Chapter 170: Sailing [3]
“Eup.”
I thought he would have passed out by now. He really must be a sailor. The gas was already in, but he was still awake, glaring at me like he wanted to kill me.
“Look at this kid’s eyes. I’m going to scoop them out with a spoon.”
“Eup! Oops!”
But there was no time for jokes. I never expected the professor to get this furious. Still, thanks to that intense stare, Liston and the others understood that something serious was going on between me and this patient. Which meant that, for now, I had the upper hand.
I can’t believe I’m doing this without proper anesthesia…
Honestly, I was not even an orthopedic surgeon. The hospital I used to work at was massive, and orthopedic cases were handled in their own world. I sometimes watched from the sidelines, maybe even popped into the operating room for fun, but that was it. The only time I touched bone directly was during my military service.
The first case I handled was not even a fracture. It was a soldier who had lost his entire shoulder. A tragedy for him, but a learning opportunity for me. I knew just enough anatomy, mostly from video calls with my emergency medicine brother.
Somehow, I pulled it off. But back then, we had real anesthetics. Strong drugs. Muscle relaxants. If we had not had those, either the patient or I would have passed out.
But here? Nothing. Not even nitrous oxide, and that would not help much anyway, not with this kind of pain.
You might ask, “If you can do abdominal surgery, why not this?” But belly surgery, once you got past the initial cutting and pressure, mostly dulled into a manageable ache. Bone pain was on a different level. Guan Yu scraping poison from his arm without flinching? That man was a monster.
“All right, Professor.”
“Huh?”
“This—this is a table leg.”
“You want me to hit him with it?”
“No! It’s for a splint!”
Only then did I remember that casts did not exist yet. We needed a splint immediately. And in this era, if something did not exist, you either did without or invented it. The desk had straight, sturdy legs. Perfect.
I pointed it out, and Liston, without a second thought, grabbed the entire desk and ripped it out of the floor.
“Professor—!”
Even the sailors gaped. That desk was bolted down, built to stay put on a rolling ship. But with one crack and a snap, Liston tore it free.
Seriously. This man should have been born in another age. He would not have just been a general. He would have been an emperor.
“Just the legs!”
“So… hit him with the leg?”
“No! The desk leg! Not the patient!”
“Then say that next time. You talk funny.”
When had he even pulled out a knife? Now he was sawing through the wood like it was soft cheese. The man was known for slicing off human limbs in record time. Of course a desk did not stand a chance.
“Here.”
“Ah, place it here. Yes, right there!”
Liston handed me the splint like it was nothing. I passed it to Professor Blundell, who had finally snapped out of his daze. He still looked half-asleep, but I figured he would want it later. I started wrapping the arm with whatever I could find, then glanced at Liston to signal that we were ready.
“Pull on my count. One, two, three.”
“All right.”
“This won’t be easy. His arms are thick, it’ll hurt, and you’ll need real strength.”
“Oh, I’m good at beating people.”
“I believe it.”
Honestly, I was doubtful. Resetting a shoulder was not like breaking furniture. There was a reason orthopedic residents were basically recruited for strength. Even with modern medication, it was tough.
But I have no choice.
If we did not fix this, we would have to amputate. Which meant death. So we did it now, or he died anyway.
I gritted my teeth.
“One, two, three—pull!”
“Urgh!”
Joseph and I pulled. So did Liston.
And then—
Crack.
Something gave. Hopefully not something wrong. The skin stretched. The joint shifted. The bone felt as if it slid back into place. The sailor’s huge arm trembled, but Liston’s raw power was too much even for that.
I might have torn a muscle…
I had never seen anything like it. Not even muscle relaxants worked this well. Joseph and I were just along for the ride. Who else could have done this alone?
“What now? Should I cut something? The arm looks better.”
“No, no. It went perfectly. As expected from you, Professor. In Joseon… something like this would be nearly impossible.”
“Haha! You flatter me. But you’re not bad yourself.”
Yeah, I had my doubts before, but now? This man was divine. Not God. If he were God, he would have been crucified. Maybe Xiang Yu level? That seemed about right.
“Give me the leg.”
“Uh-huh.”
Still in awe, I used the desk leg as a splint and tied it tightly with some curtains. A makeshift bandage.
“Should I do it? You’re tying it a bit tight.”
It felt tight to me, but to Liston, maybe it seemed flimsy. If he tied it, the arm might lose circulation. Too tight, and you risked cutting off blood flow entirely. Once you understood capillary refill, this stuff became instinct. Keep the fingers visible. If they turned purple, loosen the wrap.
“Oh, this is another of Joseon’s mysteries, huh?”
“Ha… Yes. Very interesting. But it definitely looks better. Are the bones aligned?”
“Not yet. That takes time. I just corrected the position.”
“Hmm. On what principle?”
Could I explain it?
For a second, I hesitated.
They barely understand pathogens. What’s the point?
But the moment passed. They still thought disease came from bad air. So what if they did not believe me? They would not know the difference.
“In Joseon, we did it based on experience.”
Mystique activated. No one questioned Joseon anymore.
“But after I started doing dissections here…”
“Uh-huh.”
“You remember what you told me about the arm?”
“I do.”
“Well, I accidentally broke a bone once during a dissection.”
“A bone?”
“Yes.”
“Really? That can happen?”
See? He was tilting his head. He already believed it.
“Yes. And when it happened, I noticed the muscle fibers shrank a little.”
Not necrosis. Just tension easing after death.
“Hmm?”
“Maybe because the person was dead. But if they had been alive, I think the muscles would have pulled even harder. That pulling force misaligned the broken bone.”
“So you pull it back into place like this?”
“Exactly.”
“And then splint it?”
“Yes!”
“Still seems lacking. Shouldn’t we wrap it fully in something hard?”
See? There was not that big a difference between nineteenth-century and twenty-first-century intelligence. Honestly, Liston might be smarter than me. Give him proper training, and he would be unstoppable.
“Yes, I thought so too. But I don’t have anything that fits.”
“True. We can’t ask the blacksmith to forge iron right now. And even if we had it, it would be too hot to use.”
“Exactly.”
Plaster, anyone?
I bit my tongue. That would be a project for another day.
“Is that all?”
“For now. But if he moves even a little, we’ll have to reset it. He needs absolute rest.”
Just then, one of the sailors stepped forward cautiously. He was talking to me, but I noticed Liston watching him too. The scene we had just played out must have looked insane.
“This doesn’t happen often, does it?”
“Huh? Oh… well, not rarely.”
He wanted to know what would happen if it happened again. Fortunately, it was a closed fracture. If it had been open, the patient would have been a corpse by now.
“Let’s pray.”
“Yes…”
We both clasped our hands. The sailor pulled out an amulet. If I ever got accused of witchcraft, it would probably be because of that little trinket I picked up on the ship.
“Let’s step outside. The sea air will do you good.”
I wanted to rest. My body felt like it was falling apart. But Liston insisted. He even dragged Colin out of bed and pushed us topside.
I sulked until I saw the sea.
“Whoa…”
“They don’t have seas like this in Joseon?”
What kind of question was that? England was an island, but Korea was surrounded by water on three sides.
“It’s a peninsula. Like Italy.”
“Ah, right. Well, we’ll be in France soon.”
“Not straight to Paris though, right?”
“Bah. Don’t be silly. We’ll land at Calais and take a carriage. That’ll take a few more days. France is needlessly big.”
France.
What kind of magical place was that?
It has to be better than London.
Surely.
I’ll get better. I have to.