Chapter 85
It's absolutely not because I'm some grand, mission-driven person.
Still holding the receiver, I stared blankly at the pointless argument unfolding far away in the treatment room.
Even now, fecal contents were probably spreading through the patient's abdomen.
If that old man didn't back down, there was a 99 percent chance he'd die of septic shock within a few hours.
And I'd have to watch it happen helplessly.
Because... because it just felt off.
That was it.
Unease.
The moment he signed the DAMA paperwork and left this hospital in an ambulance.
And the moment, a few hours later, when another hospital's ER would call him DOA.
If the patient died because of this, I'd sleep badly.
That unease.
The hypothetical that might follow me for the rest of my life.
I hated that.
The unease that would keep me tossing and turning at night.
So I was doing this crazy thing right now.
Not because that old man's life was precious to me, but purely for my own comfortable sleep.
Hmm, yeah.
I'm definitely not some saintly doctor.
I'm just doing this for my own comfort.
That's how I rationalized it to myself.
I brought the receiver back to my ear.
“Ah, yes, Professor. I'm sorry. I'll put him through right away. Please hold on.”
I covered the receiver with my hand and walked toward the bed.
Meanwhile, the argument by the bed was still raging.
Dr. Cho Jae-shin from Surgery was trying to persuade the patient in what felt like his last desperate push.
“Going to Seoul right now is really dangerous! If you absolutely must go to Oseong, then at least Oseong Masan Hospital, which is much closer, would be...”
“What the hell do you mean, Masan!”
The man shouted in outrage.
“Do you think I'm making this fuss just to go to some backwater in Masan? Seoul! Oseong Hospital! If it isn't there, I'm not getting surgery!”
Lee Min-jae, who had been standing beside him, looked as if he'd given up and was now just staring at the ceiling with his arms folded.
Watching that scene, I quietly walked over to the man and held out the phone in my hand before him.
“Excuse me, sir.”
At my voice, the gazes of the man, Cho Jae-shin, and Lee Min-jae all snapped to me at once.
“Would you mind taking this call?”
“What now!”
The man shouted irritably.
“What quack did you bring in now! At this point, are you going to try to scam me over the phone too!”
I said very calmly,
“I'm a doctor at Oseong Seoul Hospital.”
......
“The chief of Emergency Medicine at Oseong Seoul Hospital said he wanted to speak with you directly, sir.”
I held the phone out to the man once again.
The man's eyes narrowed. He looked back and forth between my face and the phone in my hand.
Suspicion filled his eyes.
The man took my phone with a suspicious look.
“Ah, just a moment, sir.”
I stopped the man's hand.
“Please put it on speaker. We need to listen too.”
The man frowned in annoyance, but obediently pressed the speakerphone button.
The half-asleep voice of Professor Kim Hyuk-jae rang through the ER.
[Hello?]
“Uh... ahem! It's me! Park Sang-cheol!”
The man suddenly cleared his throat and squeezed out a voice as dignified as he could manage.
As if he and the doctor at Oseong Hospital were old, close friends.
[Park Sang-cheol...? Who...? Ah, whatever. Is this the ER at Busan Cheongjindae Hospital?]
There wasn't a trace of friendliness in Professor Kim's voice.
Kim Hyuk-jae must have been in an extremely annoyed state after being woken in the middle of the night.
“Y-yes! That's right! I'm here right now, and these quacks are telling me to get my belly cut open here! Do you know what condition I'm in right now, being stuck in some backwater like this... So I said I'd go to Oseong Hospital! I called my attending, Professor Cho...”
Just as the man was about to lay out his whole backstory and grievances.
[Quiet.]
Professor Kim's one-word reply cut the man off cleanly.
[Sir, I've been told your appendix has burst, or is about to burst. Is that correct?]
“Uh... that's what I heard...”
[And now you want to come to Seoul? From Busan to Seoul right now, it'll take at least four and a half hours, and even if the ambulance doesn't get stuck in traffic, it'll still take four. By then, there's a 99 percent chance the fecal contents in your abdomen will have spilled out, the peritonitis will have progressed, you'll go into septic shock, and you'll die. And you still want to come?]
“No, I mean... surgery should be done at a proper place, shouldn't it! What can I possibly trust here...”
[Sir.]
Professor Kim's voice dropped a notch.
[It's an appendectomy. An appendectomy. Any surgeon in Korea could do it with their eyes closed once they're in their second year of residency.]
“No, this surgery...”
[Whether you have that surgery at Cheongjindae Hospital, at our hospital, or at the general hospital near your neighborhood, the result is exactly the saaaame, sir! Do you think this is some liver transplant or heart surgery? I'm telling you there isn't even 1 percent reason for you to risk your life coming all the way to Seoul right now! Do you think our ER beds are that empty at this hour!]
Silence fell.
Everyone held their breath, focused on the voice coming through the speakerphone.
