Chapter 85
Chapter 85
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Stubbornness (3)
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It's absolutely not because I'm some person brimming with a grand sense of mission.
I stood there holding the receiver, staring blankly at the pointless argument unfolding in the treatment room far across the way.
Right now, even as we spoke, shit-water was spreading through the patient's abdomen.
If that uncle didn't back down, there was a 99% chance he'd die from septic shock within a few hours.
And I had to watch the whole thing unfold helplessly.
It just... felt gross.
That was it.
That gross feeling.
The moment he signed the DAMA papers and climbed into the ambulance to leave this hospital.
And then, a few hours later, when we got the call that he'd been pronounced DOA in some other hospital's ER.
If the patient died like that, it'd mess up my sleep.
That gross feeling.
The kind that might haunt me for the rest of my life.
I hated that.
The gross feeling that would keep me up at night.
That's why I was pulling off this crazy stunt right now.
Not because that uncle's life was precious or anything—purely for the sake of my own peaceful slumber.
Yeah, that's right.
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 connect you right now. Please hold for a moment."
I covered the receiver with my hand and walked toward the bed.
Meanwhile, the heated debate was still raging by the bedside.
Surgeon Jo Jae-shin was trying to persuade the patient in what felt like a last desperate push.
"Going to Seoul right now is really dangerous! If you insist on Oseong, at least go to Oseong Masan Hospital—it's much closer..."
"What's that supposed to mean, Masan!"
The uncle bellowed.
"You think I'm kicking up all this fuss to go to some backwater Masan dump! Seoul! Oseong Hospital! I'm not getting surgery anywhere else!"
Lee Min-jae, standing nearby, had apparently given up—he just stood there with his arms crossed, staring at the ceiling.
I approached the uncle quietly amid the scene and held out the phone in my hand right in front of his face.
"Excuse me, sir."
At the sound of my voice, the uncle, Jo Jae-shin, and Lee Min-jae all turned to look at me.
"Would you take this call?"
"What the hell is this now!"
The uncle snapped irritably.
"Who's this quack you've dragged in? Resorting to phone scams now?"
I spoke very calmly.
"It's a doctor from Oseong Seoul Hospital."
"......"
"The director of Emergency Medicine at Oseong Seoul Hospital. He wants to speak with you directly."
I held out the phone in my hand toward the uncle once more.
The uncle's eyes narrowed. He glanced back and forth between my face and the phone in my hand.
Eyes full of suspicion.
With suspicion all over his face, the uncle took my phone.
"Ah, just a moment, sir."
I stopped his hand.
"Please put it on speaker. We need to listen in too."
The uncle scowled, clearly displeased, but he obediently pressed the speaker button.
The groggy voice of Professor Kim Hyuk-jae filled the emergency room.
[...Hello?]
"Uh... ahem! It's me! Park Sang-cheol!"
The uncle suddenly cleared his throat, squeezing out the most dignified voice he could muster.
As if he were old pals with an Oseong Hospital doctor.
[Park Sang-cheol...? Who... Ah, whatever. Is this the ER at Cheongjin University Hospital in Busan?]
There wasn't a shred of warmth in Professor Kim's voice.
Kim Hyuk-jae was no doubt extremely pissed off from being woken up in the middle of the night.
"Y-Yeah! It is! I'm here right now, and these quacks want me to let them cut me open here! Do you know what kind of shape my body's in? To do it in some backwater like this... So I said I'm going to Oseong Hospital! I called my attending physician, Professor Jo, and..."
Right as the uncle started spilling his long, pitiful tale of woe.
[Quiet.]
Professor Kim's single word sliced the uncle's words clean off.
[I heard your appendix has burst or is about to. Is that right?]
"Uh... yeah, that's what they said..."
[And you're still insisting on coming to Seoul? From Busan to Seoul, that's at least four and a half hours—even in an ambulance with no traffic, it's four hours. By then, the shit-water in your gut will have caused peritonitis, septic shock will hit, and there's a 99% chance you'll be on the way to the afterlife. And you still want to come?]
"But... surgery has to be done right! How can I trust this place..."
[Sir.]
Professor Kim's voice dropped another tone.
[It's an appendectomy. Appendectomy. Any surgeon in Korea can do it blindfolded after two years of residency.]
"But this surgery..."
[That surgery—whether at Cheongjin University Hospital there, here at our hospital, or the general hospital down the street from you— the results are exactly the same, sir! You think you're getting a liver transplant or heart surgery? There's not even a 1% reason to risk your life coming to Seoul! Do you think our ER beds are that wide open at this hour!]
