Securing the Airway Is Important (2)

My finger hesitated over the call button. The moment I pressed it, not only my peaceful day off but my entire future at the hospital could be ruined.

It's not like I'd done a lot of stupid things so far and that meant I could keep doing stupid things.

Though at some point I'd forgotten that fact.

Anyway, thanks to the ghosts' passionate heckling, something like the last bit of reason left in my head snapped.

All the fatigue, resentment, and sheer misery I'd been building up exploded at once.

I put down my phone and, instead, started pouring all my anger into a post in the gallery writing window.

Title : Stop messing with me, you damn bastards!!!!!!!!

Author : HellJoseonSlave1

I've gotten a lot of help from you guys, and thanks to that patients don't die, I get chewed out by my seniors less, and I even get treated like an ace sometimes—but let's keep it within reason!!!!!!!! Let me actually rest on my day off, you damn ghost bastards!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really feel like I'm going to die!!!!!

Please, just let me rest, let me rest, let me rest!!!!!!!!!

The gallery fell silent for a moment at my madness-soaked new post.

A little later, comments full of obvious panic started popping up one by one.

ㅇㅇ(211.36) : Uh… HellSlave… don't do that… we're only doing this because we want what's best for you…

HippocratesHeir : O living one, we had momentarily forgotten your toil. Put aside your anger.

BackInMyDay: Kids these days just don't have any patience… no, that's not it. Right. Sorry.

ㄴ HellJoseonSlave1: I swear to God, if you keep this up I'm quitting the gallery, you damn ghost bastards.

Of course, I had no intention of actually quitting.

Why would I throw away this overpowered cheat code?

This was just for intimidation.

My threat was effective. The gallery instantly fell into a panic.

BoneNerd88 : Hey!!!! No way!! Don't go!! I'll show you my entire bone marrow slide collection!!

ScalpelGod : Let's talk this through.

And at last, their declaration of surrender went up.

ㅇㅇ(211.36) : HellSlave! We'll only make you do about half as much!!!!! Let's study just an hour or two a day, okay? How about that as a compromise!

Tsk.

***

The negotiation had been successful.

Still, just in case, maybe I should try calling once.

I needed to show those ghosts that I'd at least made an effort.

And honestly, I was also curious whether a private individual could borrow one.

I called the education and training department first.

And then I called the department head.

Luckily or unluckily, neither the education and training department nor the department head answered.

The calls went through, but no one picked up.

I hung up without hesitation.

'Phew, I lived.'

I let out a sigh of relief.

But part of me still felt uneasy.

No, was that actually a good thing?

The department head might be busy and unable to answer. But...

You people in the education and training department should answer the phone.

Does it make sense for the department responsible for training conditions to not answer the phone for no particular reason?

What if it had been a real emergency?

I'll definitely file a complaint later.

Thinking that, I flopped back down on the sofa.

Anyway, I'd gotten through the biggest crisis of the day.

The gallery was quiet. All because of my one threat to quit.

No, seriously, if this works, why have I been stupidly taking it all this time? Am I an idiot?

Learning is a good thing, but too much of it is a problem.

Yeah, this was enough.

The negotiation had been successful, and I had protected my precious day off.

I picked up the remote and turned on the TV.

Then I fired up OTT, opened a delivery app, and ordered fried chicken. It was fine to indulge a little today. I'd already won against those ghost bastards, after all.

But even after the chicken arrived, I cracked open a can of beer and spent a long while giggling at the TV, and that nagging unease in the back of my mind still wouldn't go away.

'I'll only make you do about half as much!!!!!'

One anonymous user's desperate cry kept echoing in my head.

'...But.'

I paused mid-bite on a chicken leg and fell into thought.

'Those ghost bastards' lectures are shitty and tiring, sure, but they do help.

That earlier heart attack patient... and the ciguatera patient... The lives of those patients had been saved entirely thanks to these gallery ghosts.

I'm still a rookie in my first year, and I don't know much.

My hands are still useless, and my knowledge is shallow.

Those ghost bastards may have rotten personalities and treat me like a toy, but when they were alive they were experts who stood at the very peak of their fields.

Do I have any right to refuse knowledge?

Anyway, sorry for acting on impulse...

I sent out a faint apology in my heart. Though they probably couldn't hear it.

And I made one decision.

Maybe I should brush up on airway management again.

Since it's come to this, it would be a better deal to just milk those ghost bastards for all they're worth as free tutors.

Well, there's nothing bad about studying.

If I get smarter, I survive, and my patients survive too.

I set the leftover chicken on the table, opened the gallery window again, and posted a short message.

Title : Guys, I'm back. Yeah, I'm not bailing.

Author : HellJoseonSlave1

All right. Fine. I get it. It doesn't seem like I'm built to rest anyway, so let's just pick up where we left off. Airway management.

My post instantly brought the quiet gallery back to life. The ghosts rushed at me as if they'd been waiting.

