Chapter 7
At first, when I saw the patient's lips turn blue, I suspected a tension pneumothorax.
A condition in which air builds up in the chest and compresses the lungs and heart.
So I stopped the medical staff from trying to set the ribs first and relieved the pressure inside the chest.
At least the patient's airway was clear.
Then the next step should have been simple.
Insert a chest tube to let the air and blood keep draining, check the torn lung, and then examine the patient for abdominal injuries.
At least, that was the plan in my head.
Swish.
I widened the chest incision a little more with a Hunter-Specific scalpel.
Blood came surging out.
Dark red, sticky blood that had already lost its oxygen.
“⋯Damn it.”
A curse slipped out before I knew it.
“This⋯.”
“Looks like the most annoying premonition came true.”
I had expected it.
But this was the worst possible version of what I had expected.
It wasn't simply that one lung had been torn.
A broken rib fragment had pierced inward and scraped the lung, while also damaging the blood vessels beneath it.
The chest cavity was filled with not only air, but blood as well.
I could see that the lung was being compressed inside the chest, blood was pooling, and abdominal injuries had been added on top of it all.
A severe injury that would have killed an ordinary person long ago.
It was almost miraculous that the heart was still beating and that any breath remained at all.
‘Had they held out because they were a Hunter?’
I looked down at the patient's blue face.
A body that had clearly surpassed the limits of human beings.
A body that would already have given out in an ordinary person was somehow hanging on because of that strength.
But that incredible body had also nearly deprived them of even a peaceful death: they had almost been judged beyond saving and abandoned.
They survived because they were strong.
And they had nearly been denied treatment because they were too strong.
What a rotten joke of a body.
“Can⋯ can this be fixed?”
Ms. Na Ha-young asked in a low voice.
Under normal circumstances, she would have made a composed judgment befitting her title as the youngest Hunter specialist in the country.
But her voice was unsteady now.
“I'll fix it.”
“No, but even so⋯ Any specialist who saw this injury would declare the patient dead. There’s lung damage, bleeding in the chest, and abdominal injuries on top of that. It's strange that the patient is still holding on at all.”
“But they're still alive.”
“Student Jihoo⋯!”
“If they're alive, I'll fix them.”
I knew how reckless that sounded.
But the knife had already gone in.
‘I can't give up now.’
I had laid my hands on this patient.
I had opened the chest, drained the air, and confirmed that the heart was still beating.
From that moment on, this life was practically on my operating table.
A Hunter trauma surgeon.
I had accepted the profession I had never wanted and returned to the place I had never wanted to stand again.
Then at the very least, I couldn't let another patient I could have saved slip away, like in my previous life.
“First, I'll save the chest.”
“The chest⋯?”
Ms. Na Ha-young asked again.
Instead of answering, I looked down at the patient's chest.
There was still air and blood inside it.
The emergency decompression had gotten us past the worst of it, but all it had done was briefly open the patient's airway.
If the torn lung remained as it was, air would build up again, and the blood would keep pooling.
Then, in a few minutes⋯.
Even a Hunter would die.
“Hunter-Specific Chest Tube.”
[Job Equipment ‘Hunter-Specific Chest Tube Lv. 1’ is materialized.]
[Target: B-rank Hunter]
[Analyzing the rib cage's mana layer.]
[Insertion site assistance applied.]
A long, thin tube appeared between my fingertips.
A tube that would drain the air and blood remaining inside the chest.
For an ordinary patient, inserting a chest tube was a procedure that could be performed even in the emergency room, but my patient was a B-rank Hunter.
An ordinary tube couldn't get through even the muscle layer, let alone the skin.
But this was different.
Rather than forcibly tearing through tissue hardened by mana, it pushed inward along the grain.
Like a bird knowing how to fly from the moment it was born, my hands handled the equipment I'd never held before with astonishing familiarity.
‘I can do this.’
In my previous life, I had opened bodies that everyone else had given up on, time and time again.
I had even fought doctors who wanted to start preparing a death certificate because they thought there was no hope, then entered the operating room alone and managed to keep patients alive for at least one more day.
So this time, too⋯.
‘If it's me, I can do it.’
I felt for the gap between the ribs.
Not too high, and not too low.
A place where the trapped air and blood could escape without touching the lung.
“I'm going in.”
“W-wait⋯!”
Thud.
The chest tube went in.
Blood-tinged air immediately began flowing out through the tube.
Fwoosh.
The compressed lung slowly began to reclaim some space.
“M-my goodness⋯ The speed⋯.”
Ms. Na Ha-young muttered under her breath.
But there was no time to be surprised.
“Ha-young.”
“Y-yes!”
“Please keep the surgical field in view. Don't spread the rib cage too far; keep it at exactly the angle I've set.”
The one fortunate thing was that there was a doctor beside me who could just barely keep up with my pace.
Under normal circumstances, even five or six people would have struggled to move in sync with my hands.
But perhaps the title of Hunter specialist was more than just decoration.
Ms. Na Ha-young was shaken, but she still kept up.
She maintained the angle I wanted, opened the area I was trying to see before I asked, and cleared my view the instant blood began to well up.
“Good. Just like that.”
“Yes.”
“Now I'll seal the leak in the lung.”
“The lung⋯ directly?”
“The torn area is still leaking. If we don't close it here, air will build up again.”
“Can you do it?”
“I have to.”
I reached out my hand.
“Forceps.”
[Job Equipment ‘Hunter-Specific Forceps Lv. 1’ is materialized.]
“Suture needle.”
[Job Equipment ‘Hunter-Specific Suture Needle Lv. 1’ is materialized.]
“Suture.”
[Job Equipment ‘Hunter-Specific Suture Lv. 1’ is materialized.]
The torn surface of the lung came into view.
