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# 001. The Emergency Room Is More Comfortable
It was 10 p.m., the time when people who had stopped for a drink after work, their faces flushed from the alcohol, were making their way home.
The emergency room of a university hospital located in Jongno-gu, Seoul, was packed with people.
Of course, the number was smaller than usual, but there were still more patients than the medical staff assigned to the emergency room could handle. Naturally, Han Seojun, a second-year resident in the department of cardiothoracic surgery, had come down in the middle of his shift to help.
But the situation changed in an instant.
The emergency room, which had been relatively quiet, suddenly began filling with the screams and cries of patients and their guardians. At that moment, the emergency room doors opened, and a paramedic came rushing inside while pushing a cart.
“Please clear the way!”
The wheels of the bed being hurriedly pulled scraped against the floor, producing a loud noise that echoed throughout the room.
It seemed to be an extremely urgent situation. The two paramedics and the guardian were red-faced as they desperately called out.
“It’s an emergency! Is there a doctor here?”
Patients had been piling into the emergency room one after another, and it was becoming obvious that things needed to be organized.
At that moment, Lee Seonyeong, a third-year emergency room nurse, hurriedly stopped Han Seojun.
“Doctor, please help over here!”
Perhaps this was what it meant to have three years of experience. She immediately recognized which patient was in the most danger.
And Han Seojun noticed the same thing immediately.
This should be enough.
He first stitched up the wounds of the critically injured patient who had arrived earlier and stopped the bleeding.
The examination showed no signs of internal bleeding, so there should not be an immediate problem.
Of course, just because the patient's life was not in immediate danger did not mean he could simply leave him and move on to someone else. The patient would obviously get angry.
But no matter how much he explained, it would be difficult for someone in that much pain to accept things rationally.
So he decided to take care of the most critical patients first.
“Why are you leaving when I’m still in pain?”
“You’ll be all right. We have to prioritize the people who are in greater danger.”
“Still, that’s a bit much.”
The patient’s voice gradually grew louder, perhaps because his temper was rising.
Han Seojun tried to calm him down.
“If you strain yourself any more, the wound will start bleeding again.”
“What?”
“So please stay calm for a moment. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”
After hearing that, the patient seemed to quiet down a little.
It can’t be helped.
Normally, if he told a patient to wait while he went to see someone else, it was common for them to get angry or even grab him by the collar.
Of course, it was unreasonable, but deep down, he could understand their situation.
When someone’s family member was sick, people could become so overwhelmed with worry that they were capable of doing anything.
But understanding them did not mean he could give in to everything they said.
If he did, the emergency room, which was already chaotic every time, would become even more of a mess.
“My child has a really high fever!”
“There’s too much blood coming from his hand!”
“Please look at my mother’s wrist. She fell on the street.”
All kinds of voices struck Han Seojun’s ears as people tried to get his attention, but there was only one place he was looking toward.
The place where Nurse Lee Seonyeong was.
In an emergency room where staff were constantly moving from one place to another, the presence of Lee Seonyeong, a nurse with more than three years of clinical experience, was extremely valuable.
By now, she was practically capable of controlling the place almost as well as a doctor.
She was reliable enough.
More importantly, Lee Seonyeong was capable of judging the severity of a patient’s condition to a certain extent.
But she needed a doctor as well.
At this late hour, the best they could manage to keep watch over the emergency room was a second-year resident like Han Seojun.
For her, however, it was an enormous stroke of luck that Han Seojun was the doctor on duty today.
Thankfully, it’s Han Seojun today.
If it had been a doctor from another department, she would have been at her wit’s end trying to figure out what to do.
It started with calling each department. Even when someone answered the call, it was common for them to take only a cursory look at the patient, pass them over to their department without even providing basic treatment, or simply request a transfer without giving it much thought.
Of course, she herself did not like any of that.
She disliked such behavior, but Lee Seonyeong was ultimately just a nurse.
She had no idea what would happen if she crossed a doctor, so there was nothing she could do.
All she wanted was to continue saving people at Gyeongseong University Hospital in Jongno.
In that situation, Han Seojun was practically a savior to her.
Among the second-year residents, Han Seojun was the best.
And it was not as though he had a bad personality, either.
Yet despite the efforts of the medical staff, the chaos inside the emergency room did not easily subside.
Some people had begun shouting at the interns on duty, insisting that they should be seen first.
