching himself.”
Park Seung-woo gave me a sidelong glance and continued.
“But being able to do something and being qualified to do it are different. That's why licenses and specialist certifications exist.”
Then Shin Young-jun of Endocrinology cautiously raised his hand.
“Um… Director. Professor Park isn't wrong, so let's look for a compromise. If we reorganize it into a department that focuses more on initial plans, treatment plans, and diagnostic direction rather than the role of a surgeon who directly operates…”
He seemed to be trying to offer a compromise because the atmosphere had become too hostile.
“Then isn't that no different from the current Emergency Medicine department?”
Director Lee Jae-yoon said flatly.
“It's a little different. The current Emergency Medicine department's main job is to stabilize patients and send them off to the various departments, isn't it? It doesn't establish definitive diagnoses or long-term treatment plans.”
Shin Young-jun spoke once more.
“But, Chief Shin.”
Lee Jae-yoon pointed at the paper as if frustrated.
“Take another look at the proposal. The goal of this center is definitive treatment. Merely diagnosing and handing them off is, in the end, nothing more than a difference in timing; it's no different from the current system.”
And then he tapped the desk lightly.
Thump thump thump.
“Everyone, attention for a moment.”
“…Yes, Director.”
“Please, go ahead.”
“To sum up all the professors' opinions here, the problem is the system and reality, not that Dr. Han lacks ability. Isn't that right?”
“…….”
The professors looked to one another.
It's a trap question.
If they said he lacked ability here, it'd be the same as denying the test results; if they said his ability overflowed, they'd be falling right into the director's logic.
Professor Park Seung-woo of Neurosurgery stepped forward defensively, frowning.
“Director, why do you always frame it like that? We're talking about principle.”
“Listen to me. Am I wrong? You were all shocked when you saw Dr. Han's answer sheet earlier.”
“…You're not wrong. Dr. Han really is a monster. He's definitely a genius. It's the first time I've ever seen a resident with that kind of insight.”
“Right? Then let me ask.”
Lee Jae-yoon pointed at me with his finger.
“Then are we really going to let Han Hyeonjae with that kind of talent sit in an ER packed with patients, seeing nothing but people with colds and drunks? Isn't that a loss for the hospital?”
“Emergency medicine specialists don't see every patient, after all…”
Lee Jae-yoon brushed aside Shin Young-jun's words from Endocrinology.
“In the end, he'll be tied down by the system and his talent will rot away. That's what I find regrettable. He's the type who could save lives if you put a scalpel in his hand.”
The professors fell silent.
It's a shame to leave the rough gem that is Han Hyeonjae alone, but if you try to use him, the rules get in the way.
“For now, given the professors' opinions and the need for review, there is no guarantee we can realize this utopian department right away. It's simply too idealistic a model. If I had my way, we'd have to tear up the Medical Service Act and rewrite it.”
Lee Jae-yoon let out a deep sigh.
“Yes. So you've finally conceded the limitations as well, Director?”
“Yes. I admit it. It's impossible for now. I'm not a dreamer.”
Lee Jae-yoon nodded.
Relief flickered across the professors' faces.
At last, the director had relented.
At that moment, Lee Jae-yoon smiled.
“But isn't the point to organize a TF starting now, in order to solve that problem?”
“Director?”
“Dr. Han is now in his third year as a resident. He's just heading into the summer of his third year.”
Lee Jae-yoon held up three fingers.
“He still has a year and a half before he can become a specialist. In that amount of time, maybe not the whole world, but at least one hospital system could be changed.”
“So what you're saying, Director, is that we're not handing Dr. Han a scalpel right this second?”
Professor Park Seung-woo of Neurosurgery asked.
“What I'm saying is that we should lay the groundwork in advance so he can run wild legally by the time he becomes a specialist. That's the purpose of this TF. We'll find a way, no matter what, so that the day this guy gets his specialist certification, he can walk right in as the first staff member of this acute care department.”
The professors were speechless.
Because the director's resolve was firm.
“That's what I think. Now we should hear the person's own opinion.”
Lee Jae-yoon leaned back in his chair and looked at me.
“I'd like to ask what Dr. Han thinks.”
I fidgeted with the proposal paper on my lap.
'My thoughts….'
The director was setting up a huge stage for me.
And I was supposedly going to become a central pillar of this unprecedented new department, the acute care treatment department, that would be established in the future.
'Honestly, it's overwhelming.'
Not just overwhelming—it's scary.
I'd vaguely expected to be called a genius or some kind of outlier.
But the reason I threw all my energy into this test, and the reason I grabbed onto Director Lee Jae-yoon like a lifeline, was because I thought it was the shortcut to becoming a professor.
'I've been scammed.'
But once I got on board, it turned out not to be a shortcut.
It was a road leading straight into the middle of a desert that wasn't even on the map.
No one knew whether the destination would be an oasis or a parched wasteland.
“You mean my thoughts?”
“Yes, Dr. Han's thoughts. Tell me honestly.”
The director urged me on.
The professors' gazes focused on my face.
'Right, my thoughts.'
The calculator in my head was running quickly.
Given the reactions around me now, and my situation after having already committed myself, there was no turning back anyway.
What would happen if I said I couldn't do it, that I was scared?
Would I fall out of the director's favor and drift farther from a faculty position?
But to just accept it outright would be suicide.
If I took this plan, whose success probability was converging on zero, and ran with it as-is, I might overwork myself to death or end up in prison.
'Given that the director is seriously drawing up this kind of plan and even called me in for it, I must be an essential piece of this plan after all……'
I made up my mind.
If I'm going to go anyway, then I need to take the wheel myself.
'Not a pawn, but a player.'
That was my conclusion.
“I'll tell you what I think.”
“Go ahead.”
“I think it's a very ambiguous department that is neither one thing nor the other.”
“?!”
“…?!”
In an instant, the director's eyebrow twitched.
The professors' eyes went wide.
How dare a resident evaluate a medical center director's plan as ambiguous?
But I couldn't back down now.
If I back down here, I'll just be a pawn forever.
“Under the plan you've given us, Director.”
I placed the paper on the table.
“I think the feasibility is close to zero. It's impossible.”