Chapter 76
Chapter 76
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Aftermath (2)
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First came faint noises, then the musty smell of disinfectant.
“Ugh… uh….”
With a groan, I lifted my eyelids.
I’d collapsed.
Right then.
*Whoosh*
The curtain partitioning off the bedside slid open with a rough sound.
And there was Lee Min-jae, popping up like ta-da.
What the hell, why does this guy look like such a mess.
Lee Min-jae wasn’t in his doctor’s coat but in a stretched-out gray hoodie and sweatpants.
His hair was a bird’s nest.
*What the hell do you look like right now, seriously.*
I looked down at my own body.
I’d been changed into patient scrubs.
An IV line was stuck in my arm.
“Uh… Doctor? That outfit… did you clock out?”
At my hoarse voice, Lee Min-jae let out a deep sigh.
He set the canned coffee he was holding on the table by my head.
“Yeah, you bastard. I clocked out, man.”
Lee Min-jae dragged a chair over and plopped down by my bed.
“Do you even know what time it is? Check the clock.”
I turned my head to look at the wall clock.
The hands pointed to 10 p.m.
“Ten p.m., ten o’clock. Three hours past quitting time, man.”
“Ah….”
I let out a dazed sigh.
I’d collapsed around 9:30 a.m., so… about twelve hours unconscious.
Thirty minutes of possession for twelve hours of penalty? No way. Why no discount?
I barely even used half this time.
“How’s your body? Feeling okay now?”
“Uh, yeah… I’m fine.”
Total bullshit, of course.
My whole body still ached like I’d been beaten to a pulp.
But I couldn’t whine about it hurting in this situation.
“Good. You’d better be. What if you weren’t?”
Lee Min-jae let out a hollow laugh.
“You crazy bastard. A second-year resident slicing open two people’s guts? Not even in surgery. Earlier, Professor Jeon Tae-jeong from Trauma Surgery stopped by to check on you. Just stared at you sleeping for like five minutes without a word, then left.”
“Oh, really….”
“Jesus….”
Lee Min-jae clawed at his hair.
He started to say something, stopped with a sigh, and smacked his lips.
“Damn… fuck. I don’t even have the energy to freak out anymore.”
Lee Min-jae really looked exhausted.
“I don’t know what the hell you did. But you did good. Result-wise. If we’re just looking at that… you did good… no… damn… should I praise you or chew you out….”
Lee Min-jae muttered to himself as he stood and paced near the bed.
He glanced at me, then the wall, and finally stopped in front of my bed.
Lee Min-jae took a breath. His shoulders heaved. Then his mouth opened.
“Yeah! Screw it, Jae!”
He grabbed my shoulders hard enough to crush them.
“This! This right here! This is what an emergency medicine doctor looks like!! Not some calculating, nitpicking, procedure-obsessed suit! It’s throwing your license and everything to hell to save the person in front of you! This insane shit is the heart of emergency medicine! Got it, man!”
Amid his enthusiastic shaking, my still-recovering muscles screamed, but I just nodded soullessly with dead eyes.
This guy’s consistent, I swear.
“The patient… how’s the patient?”
The aftermath of my crazy stunt scared me more than the muscle pain.
Was everything I did all for nothing?
“Oh, the patient?”
Lee Min-jae smacked his knee like he’d just remembered.
“You gotta see for yourself. Seeing is believing.”
He grabbed the hospital laptop shoved in the corner and slammed it on the table by my bed.
It was so old the fan noise was deafening.
Company equipment, even if outdated—handle it gently, would you?
What a personality on this guy.
“Here.”
Lee Min-jae said as he hit the power button.
“Log into the EMR. Check the patient’s progress yourself.”
“…Okay.”
I placed my hands on the laptop keyboard.
The familiar hospital logo screen.
[CUMC - EMR SYSTEM]
I entered my ID and password and hit enter, and the screen filled with patient lists and order windows.
I typed in the chart number….
Enter.
The chart opened.
I swallowed dryly and started scrolling down.
Yeah, chief complaint TA… traffic accident, GCS poor… low BP… open pelvic fracture….
Yeah, skip this stuff quick.
I already know all that.
I skimmed through the ER notes fast.
[ER performed REBOA for hemorrhagic shock control.]
..That’s still in the record.
Okay, where’s the rest. This is done.