At this rate, they might have to call the police.
This won’t do.
Han Seojun drew in a breath.
Then he shouted.
“Everyone, quiet down!”
Han Seojun’s booming voice reverberated throughout the emergency room.
“Huh.”
The commotion immediately began to die down at his shout.
“I’m the one in charge here right now. If you have a problem, come and speak to me. Harassing the interns won’t make your patients recover!”
The commotion today was worse than usual.
It was practically a battlefield.
At times like this, the only way to control the situation was to take a firm grip on it.
Once the emergency room became quiet after his shout, Han Seojun spoke again.
“We’ll see everyone according to the severity of their condition. Please wait a moment.”
After saying that, Han Seojun strode across the now-quiet emergency room.
“Doctor.”
“What’s the situation?”
Han Seojun glanced toward the patient’s head.
The injury was extremely dangerous.
It was obvious that the patient had struck his head against something with considerable force.
“The accident was severe, and the car overturned. It was hit from behind.”
The moment he heard that, Han Seojun immediately took out a penlight and checked the traffic accident patient’s pupillary reflex.
If someone had suffered a head injury, the brain was the area of greatest concern.
Han Seojun silently prayed again and again that there would be no damage to the patient’s brain.
When he imagined the worst-case scenario, he unconsciously clenched his teeth.
“Doctor? Is there a problem?”
Lee Seonyeong asked.
There was, in fact, a problem.
Today…
Han Seojun answered quietly, his voice low enough that no one around them could hear.
“There’s no one here today who can perform brain surgery.”
“Ah.”
“We just have to pray that nothing happens.”
There were only two people who could perform the surgery.
Unfortunately, both of them were away attending a medical conference.
One might think at least one of them should have stayed behind, but things like this occasionally happened. There was nothing they could do.
Lee Seonyeong nodded with a stiff expression after hearing Han Seojun.
Han Seojun opened the patient’s eyelids and examined the way the pupils constricted.
Fortunately, he could breathe a sigh of relief immediately.
It looks like there’s no problem with the brain.
The speed of the reactions and the size of the pupils in both eyes were symmetrical.
That alone was an enormous relief.
Still, he did not let his guard down.
It had been a serious enough accident to overturn a car, so there was still a high possibility that something could be wrong.
“We’ve avoided the worst.”
At his words, the nurses and interns around him let out sighs of relief.
At least the brain seems fine. There’s no sign of central nervous system damage either.
However, the visible wound on the patient’s head still carried the possibility of becoming dangerous at any moment.
“Yuju.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
Han Seojun called over Cha Yuju, an intern.
“Go around the emergency room and check everyone’s condition. Check their level of consciousness first, and find out how severe their bleeding is.”
Cha Yuju nodded at Han Seojun’s request.
“Yes!”
“Seonyeong.”
“Yes!”
“I’d like you to help as well.”
She nodded.
It was still possible that an intern lacked enough judgment to be entrusted with everything.
I’d like to go around with them if possible.
But they simply did not have enough hands, so there was nothing he could do.
He thought of Song Nakyoon, the senior one year above him who had left for overseas last year.
If he had been here, Han Seojun would have been the one teaching the intern.
If Nakyoon hyung were here…
The emergency room, no, the cardiothoracic surgery department, would undoubtedly have been running without any problems.
No. This isn’t the time to think about that.
Han Seojun shook off his distracting thoughts and began giving orders to the rest of the staff.
“His blood pressure is normal, but take him straight for a CT scan in case there’s any internal bleeding. Prepare IV fluids as well, and check the number of blood packs we have. If his blood pressure drops, be ready to stabilize it immediately.”
“Yes!”
I’ll save him no matter what.
Of course, Han Seojun, a second-year resident, knew better than anyone that such a thought was nothing more than wishful thinking.
More than a hundred corpses had already passed through his hands.
Of course, his skills had continued to improve precisely because of that.
But recently, even that had been reaching its limits.
But I have to do everything I can.
Death was something every doctor had to accept, whether they liked it or not.
Of course, they would still do everything possible to save a patient.
Anyway, following his orders, the people who had been swept up in the chaos of the emergency room began to regain their composure.
At the same time, the staff also became more efficient in their movements.
They had finally gotten a hold of themselves.
As he moved toward another patient and let out a sigh, Han Seojun thought,
Normally, someone more senior than me should be doing this, but… I’m probably going to have to pay another fine.
