Chapter 37
“You lunatic! This isn’t even an OR! It isn’t a sterile environment either! You could die from infection any second! No, before that, the moment you cut into him, your medical license is gone! Do you understand?”
Park Se-young shouted, almost pleading.
The voice was desperate.
‘Damn, you’re noisy as hell.’
The Scalpel God muttered to himself.
The me inside was horrified by that cold mutter.
Is that really a human thought?
Ah, right. That bastard isn’t human.
He’s a ghost.
The Scalpel God held the No. 10 blade as lightly as a pen.
Then he brought the tip of the blade to the skin just below the patient’s xiphoid process.
And then he cut.
Swish-
There was barely even a sound.
The blade parted the skin without any resistance.
A long, straight incision that ran from the epigastrium, around the navel, all the way to above the pubic bone, without the slightest hesitation.
The skin opened, revealing the subcutaneous fat beneath.
“……!”
Everyone who saw it gasped.
He had crossed the point of no return.
The Scalpel God dropped the bloodied No. 10 blade onto the tray as if tossing it aside and picked up the electrocautery.
And just like that, the Scalpel God burned through the oozing small vessels and drove deeper without hesitation.
Once the tough fascia was exposed, the Scalpel God picked up the scalpel again and made a long cut straight down the center of the fascia.
Finally, the peritoneum.
Beyond the thin, transparent membrane, the silhouettes of organs writhing in a sea of blood were visible.
The Scalpel God carefully nicked the peritoneum with the tip of the scalpel, making a small hole.
Then, through that tiny opening, dark red blood burst out in a gush, unable to withstand the pressure that had been held back.
But the Scalpel God did not stop.
With Metzenbaum scissors, he rapidly extended the peritoneal incision to both sides.
At last, the gates of hell opened.
The patient’s abdominal cavity was already filled with a vast pool of blood.
Bright red arterial blood and dark red venous blood were mixed together so completely that the organs looked like nameless islands floating in the blood.
“Ah….”
Nam Juhyeon let out a short groan at the gruesome sight.
The temporary owner of my body didn’t even blink at that hellish scene.
The Scalpel God grabbed a large suction tip with one hand and plunged it into the blood.
With a roar, the suction machine began sucking up the blood.
Then with his other hand, he jerked his chin toward Nam Juhyeon, who was staring blankly at the scene.
“Hey, give me a hand.”
“The retractor. That thing there. Just hold it open.”
Nam Juhyeon, as if under a spell, picked up the abdominal retractor he pointed at.
Once the field was clear, the Scalpel God compressed the artery and without delay grabbed a sterile gauze pad.
One, two, three, four.
The Scalpel God started stuffing the pads into the four quadrants of the patient’s abdominal cavity at a crazy speed.
His hands were a work of art.
He precisely worked the pads into the narrow gaps between the organs, placing them exactly where bleeding was likely to occur. The entire process took place in the blink of an eye.
A moment later, the bleeding that had filled the abdominal cavity had visibly decreased.
The Scalpel God carefully removed the pad first from the right upper quadrant, where the liver was.
The blood did not surge again.
Not the liver.
Next, the left upper quadrant.
The area where the spleen was.
The moment he removed the pad sealing that area.
With a hissing sound, bright arterial blood gushed up like a fountain once more.
Found it.
Frowning, the Scalpel God blocked it off again with the pad.
Then he shoved his left hand deep into the abdominal cavity and began palpating around the spleen.
I shuddered at the unfamiliar sensation transmitted through my fingertips.
The spleen was utterly wrecked.
The Scalpel God quietly withdrew his hand. Then he clicked his tongue softly.
“Tsk. We’ll have to take it out.”
At those words, Yoo Seonghun and Park Se-young’s faces went ghostly white.
Splenectomy.
Here?
In this resuscitation room?
That lunatic?
The Scalpel God felt their fearful stares and turned away as if annoyed.
“Hey, why are you looking at me like that? No matter how crazy I am, I’m not going to rip the spleen out here.”
He pressed the bleeding site firmly with the pad again and continued.
“We’re just keeping him alive until we can get him to the OR. Tie off the splenic vessels and pack the whole area to stop the bleeding.”
The me inside could not take it anymore.
My license’s safety is the second issue.
Right now, I have a far more fundamental problem than that.
‘Use honorifics, honorifics!!!! Honorifics!!!!!!’
That crazy ghost bastard is spewing informal speech at a fellow and a fourth-year senior right now!
My hospital life is going to get wrecked first!
***
The resuscitation room fell silent.
The Scalpel God, the temporary owner of my body, looked down at the blood-soaked abdominal cavity without the slightest movement.
The silence was broken by hurried footsteps from outside the resuscitation room.
The automatic doors slid open, and a group in surgical scrubs rushed in.
It was the trauma surgery team.
