Chapter 105: An Object Called a Bicycle [2]
I made a vertical incision. After that, I simply inserted an iron rod. There was no material available to keep a hole like that open, no plastic, not even rubber, so this was a last resort.
Breathe…
All the blood clots that had pooled in the back of the throat and blocked the airway were cleared. I simply cut down and scooped them out with my hand. I did not even know if there was a suction device around.
If I told Joseph to suck it out with a straw…
No. That kind of thing was not something you asked another person to do. I heard there was a doctor who actually ordered something like that. Sigh.
“Hrrk.”
The Lord must have been watching. The patient started exhaling again. There was no Ambu bag, no respirator, but spontaneous breathing returned even after it stopped. Impressive, unknown patient. You really should not have ridden that bicycle…
“Hrk!”
Ah. That was why spontaneous breathing returned.
“What the hell is this…?”
Liston and I had to brace ourselves as the patient hacked up bloody phlegm through the hole I had just pierced in his throat. Normally, I would have stopped out of sheer guilt after something like that.
“Cheak!”
The patient kept coughing violently. But in the end, that was a good thing. I supposed the metal rod had stimulated his airway and jolted him awake. If not, he would already be thirty thousand leagues under. If he was a Christian, he would be at heaven’s gate shaking hands with Saint Peter by now.
“Do something!”
“Y-Yes!”
Of course, we could not leave things like this. If he kept coughing like that, he would die. What I had just done merely opened the airway. It was not treatment.
Click.
I opened the gas tank. God… that smell. I tried my best not to breathe it in, but I could not avoid it completely. It was not surprising. It was not as if I could connect the tube from the cylinder properly to the patient’s throat. If I did, it might suffocate him instead. Oxygen was not entering properly.
“Huff.”
“Whew.”
Liston and I both turned our heads and took deep breaths of fresher air. After all, he was the one who had once been criticized for not using anesthesia during amputations, then invented his own workaround.
“Hrk.”
Of course, our so-called anesthetic was weak. Even after spraying that much gas, the patient only drifted into a deep sleep. The good news was that he stopped coughing and only groaned now.
“Isn’t this too mild?”
“Maybe the stimulation was too strong.”
“This is the same gas that keeps people still during amputations, right?”
“Yes, that…”
The pain of having a metal rod shoved down your throat might be worse than losing a limb. I wanted to say it, but I could not.
Ah…
Now that I had secured the airway, it was time to assess the patient’s condition. I took a look.
Yikes.
His tongue was practically shredded. That was only a slight exaggeration. If Liston pulled any harder, it would have come off.
The tongue… it’s such a vital organ…
Blood was pouring out. At this point, it was just a massive clot. But the bigger issue was structural. If the front part of the tongue was this damaged, it would lose its shape and curl backward. In fact, that was likely what had blocked the airway in the first place.
I reached in and gently pulled the tongue forward, careful not to tear it any further.
“You… Even if I look terrified, I still manage to…”
My voice trembled a bit. I glanced sideways. Liston was not even watching the procedure properly.
Of course.
What, did you think I stuck my tongue out for fun? With a look that said, “Are you serious?” I went to remove the piece lodged in the tongue.
Nice.
Good thing I wore a mask. The smell of blood usually drowned everything out, but nineteenth-century breath? It was not just bad. It was a petri dish. I swear if you cultured it, you would grow a whole dish full of bacteria.
Plink.
As I thought that, the stench seemed to fade a little. I carefully used tweezers to remove the piece. For just a moment, I felt like I was back in a modern operating room.
“Hehe.”
I chuckled.
Plink.
There. Just one pair of decent tweezers, and the tongue was clear.
“Oops.”
Oops. How blasphemous, right when everything was going well…
“Huh?”
I turned and saw Liston was already gone. The man who had been poking around with the iron bar earlier was now installing something. What kind of grotesque hobby was this?
“Needle—ah, Joseph!”
I could not do this alone. We had no fire source. Without heat, suturing was impossible.
“Ah… I’m scared…”
Joseph had been hiding behind Liston’s massive frame, but now he poked his head out. Really? This guy dissected corpses, and he was scared of this? Look at me. I was keeping people alive. This man had not died yet.
But if I left him like this, he definitely would.
“What are you scared of? Get over here.”
“Ha…”
Still shaking, Joseph came over. That’s right. Now you were my disciple. No, a proper friend.
“Senior Alfred, come help too.”
“I, uh…”
“What, you don’t want to be a doctor?”
