Chapter 50
Chapter 50
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Poster Presentation (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tweet tweet. Tweet tweet.
What bullshit.
The sun was blazing down, and the birds outside the window were chirping their hearts out from the morning, like something great was happening.
Meanwhile, I was riding a taxi to the hospital.
***
How long had we been driving?
Off in the distance, the familiar yet horrifying silhouette of that building started coming into view.
[Cheongjin University Medical Center Busan Hospital]
And below it, the hospital's slogan plastered like some hypocritical motto.
「Sharing the patient's pain, endlessly researching and dedicating ourselves to tomorrow's health」
I let out a hollow laugh at the words.
Why aren't they sharing my pain, then?
Thanks to their endless research, my tomorrow's health was disappearing.
Before I knew it, the taxi pulled up at the entrance to the emergency medical center.
As I stepped out, the familiar smell of disinfectant hit me.
Ziiing—
The morning ER was quieter than I'd expected.
A few night-shift nurses looking wrecked from pulling an all-nighter, and a few new arrivals standing around looking lost.
In the middle of it all, a young-faced nurse at the triage desk spotted me.
"Yes. What seems to be the problem?"
"My heart hurts...."
"Pardon?"
The nurse's eyes went wide at my nonsense.
Right then, a veteran nurse who'd been working on the computer next to her looked up.
"Hey, Han? What's up? Aren't you off today?"
I scratched the back of my head with an awkward smile.
"...Yeah... just... um... had some research to do...."
An 'I get it' expression flashed across her face at my lame excuse.
I ignored the pitiful look and pulled my employee ID from my pocket.
Beep—
[Door unlocked]
As I entered the ER, my colleague Kim Ji-hoon, just finishing his night shift and heading out, spotted me and went wide-eyed like he'd seen a ghost.
"Han Hyun-jae? Aren't you off? Are you insane? What are you doing here?"
I just patted his shoulder without a word and walked past.
My destination was a computer with access to the electronic medical records system.
I headed straight for an empty one.
Right, pull the patient data and...
I still had to follow procedure, though....
Oh, right. Patient info.
To present this at a conference, I'd obviously need hospital approval.
IRB. Institutional Review Board.
...Damn it.
I'd completely forgotten.
To get IRB approval, you write a research plan, submit it for review, wait for the committee meeting...
But I only had two days.
What the hell was Professor Cheon thinking?
I was totally screwed.
I stood there frozen in the middle of the hallway like a stone statue.
That's when a familiar silhouette appeared in the distance.
Professor Cheon Eun-jeong.
My savior.
Or maybe the grim reaper.
I ran toward her like she was my last straw.
"Professor!"
She stopped at my urgent call and looked at me.
"What? Did you finish the paper?"
*'Like I'd have finished it, you jerk...'*
I screamed internally while plastering on the most polite, pitiful expression I could muster.
"Um, Professor... This is my first time writing a case report."
"Oh, really?"
"So, I don't know how to handle patient data... like personal info or IRB stuff... That's why I wanted to ask...."
"Ah~ This is just a simple case report, so no full review needed. Just file for an exemption. Remove all identifying info. Don't worry about the admin stuff—focus on writing the abstract fast and send it to me! I'll handle the IRB paperwork later!"
...She knows way too much about this crap.
Or maybe professors are just pros at admin procedures.
I pulled out my phone.
It was the list of references I'd compiled with the ghosts' help last night.
"Doctor, if you have time, I gathered some reference papers overnight. Could you take a quick look to see if the direction is right?"
Her eyes lit up with interest at my words.
"Already? Let me see."
Professor Cheon started scanning the list from top to bottom.
"Hmm... Let's see... 'Atypical Presentation of ACS: A Systematic Review'... 'The American Journal of...' Hmm... Uh... Huh?"
Her eyes widened gradually, a faint crease forming between her brows.
"Hey. You nailed this. Review papers, classic mechanism explanations, latest case reports. Structure's perfect. You must've grinded hard."
I just smiled awkwardly and answered humbly.