It was far tougher and thicker than an ordinary person's lung.
Mana clung to the inside like a thin membrane, making it look as though the entire tissue would tear away if I grasped it incorrectly.
But the leak was clear.
The spot where blood and air pushed out like tiny bubbles every time the patient inhaled.
I gently lifted the surrounding tissue with the forceps.
If I gripped too hard, it would tear.
If I gripped too lightly, I couldn't suture it.
Just enough.
Then I pushed the suture needle in.
Swish.
The first stitch.
Swish.
The second.
The sound of escaping air gradually diminished.
The blood-tinged bubbles flowing out through the chest tube also began to subside.
Hoo⋯.
The patient's breathing grew a little deeper.
A faint hint of color returned to the patient's blue lips.
“You really⋯ did it.”
Ms. Na Ha-young's voice trembled.
But I shook my head.
“It's too early to relax.”
I had barely stabilized the chest.
I had prevented the lung from collapsing again.
But from the beginning, this patient had also had serious abdominal injuries.
The shattered protective gear.
Blood soaking the flank and abdomen.
The falling blood pressure.
The chest injury had merely hidden the abdomen; there was no way everything inside it was fine.
“Now I'll open the abdomen.”
“⋯Yes.”
Ms. Na Ha-young's eyes changed at my next order.
The bewilderment from moments ago disappeared, replaced by tension and concentration.
I raised my hand again.
I had saved the chest.
Now it was time to find what was still killing the patient inside the abdomen.
Slice, slice.
As expected, blood had pooled here as well.
It was a different kind from the blood in the chest—heavier, hotter, and stagnant from having pooled inside for a long time.
“Suction.”
[Job Equipment ‘Hunter-Specific Suction Device Lv. 1’ is materialized.]
Once the dark-red blood had been suctioned away, I could finally see inside.
“⋯This side isn't easy either.”
The impact that shattered the abdominal protection hadn't merely torn the skin and stopped there.
The membrane holding the internal organs in place had been torn.
The mesentery. Simply put, it was a thin membrane that held the intestines in place and carried blood vessels to them.
When it ruptured, blood leaked into the abdomen even if the outside looked fine.
And that was exactly what had happened to this patient.
“A ruptured mesentery. There's damage to the small intestine, too.”
“Yes. Judging by the direction of the wounds⋯ it looks like something such as a monster's claw or tail entered through the flank and raked through everything inside.”
Ms. Na Ha-young spoke in a taut voice.
“It's a surprisingly common injury among Hunters. Even if the outer armor holds, the impact drives inward and tears organs and blood vessels apart. It kills a lot of them, too.”
But perhaps the one fortunate thing was this.
Unlike the damage to the chest, it wasn't the kind of injury that immediately stopped breathing.
The abdomen was a mess, but the bleeding points were visible, and I could trace the damaged areas well enough.
There were blood vessels that could be clamped and organs that could be sutured.
Then it could be repaired.
“I'll control the internal bleeding first. Then I'll check the intestinal damage and suture the torn areas.”
“By yourself?”
“You only need to keep the surgical field in view.”
I moved my hands immediately.
“Hemostatic clamp.”
[Job Equipment ‘Hunter-Specific Hemostatic Clamp Lv. 1’ is materialized.]
I clamped the bleeding vessels first.
One.
Two.
Three.
Small bleeding points were not to be underestimated.
Especially with trauma patients like this, several small holes could add up to kill someone.
An injury messier, more troublesome, and more maddening than a single large blood vessel bursting.
“One perforation in the small intestine. No, two. They're small, but they're leaking. If we leave them, there'll be a risk of peritonitis later.”
I grasped the torn intestine.
I didn't go too deep or take too shallow a bite.
Exactly deep enough for the tissue to hold.
Exactly far enough apart to stop the leak.
Swish, swish.
The sutures continued.
“M-my goodness⋯.”
Ms. Na Ha-young swallowed hard.
But stopping to admire it was still a luxury.
“Ha-young. Open farther down on the left. There's one more behind the mesentery.”
“Yes!”
She moved immediately.
She was much better than before.
Earlier, she had been flustered because she couldn't keep up with my pace, but now I could see her trying to anticipate what I wanted.
I pushed my hand into the field she had opened for me.
“Here.”
A small bleeding point.
And it was deep inside.
If I had missed it, it would have kept bleeding even after the surgery ended.
“I've got it.”
The clamp went in.
Click.
The bleeding stopped.
The patient's blood pressure rose just a little.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The monitor's wavering, anxious beeps gradually found their rhythm again.
“⋯They're stabilizing.”
Ms. Na Ha-young muttered as if she couldn't believe it.
“They're really stabilizing!”
“But it's still too early to relax.”
The chest.
The abdomen.
I had put out the immediate fires.
But there was still one last thing to take care of.
“The broken ribs come last.”
“You mean maintaining the drainage takes priority over stabilizing the chest?”
“Yes. The lung is still weak, and the drainage tube is still settling into place. If we make the outside look fine now, the pressure inside will become unstable again.”
Bone and skin came last.
Treatment that looked good from the outside always came last.
First, I had to eliminate, one by one, the things killing the patient from the inside.
I calculated the remaining procedures in my head.
Secure the chest tube in place.
Recheck the damaged area of the lung.
Recheck the abdominal bleeding points.
Check the intestinal suture sites.
Insert a drainage tube.
Temporarily close the abdomen.
Stabilize the ribs.
Suture the skin.
“Roughly an hour and a half.”
“⋯Yes?”
“Please stay focused until then.”
At last, while adjusting my bloodstained gloves, I said,
“I'll finish within that time.”
“What exactly does that⋯?”
Leaving the stunned Ha-young behind, exactly an hour and a half later⋯
Beep.
The operating room lights went out.