The middle-aged man walking at the very front exuded a charisma that seemed to overwhelm the air around him.
Professor Kang Hyunjun of our hospital’s trauma surgery department.
And Professor Kang Hyunjun stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him.
“….”
The trauma surgery fellow, the surgical resident, and the dedicated nurse following behind him were also staring at the hellish scene before them with their mouths hanging open.
In the middle of the resuscitation room, where the smell of blood hung thick in the air.
The patient’s abdomen, wide open.
And a first-year resident.
Professor Kang Hyunjun’s brow twitched.
“….What is this?”
At that murderous question, the temporary owner of my body showed no sign of agitation.
The Scalpel God glanced at Professor Kang Hyunjun and then spoke indifferently.
“Ah, packing.”
Without taking his eyes off the patient’s abdomen, the Scalpel God began briefing him in a mechanical tone.
“A 54-year-old male in hypovolemic shock from a penetrating abdominal injury. Blood pressure had dropped into the 50s. After confirming massive intra-abdominal bleeding, we performed damage-control laparotomy. Grade 4 splenic rupture confirmed, and we’re controlling the bleeding with gauze packing around the splenic vessels. His vitals are temporarily stable, but we need to get him to the OR fast and remove the spleen.”
The briefing was perfect.
It was concise, accurate, and even laid out the treatment plan going forward.
But none of that was important.
Professor Kang Hyunjun’s expression grew increasingly stiff.
“No… I mean….”
Professor Kang asked hesitantly.
“You cut him open? Here? In the ER?”
His voice carried the pure confusion of, ‘What exactly am I seeing and hearing right now?’
At that moment, the owner of my body lifted his head.
And from that mouth came the one line that would shake my entire medical career to its core.
“It’s not ‘You cut him open?’—we need to get him to the OR right away, don’t we!”
Silence.
Professor Kang Hyunjun’s eyes widened slightly.
Park Se-young and Yoo Seonghun’s faces turned paper-white.
You crazy ghost bastard!!!!!!!!!!!
My soul screamed.
That’s the trauma surgery professor! The living god of this hospital’s trauma department, someone on a completely different level from you, you socially inept crazy ghost bastard!!!!!
My medical career! My reputation! My everything! It’s all getting wrecked right now because of your fucking mouth!!!!
For a long while, Professor Kang Hyunjun just stared silently at the Scalpel God inhabiting my body.
After a moment of thought, Professor Kang shook his head with a deep sigh.
His eyes held a sense of resignation that seemed to say, ‘I don’t know. Let’s save the patient first.’
“…Move him up right now.”
Professor Kang Hyunjun nodded toward his team.
“Prepare for transport.”
At that command, the frozen time started moving again.
The surgery team and ER staff hurried into motion, moving the patient onto a transport bed and arranging every monitor and IV line.
In the center of all that chaos, Professor Kang Hyunjun still hadn’t taken his eyes off me.
His gaze was still full of the question, ‘What is this guy?’
At last, the patient was loaded onto the elevator heading to the operating room.
Just before getting on the elevator, Professor Kang Hyunjun paused and muttered to himself under his breath.
“There wasn’t a professor like that in emergency medicine…?”
Hearing that mutter, I screamed inwardly with bloody tears.
‘I’m not a professor, you fucking bastard… I’m just a first-year resident who’s completely screwed.’
***
The elevator doors closed.
The Scalpel God was gone.
Finally, I regained control of my body.
‘...I want to go home.’
That one thought consumed my brain.
At the station, the seniors were seriously discussing what had just happened, but nothing reached my ears.
I need to sit down for a bit, even if it’s just on a chair.
If I didn’t, I felt like I was going to collapse right here.
I trudged toward the nearest chair.
It was then that it happened.
The muscles in my right calf began to twist violently.
“Ugh…!”
Did I get a cramp?
A sudden spasm made me let out a short groan without meaning to.
The cramp that started in my calf spread like a contagion in an instant. To my thighs, back, shoulders, arms, and all the way to the tips of my fingers and toes.
Every single muscle in my body screamed as it began to contract and twist on its own.
Warning lights flashed in my head.
I had forgotten.
The last line of the skill description.
12 hours of excruciating full-body muscle pain.
I guess I had underestimated the meaning of the word severe far too much.
“Ghh….”
Not even a scream came out.
My legs went weak.
With a heavy thud, my body collapsed onto the cold ER floor.
“Hey, Hyunjae!!”
It felt like Yoo Seonghun’s shocked voice was coming from far away.
I heard footsteps running toward me.
But I couldn’t see anything. My vision had already gone black.
“Hngh….”
I collapsed onto the floor, curled up like a shrimp, and barely gasped through the pain.
And then I passed out.
In the abyss of hellish pain, the thread of consciousness snapped.
…
……