“What kind of medicine is this?”
“It’s real medicine.”
Honestly, this was nothing. There was a surgery called “commando surgery” in modern trauma care, not because it involved commandos, but because both patient and surgeon needed to be as brave as one. Compared to that, this was a cakewalk.
“Light the lamp so I can see clearly.”
“All right… Can I just look away while doing it?”
If you were a resident, I would slap you. But fine. Maybe you would just be a rich investor one day. That was probably your plan, huh?
Still, the lighting you were giving me now was amazing.
“Hey! I’m squeamish too, you know!”
“No, you’re not allowed to be.”
You want to be a doctor, right? Surgery took two or three people. And you had steady hands. Even Colin thought so.
“Needle.”
“Ugh… okay…”
After a bit of fumbling, Alfred illuminated the inside of the patient’s mouth while I started suturing the shredded tongue with the needle Joseph handed me. I was an excellent surgeon. I worked in trauma centers back in my old life. Of course, I was not just sewing. I was checking the rest of the injuries too.
What a mess. I could not even lie and say it was “not too bad.”
The front teeth… they’re probably a lost cause.
Implants would exist someday, but when? Definitely not in this lifetime. This patient would have to go without front teeth for life.
People look pitiful without front teeth…
My older brother, a military doctor, once lost a front tooth after drunkenly biting into a metal skewer. The commander sent him on medical leave and told him to either get it fixed or at least glue some gum in there.
Oh. I should buy some gum later.
Even if chewing was not possible, it might help with pronunciation. And it was less humiliating.
“Oh…”
Joseph gasped beside me. Of course. That sutured tongue was impressive. I was not sure how functional it would be long-term, but muscle memory and healing were surprisingly strong. There was hope.
“How’s it look? Much better, right?”
“Yeah. And… isn’t everything okay now?”
“No, definitely not.”
Everything? No. Just outwardly, it looked better. But the real issue—
Blood… is still coming down.
The lamp was too bright to see into the throat properly. Plus, the person holding it was not even looking.
“Ah! Senior! The light’s in my eyes!”
“Ah, sorry.”
“Can’t you aim it properly?!”
“Not yet…”
Sigh.
Forget looking good. I was lucky I had not been burned. Still, I caught a glimpse of blood trickling downward. That could only mean one thing. An internal nasal wound.
No one had stabbed him in the nose, so it was not direct trauma.
Shit.
This guy must have hit the ground face-first. He probably landed on his chin.
I was relieved it was only a concussion, but the skull base might be fractured.
At least the bruises under his eyes were not spreading. But without X-rays or CT scans? It was impossible to know for sure. Microfractures? No chance.
“All right. Once we’re done, let’s move him.”
Liston had flinched at the severed tongue earlier, but now that it was stitched, he seemed ready to haul the guy off as if nothing had happened.
That would kill him.
“Wait. Slow down. The injury is serious. We need to move him carefully.”
“Huh? Wasn’t it just the tongue? He’s breathing fine!”
“That’s not all…”
These people could not suspect injuries they could not see. There was no such thing as clairvoyance in Joseon, after all.
“I’m the one who stitched the tongue. Can I take the lead?”
I held up the needle still in my hand.
“Hm.”
Liston’s eyes twitched. Maybe he remembered what the tongue looked like earlier. He stepped back a bit.
“Fine.”
Thanks to that, we were able to move the patient properly on a stretcher.
“Did you see that lunatic?”
“He was laughing while holding a severed tongue!”
“If you mess up with him, you’re done…”
“Even Liston stepped back…”
“Apparently, he was some kind of fist-fighting noble in Joseon.”
“Shipbuilding?”
“No, medicine. They say it’s a country of doctors.”
“Huh. That place really exists?”
As expected, I decided to ignore everything they said after that.
Footnotes
Translator’s Notes
Ambu bag — A manual resuscitator used to force air into a patient’s lungs during respiratory failure or emergency ventilation.
Saint Peter — In Christian tradition, one of Jesus’s apostles and commonly imagined as the gatekeeper of heaven.
Suction device — A medical device used to remove blood, mucus, or other fluids from the airway or surgical field.
Commando surgery — A major head-and-neck cancer operation involving extensive removal of tissues; the name reflects the severity and toughness associated with the procedure.
X-ray — Medical imaging method using radiation to view bones and internal structures, first discovered in 1895.
CT scan — Computed tomography scan, a medical imaging method using X-rays and computer processing to create cross-sectional images of the body.