Normally, residents in their third or fourth year were supposed to take emergency room duty.
If they failed to do so, they had to pay a fine.
But the hospital’s judgment was that paying a fine was better than losing a person’s life.
That was how much pressure was being placed on junior residents.
Especially for Han Seojun, the only resident in the cardiothoracic surgery department, it was even worse.
---
An hour after the storm had passed, the emergency room became quiet.
But even in a situation like this, no one dared to say out loud that it was quiet.
Because no one knew what might happen next.
They did not believe in superstitions, but when it came to the emergency room, everyone strictly followed that particular superstition.
There was blood splattered all over Han Seojun’s doctor’s coat.
It was because he had stopped the bleeding from the blood vessels of patients who had suffered severe hemorrhaging.
But even though his clothes were a mess, he could smile.
Today was incredibly fortunate.
Fortunately, no one had died during his evening shift.
The professors would have been horrified to hear that he considered this a difficult shift, but Han Seojun actually felt relieved.
I wish I could just stay here.
Han Seojun genuinely thought so.
The reason was simple. Han Seojun was the only resident in the cardiothoracic surgery department.
Everyone above him was a professor.
On days when he was assigned emergency room duty like this, it was practically a vacation for him.
He felt incredibly comfortable.
That was because the amount of attention directed at him was beyond what anyone else could imagine.
He was the only second-year resident in the cardiothoracic surgery department, and he was the only second-year resident among all the residents as well.
In such a situation, how much attention would he receive from the fellows and professors?
If it had been a resident from another department, they probably would have run away already.
That was how intense the pressure was.
Of course, no one was bullying him or forcing him to do anything improper.
The stress was simply building up inside him.
Ha. I could really use a cigarette.
Han Seojun had never even put a cigarette to his lips in his entire life, so the fact that he was thinking about smoking meant the situation was serious.
What am I supposed to do…
As he thought about the problem that had recently been escalating, Han Seojun felt a tightness in his chest.
Without realizing it, he began running one hand across the scar that stretched across his chest.
In truth, Han Seojun was not lacking in skill.
Even if all the doctors his age were lined up and ranked, he would easily be within the top one percent.
But the problem was his ability as a cardiothoracic surgeon.
His surgical hand skills were not improving well enough.
Of course, his character, diagnostic ability, and judgment were all among the best, so there was nothing to criticize about his abilities as a doctor.
But what the professors wanted was more than that.
Highly difficult heart transplant surgeries, valve surgeries, lung transplant surgeries, and so on.
To meet the kind of talent the cardiothoracic surgery department wanted, his technical skills were still woefully inadequate.
Ha. Will I be okay?
Of course, if he received more training, he could improve, but he was still far from meeting the standards of the professors.
It was not as though Han Seojun had failed to put in effort.
He had mastered various cutting-edge techniques, practiced, and received instruction.
But his skills simply did not improve that easily.
His surgical ability was the only thing that remained stagnant.
Of course, the professors also felt sorry about it.
In an era when cardiothoracic surgeons were being overlooked, they had to cherish someone as talented as Han Seojun, who had chosen to join their department.
There had been more than a few times when Han Seojun had considered transferring to another department.
There was nothing more painful than knowing your own limitations.
Still, I have to endure somehow.
But Han Seojun had absolutely no intention of quitting the department.
The reason was the scar on his chest.
Heart surgery.
He had survived because of someone else.
I want to help people.
Han Seojun had become a doctor because he wanted to give others the same help he had received.
But now he was suffering terribly as he stood face-to-face with the wall of his own limitations.
As he sat with his head lowered, he heard the voice of Nurse Lee Seonyeong.
“Doctor? Professor Seo Jeongwon is calling for you.”
It was a call from his mentor.
Han Seojun immediately checked the time.
Four-thirty in the morning.
That was rather early.
It’s too early for the professor to have come to work yet.
“Yes, I’ll go right away.”
Well, it shouldn’t be anything serious.
Although it was different from usual, he stood up from his seat.
After checking the emergency room, it seemed that things would be fine even if he left for a short while.
“I’ll be back in a moment. Please call me immediately if anything happens.”
“Yes. I’ll contact you.”
Han Seojun raised one hand in greeting to Lee Seonyeong before heading toward the professor’s office.
Hoping that nothing had happened.