Professor Kim Hyuk-jae's words were rough, but not a single thing he said was wrong.
The man couldn't say a word.
He only moved his lips, unable to offer any rebuttal.
[If you're not trying to commit suicide, then get the surgery right now, exactly as the doctors there tell you. Once you're healthy later, then come to Oseong Hospital for treatment or bragging rights. Not now. I'm hanging up.]
With that, Professor Kim delivered only his message and hung up without hesitation.
Beep—beep—beep—
The man stared blankly into space, still holding the phone.
His face was flushed red with emotions I couldn't tell were anger, shame, or pure shock.
And at last, in a tiny, mumbling voice, he muttered.
“Ahem, ahem...!”
The man cleared his throat for no reason.
“...You should've said that from the start! What's dangerous, what's urgent! Huh? Do I look like a doctor? You have to explain things properly if you want me to understand!”
The man suddenly started shamelessly shifting all the blame onto our lack of explanation, as if all of this had been our fault.
I let out a hollow laugh at the absurdity, but Lee Min-jae and Cho Jae-shin only nodded silently.
Right now, the best thing was to keep the old man placated.
“Aaagh!”
Just then, the man clutched his stomach again and groaned.
“Give him one ampule of ketorolac right now. We need to get the pain under control.”
Lee Min-jae expertly ordered the painkiller.
Cho Jae-shin nodded.
“We'll ease the pain first, sir. Once you get the shot and wait a little, the surgery professor will be here soon.”
The man no longer kept going on about Seoul.
No, he couldn't.
I picked up the preoperative instructions and surgical consent form I'd prepared in advance and walked over to the man.
Only the final step remained now.
“Sir, please focus for a moment.”
“Ah... my stomach...”
The earlier swagger was nowhere to be seen in the man now.
“Once you sign off on it, you'll go straight into emergency surgery. There are a few things you absolutely need to know before the operation, so let me explain.”
I began reciting the information passed on to me by Cho Jae-shin.
“The surgery will be under general anesthesia. The time it takes depends on how badly it's ruptured, but it's usually one to two hours. There's a good chance it'll be done laparoscopically, with just a few small holes made in the abdomen, but if the inflammation is too severe or the adhesions are too bad, it may be converted to open surgery—that is, surgery that opens up the abdomen.”
“After surgery, you'll have to stay in the hospital for a few days. Depending on how things go, you may be transferred to Oseong, since that's the hospital you prefer, but the chances are low. Complications such as infection or bleeding can happen. Of course they're not common, but you always have to leave room for the possibility.”
“All right, that's it. Any questions?”
“No... no... none...”
“Then please read this surgical consent form and sign here if you agree.”
I held the consent form and pen out in front of the man.
The man took the pen with trembling hands.
“I... I give my consent...”
“You need to sign here, sir.”
The man, looking almost on the verge of tears, scrawled his name crookedly.
At that moment, the ER door opened and Dr. Cho Jae-shin came back in.
Behind him was a middle-aged surgery professor who looked as if he'd just arrived at the hospital.
“Are we ready?”
The surgery professor asked.
“Yes, Professor. We just got the consent form. The patient's vitals are still okay, and antibiotics have already been given.”
Dr. Cho Jae-shin reported.
“Good. Then let's take him up right away.”
And so, the Oseong Seoul Hospital die-hard was finally taken up to the operating room of a backwater Busan hospital.
Watching the stretcher cart rattle away, I leaned against the wall and let out a long, deep sigh.
“Phew...”
It was over.
I returned to the station, barely holding my shredded nerves together, and sat down in front of the computer.
Time to organize the charts.
I carefully recorded the treatments I'd given before surgery, the changes in the patient's condition, and the process of handing him over to Surgery.
If anything ever went wrong later, this chart would be the only evidence protecting me.
After finishing the charting, I habitually brought up the hospital-wide patient status board.
I scrolled down to check the operating room status.
[Emergency Medical Center 3rd Floor Emergency Operating Room 1 - In Surgery (GS Park Sang-cheol M/54)]
There it was.
Now it had truly left my hands.
Silently, I wished for the man's surgery to go smoothly and for him to recover quickly.
Of course, I wished even harder that I'd never see him in the ER again.
Just then.
Ding—
A short text alert rang from the phone in my pocket.
...What?
There shouldn't be anyone texting me at this hour.
Spam?
Or a credit card bill...?
I absentmindedly checked my phone screen.
Sender information. The moment I saw that name, my heart dropped.
[Oseong Seoul EM Chief Kim Hyuk-jae]
Why?
With trembling fingers, I opened the message.
[Dr. Han, good work earlier. I'll be in touch again soon, so keep your phone on until then... ^^]
...
^^?
What is that demon-like emoticon?
Be in touch again soon.
What did that mean?
Was he really trying to scout me?
Or was this revenge for waking him up in the middle of the night?
I had no idea.