"Thank you. I got lucky."
"The direction's spot on. Keep going like this. Fighting!"
With that, Professor Cheon went on her way.
***
I settled at an old computer.
I entered the patient's name and hit search, and the records from the past few days filled the screen.
"Hmm."
First up were the initial visit notes.
Vitals stable, but the pain intensity the patient reported was pretty severe.
Too much for simple sore throat.
"Uh-huh, hmm."
Next, the ECG changes over time.
"So it changed like this, and ultimately, the blockage was in this vessel..."
I opened the coronary angiography results.
RCA mid 99% stenosis.
Right coronary artery mid-segment 99% blocked.
The exact moment that old coot "God's Scalpel" 's prediction hit the nail on the head.
I opened the word processor and started building the abstract skeleton, organizing the data one by one.
***
About 10 minutes later.
I hit my first wall.
The sentences sounded so childish and lame.
'Sore throat is a very rare symptom of MI.'
What the hell? This isn't elementary school homework.
Hell Joseon Slave 1: Dude, I wrote 'very rare,' but is there a cooler way to say 'extremely rare symptom'?
The gallery reacted instantly to my question.
Latte is Just Words: 'Very rare' my ass. You writing an English diary? Go with 'Is an unusual and frequently overlooked clinical manifestation' (an atypical and often overlooked clinical presentation). There.
I revised the sentence just like he said.
Whoa. Insane.
The writing's class jumped instantly.
Suddenly, it looked ridiculously sophisticated.
The case description part was easy. Just objectively list the collected data.
But the discussion section at the end was the problem.
I had to weave those 15 papers I'd found last night into this short paragraph logically.
Following the structure Hematoma is Hell had taught me—prevalence, mechanism, prognosis—I started building the paragraph.
'...According to existing studies, about 15% of acute coronary syndrome patients present with atypical symptoms other than chest pain, and cases manifesting solely as sore throat are reported to be extremely rare...'
The more I wrote, the more it felt like I was borrowing the ghosts' brains, not mine.
No Googling needed—whenever I got stuck, I tossed a question to the gallery, and answers poured in real-time.
Hell Joseon Slave 1: Need to say the heart's pain signal goes to the throat in English. 'The pain signal from the heart goes to the neck' work?
Hippocrates' Heir nearly lost it at my question.
Hippocrates' Heir: You bastard!!!! Goes to? Goes to?!
ㄴ Hell Joseon Slave 1: Can't use that word? It gets the meaning across.
Hippocrates' Heir: You taking elementary school after-school English class?? You're writing an English paper on a life-or-death case! Not entering a kids' essay contest!
Hippocrates' Heir: Goes to what? Goes to! There are way more advanced, academic alternatives! 'The cardiac pain is often referred to the neck' (cardiac pain is commonly referred to the neck) or 'The pain frequently radiates to the pharyngeal area' (pain often radiates to the pharyngeal area)! Dignity! Scholarly dignity!
I'd never seen Hippo Heir go off like that before.
I meekly typed the suggested sentence.
With the ghosts' real-time edits and guidance, I hammered out the abstract at breakneck speed.
The clock in the lounge hadn't even made half a turn.
My fingers paused over Enter after finishing the typing.
I scanned the completed abstract from start to finish.
Perfect.
Tight logic from intro to conclusion, no fluff.
Precise data.
And English so fluid and professional, I couldn't believe I'd written it.
I checked the time. Exactly 26 minutes since I'd started pulling EMR data.
"...Insane."
A hollow laugh escaped me.
I saved the finished file, emailed it, and decided to go find Professor Cheon.
"Professor."
"Yeah, what now? More IRB issues?"
She turned to me, frowning slightly like I was a nuisance.
I showed her the sent email confirmation on my phone.
"No, Doctor. It's just..."
I said it as calmly as possible.
"I'm done."
...
Silence fell.
Professor Cheon Eun-jeong's eyes widened hugely.
Her mouth fell slightly open.
"...Already?"
"Yes."