OR notes… whatever, full of stuff I wouldn’t understand anyway. Skip.
The key is post-ICU admission notes.
I clicked the progress notes tab. Trauma Surgery team’s admission note first, then densely packed time-stamped entries filled the screen.
TICU admission V/S BP 80/50…
Exploratory laparotomy again… external fixation too….
“…Surgery took forever. Over eight hours.”
“Yeah. Must’ve been brutal. Bloodbath in there. If they hadn’t done it right, she probably would’ve died on the table before they even started.”
Lee Min-jae chimed in from the side.
I kept reading down.
ARDS (*Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) findings, ventilator settings changed once.
Skip, skip… flew through the complex procedure notes.
So, is this patient alive right now?
Finally, the latest vitals and nursing notes appeared.
‘V/S BP 110/70, HR 90 bpm, SpO2 98%.’
Oh….
I let out a low exclamation without realizing.
The numbers on the monitor proved the miracle.
I looked up at Lee Min-jae sitting beside me.
“…She survived, at least.”
Lee Min-jae met my eyes and smirked.
“Yeah? She did.”
He added some very realistic words.
“Of course… now the real fight begins. For major trauma like that, the war starts after surgery and ICU admission. Sepsis, DIC (*Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation), multi-organ failure… a line of shitty complications waiting. Still a ton of bullshit ahead to pull through.”
He paused, looked at me again.
“But she survived. Didn’t die on the table. Thanks to some crazy bastard.”
I couldn’t tear my eyes from the laptop screen, chewing over the survival record I’d just confirmed.
She lived.
I looked at Lee Min-jae, casually sitting by my bed sipping coffee.
“Doctor.”
“Yeah?”
“So what happens to me?”
“You?”
Lee Min-jae echoed back. His expression was hard to read.
“Yeah. Me.”
Lee Min-jae gazed at the ceiling for a moment, lost in thought. A faint smile tugged at his lips.
“Who knows….”
He continued casually, like talking about someone else.
“Last year, you pulled that crazy laparotomy as a first-year and the training committee let it slide with a reprimand and one month pay cut. Patient survived then too. This time, results are good. Patient’s alive in ICU, and even her prognosis is decent thanks to you….”
A tiny spark of hope bloomed in my chest.
Yeah, maybe this time too, somehow….
“Hmm… no clue. Probably fucked, though?”
What?
You gave me all that hope earlier.
Now this?
“Huh?”
A dumb sound burst from my mouth.
“Come on, let’s think it through together.”
He leaned forward, staring straight into my eyes.
“Last year, you were a fresh first-year. First offense. Could package it as ‘overflowing passion to save the patient led to a mistake.’”
Uh, the premise is wrong, Doc. A first-year doing a laparotomy is way crazier, right?
Than a second-year.
That’s not something you can spin as passion.
He paused, smiled coldly.
“You’re a second-year now! Time to strut around like you know the ER. And you’ve already got a record from last year’s massive fuckup that went to the training committee. This time, you shoved a REBOA in the resuscitation bay—with a Trauma Surgery professor watching! And you volunteered for it.”
Well, all facts, yeah.
But I can’t understand this guy’s brain.
Wasn’t the first-year laparotomy crazier?
Why’s this worse?
Maybe he thinks first-timers get a pass.
“Not something you can spin as passion anymore. You’re a hopeless repeat offender. Time bomb.”
Lee Min-jae shook his head.
“Won’t end with the training committee, I bet. Probably straight to formal disciplinary board. No telling if they’ll strip your training quals.”
Ugh, why keep scaring me.
Quit making me flinch, man.
Right then, Lee Min-jae suddenly smacked my back.
“It’s fine, it’s fine!”
His voice was back to its usual flippant, loud tone.
What’s fine.
It hurts like hell.
“Fuck up, save a patient, grow from it—that’s how doctors level up! Right? Life’s short! Get fucked once!”
Lee Min-jae cackled.
“I’m fucked too! Couldn’t deny it, hell, practically abetted your crazy shit. I’ll get dragged to disciplinary too, shredded like a dog. We go together! Life’s short! Joint enlistment! Joint discipline! Haha!”
“Uh… so we’re fucked?”
“Yeah.”
Lee Min-jae answered crystal clear.
“You and me. Nice and cozy, double-fucked.”