ㅇㅇ(211.36) : Ooh! You're back, HellSlave! I knew you'd be a worthy one!

BackInMyDay : Tsk. You should've done that from the start. You just wore yourself out for nothing.

ㄴ HellJoseonSlave1 : I really will leave the gallery, you know?

ㄴ ㅇㅇ(211.36) : Ignore him, he's just an idiot!!!!! Please don't go!!!!!!!!

HippocratesHeir : A wise choice. O living one! The path of learning is endless!

ScalpelGod : Hmm. If we're practicing airway management and there's no actual mannequin, then it can't be helped.

At that, my heart dropped again at the thought that I might once more be assigned the hellish mission of 'calling the professor.'

But the next comment completely overturned my expectations.

ScalpelGod : You can do it with a drawing.

A drawing?

A drawing??

Why a drawing all of a sudden?

AnatomyGhost: Exactly! Conveniently, I have a very good reference. After I died, I got so bored that I badgered a medical illustrator ghost in the afterlife for about thirty years to make this human anatomy series. I can confidently say it's more accurate than any anatomy book in existence.

So I wasn't the only living doctor being driven mad by relentless pestering, huh.

I decided to pray for the poor medical illustrator's repose.

Anyway, starting with that remark, an unbelievable sight began to unfold before my eyes.

What appeared in the gallery before me wasn't just a simple anatomy drawing, but an image so meticulously detailed it looked like they'd dragged a living person straight onto the screen.

So you made them create this by badgering that person for thirty years?

That person—no, that ghost—is basically Buddha, isn't he?

ㅇㅇ(211.36) : All right, then. From here on out, we'll begin the oral exam.

And the exam began.

A new post in the gallery displayed a perfectly normal cross-section of an adult airway.

ㅇㅇ(211.36) : Question 1. The most basic airway management. Which hand do you hold the laryngoscope in? Which side of the tongue do you insert the blade on?

I took a moment to rack my memory and wrote the answer in my head.

HellJoseonSlave1 : Hold it in the left hand, insert it on the right side of the tongue, and sweep the tongue to the left.

ㅇㅇ(211.36) : Correct. Then where should the tip of the blade be positioned so the epiglottis lifts and the vocal cords become visible? What is that structure called?

HellJoseonSlave1 : Vallecula.

(* vallecula)

That much was a piece of cake.

Easy, easy!

After a brief lull with no other comments, another new post appeared.

This time, the image had changed. It was the airway of a patient who'd suffered some kind of accident. Broken tooth fragments and blood were all mixed together in utter chaos.

ScalpelGod : Scenario. Trauma patient. Oral bleeding and vomit are obscuring the view. What do you do first?

Ugh, if it's trauma, of course you call an ambulance.

HellJoseonSlave1 : Call 119?

ㄴ ScalpelGod : No, you idiot, at the hospital!!!!!!! Why would you call 119 again!!!!! Are you going to ask the paramedics to secure the airway for you?!!!!!!

Ah, for a second I got so focused on the trauma patient and the trauma situation that I forgot what test I was even taking. I snapped back to my senses and decided to give the proper answer.

HellJoseonSlave1 : Suction.

ScalpelGod : Naturally. Then while suctioning out the vomit with a large suction tip, you accidentally stimulate the larynx. The patient suddenly develops laryngospasm. The vocal cords clamp shut and the tube won't go in. What now? Thirty seconds.

I panicked. My mind went completely blank. Should I sedate the patient first? Or...

HellJoseonSlave1 : Give a small dose of muscle relaxant to break the spasm.

ScalpelGod : Too late. The patient has already gone into cardiac arrest from hypoxia. The patient is dead. You idiot. In a situation like this, you should have been trying positive-pressure ventilation with an ambu bag while preparing a surgical airway!

Damn it.

I had killed the patient in the hypothetical scenario right from the start.

This time, the external structures of the neck appeared before me. The thyroid cartilage, the cricoid cartilage, and the thin membrane between them.

OperatingRoomWraith3 : All right, intubation is impossible and the ambu bag won't work. The patient's oxygen saturation is dropping into the 70s. You have an 11 blade

(* scalpel)

in your hand. Where do you cut? Trace the exact spot you'd cut on that image in your mind.

Cold sweat breaking out, I mentally found the cricothyroid membrane and drew a line over it.

Wow, this gallery has a ton of features. It even has a Paint function.

And then I uploaded that image as-is.

ScalpelGod : Not there, you moron! If you cut there, you'll stab the thyroid gland! Are you trying to kill the patient with massive bleeding? Again!

I drew another line and uploaded it again.

ScalpelGod : Too high! That's the thyroid cartilage! Are you trying to cut bone?!

And so I sat on my officetel sofa, repeatedly slicing and stitching up a neck in midair dozens of times.

It was the strangest airway management practice session in the world.