Silence fell.
Everyone held their breath, focusing on the voice from the speaker.
Professor Kim Hyuk-jae's words were blunt, but not a single one was wrong.
The uncle couldn't say a word.
His lips just trembled; he couldn't muster any rebuttal.
[If you don't want to kill yourself, do what the doctors there say and get the surgery right now. Once you're better, come to Oseong for a check-up or bragging rights then. Not now. I'm hanging up.]
With that, Professor Kim delivered his message precisely and hung up without hesitation.
Beep-beep-beep-
The uncle stared blankly into space, still clutching the phone.
His face flushed red—whether from anger, shame, or pure shock, it was hard to tell.
Finally, in a tiny, mumbling voice, he muttered.
"Ahem, ahem...!"
The uncle cleared his throat pointlessly.
"...You should've just explained it like that from the start! All this about danger and urgency! Huh? You think I'm a doctor? You have to explain it right for me to get it!"
Suddenly, the uncle was acting like our poor explanation was to blame for the whole mess, shamelessly shifting responsibility.
I couldn't help but let out a disbelieving chuckle, but Lee Min-jae and Jo Jae-shin just nodded silently.
Right now, the best move was to humor the old guy.
"Agh!"
Just then, the uncle clutched his abdomen again and let out a groan.
"Give him one amp of ketorolac right now. We need to get that pain under control."
Lee Min-jae ordered the painkiller smoothly.
Jo Jae-shin nodded.
"Sir, we'll ease the pain first. Once you get the shot and wait a bit, the surgeon professor will be here soon."
The uncle didn't bring up Seoul again.
No, he couldn't.
I approached with the pre-prepared surgery precautions sheet and consent form.
Now, just one last step.
"Sir, feeling a bit better?"
"Ah... my stomach..."
All that bluster from earlier was gone.
"Once you sign the consent, we'll head straight into emergency surgery. There are a few key things you need to know before, so let me explain."
I began reciting what Jo Jae-shin had passed along.
"It'll be under general anesthesia. Time depends on how bad the rupture is, but usually one to two hours. High chance of laparoscopic—small incisions in the belly. But if the inflammation's too severe or there's a lot of adhesions, it might switch to open surgery, meaning we open the abdomen."
"You'll need to stay admitted a few days post-op. Depending on your condition, transfer to your favorite Oseong might be possible, but odds are low. Complications like infection or bleeding can happen. Not common, but always a possibility."
"Okay, that's it. Any questions?"
"N-No... none..."
"Then read this consent form, and if you agree, sign here please."
I held the consent form and pen out in front of the uncle.
With trembling hands, he took the pen.
"I... I consent..."
"Sign right here, sir."
Looking almost on the verge of tears, the uncle scrawled his name in shaky strokes.
At that moment, the ER door opened, and Surgeon Jo Jae-shin came back in.
Behind him was a middle-aged surgeon professor who looked like he'd just arrived at the hospital.
"All set?"
The surgeon professor asked.
"Yes, Professor. Just got the consent. Vitals are still stable, antibiotics are on board."
Jo Jae-shin reported.
"Good. Let's go."
And so, the Oseong Seoul Hospital fanatic uncle finally headed up to the OR at this backwater Busan hospital.
I leaned against the wall, watching the stretcher cart rattle away, and let out a long, deep sigh.
"Whew..."
It was over.
I dragged my tattered nerves back to the station and slumped in front of the computer.
Time to sort the chart.
I meticulously recorded everything: the treatments I'd done pre-op, the patient's status changes, the handoff to surgery.
If anything went wrong later, this chart was my only protection.
After finishing the charting, I habitually pulled up the hospital-wide patient status board.
Scrolled down to check the OR schedule.
[Emergency Medical Center 3F OR 1 - In Progress (GS Park Sang-cheol M/54)]
Heart-pounding.
Now it was truly out of my hands.
I silently wished the uncle a safe surgery and quick recovery.
Though I wished even more fervently never to see him in the ER again.
Right then.
Ding-
A short text alert chimed from my pocket phone.
...What?
No one texts me at this hour.
Spam?
Or card payment...?
I glanced at the screen absentmindedly.
Sender info. The moment I saw that name, my heart dropped.
[Oseong Seoul EM Director Kim Hyuk-jae]
Why?
With shaky fingers, I opened the message.
[Han, good work on earlier. I'll contact you again soon, so keep your phone on til then... ^^]
...
^^?
What was with that devilish emoticon?
Contact again soon.
What did that mean?
Was he seriously trying to recruit me?
Or revenge for waking him up at dawn?
I had no idea.