Chapter 35: Let’s Use It in Surgery! [3]
Chapter 35: Let’s Use It in Surgery! [3]
“Ugh, ughhhh!”
The patient, now awake from the anesthesia, screamed.
He had to be in pain.
No matter how well the anesthesia worked, there were still no Analgesics….
I looked down at the patient.
The only painkiller that came to mind right away was Opium.
Not because I was some kind of drug addict, but because I knew it was commonly used in this era.
It’s not even cancer pain… there’s no way I can use something like that.
If he became addicted…
Treatment was nearly impossible.
Even in the twenty-first century, treating narcotic addiction was not easy, so trying to do it here… it would be better just to give up.
“It hurts… it hurts too much.”
“Your leg was cut off. Of course it hurts.”
Should I call that fortunate?
The medical personnel of the nineteenth century, without a single exception, were numb to their patients’ pain.
No, rather than numb, they were half resigned to it.
If anything, that was for the best.
If they tried doing something out of misplaced concern and gave him medicine, it might be dangerous.
Anyway, Robert Liston answered as if it were nothing.
He looked so shameless that the patient seemed to have nothing left to say and only grimaced.
“Still, it didn’t hurt when we cut it off, so that’s something, isn’t it?”
“That… that is true.”
In truth, the patient also considered it fortunate that he could not even remember the surgery.
Wasn’t that natural?
Surgery was called surgery, but until now it had been little different from murder.
It had gotten so bad that patients ran away at the mere mention of surgery, to the point that the surgical ward had only one entrance.
If they were caught while fleeing, they had to undergo it, and if they managed to beat the surgeon guarding the entrance, they could escape.
That was not an exaggeration. It was true.
“Right. If it hurts too much, have a little drink.”
“Yes, yes.”
Anyway, the patient was drinking alcohol.
Damn it.
It’ll make the wound fester….
The harms of alcohol—especially alcohol consumed after surgery—were so numerous it was exhausting just to think about them.
For one thing, it dilated the blood vessels, which was a huge drawback.
And if the blood vessels dilated, blood would circulate even more, so what would happen if blood rushed through a wound that had not even started to heal?
No matter how skilled Liston was at surgery, had he really tied off every single vessel?
No, even the capillaries could bleed.
Could I give him fluids? No… no. I’m insane.
For a moment, I wondered whether fluids might help if his blood pressure dropped, but that was out of the question.
First of all, it was doubtful there were needles suitable for inserting into a vein, and even if there were, there was even less chance they were clean.
And was the water clean?
At best, Distilled Water might be possible, but that would still have to be put into a human vein.
That would make for an excellent murder.
I shook my head.
Seeing that, Robert Liston gave a hearty laugh.
“Look at that. Even our Doctor Pyeong is shaking his head. Endure it a bit.”
“Yes, yes.”
Apparently he thought I was looking down on the patient.
I wanted to ask how that could possibly be the case.
I especially wanted to ask whether a doctor who ignored a patient in pain could really be called a doctor.
But I had no choice except to keep my mouth shut.
Since I could not actually do anything for him, saying this or that would only amount to picking a fight.
“Haha. Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yes, thank you.”
The fortunate thing was that people in this era were not sensitive to pain even outside the medical profession.
The patient was no exception, so he merely sipped his liquor and thanked us.
It was the sort of sight that might have made me faint if I thought about it too deeply.
The man whose leg had been cut off that very day was calmly sipping strong liquor.
But by now I had grown somewhat accustomed to nineteenth-century medicine, so I managed to remain calm.
“Anyway, Doctor Pyeong. You did very well today.”
On top of that, there was another reason I could not make a fuss right now.
He’s definitely not calling me Doctor Pyeong for no reason.
He was not the sort of man who casually called others doctor, even by mistake.
Among the assistants, less than half were addressed that way.
And yet he was calling me that.
There isn’t exactly a formal licensing system here….
Even so, I was still only a student, and only a first-year student at that, so part of me wondered what difference it made. But that was simply how things worked here.
It felt like… nothing was firmly set.
Even the students’ ages were all over the place, and the doctors’ ages were no different.
If the professors gathered together and decided, Aren’t you basically a doctor? then that was enough to make you one.
Of course, from what I had heard through my uncle, it sounded like they were at least trying to establish a proper system now and then… but with institutions, the best time to take advantage was before they were fully settled.
Can I really become a doctor like this?
Pushing down my racing heart, I nodded.
“No, Professor. It’s all thanks to you.”
“Hahahaha. This fellow—didn’t I tell you to call me Hyung? There isn’t that much of an age difference between us.”
He laughed heartily even at that lie.
How could there not be much of an age difference!
“Hahahaha. How could I call you Hyung when the mark you’ve left on medical history is so great?”
“A mark, is it? Well, that is true enough. Today’s anesthesia will truly be remembered in history. And your name will be on it too, so rest easy. There is just one problem.”
“What… problem do you mean?”
“The academic world—especially the medical world—is rather rigid. You can tell just by looking at Blundell.”
“Ah….”
I did not know what to say.
Why?
Because Blundell was standing right beside us.
I did not know whether he was Robert Liston’s close friend or subordinate, but in any case, they were almost always together.
“And why are you dragging me into this? You even pulled that tooth during my lecture.”
“Ah, is that so? Well, you did improve after meeting me.”
“No, that….”
“In any case, even this much counts as better. Other doctors probably won’t believe it unless they see it with their own eyes. I held it in the square on purpose, but there will still be plenty who think it was a fluke.”
Anyway, what Robert Liston said was fairly reasonable.
Would they really want to admit that the gas they had been using only at parties turned out to be a godly Anesthetic?
Of course not.
It would be almost the same as admitting they were idiots.
And after suffering so much all this time because there had been no anesthesia, if some nobody they had never even heard of suddenly gave them advice, they would resent it even more.
It would be much easier for them if they could say Liston had come up with it alone, but fortunately this man had loyalty.
“And they’ll also attack your name. They’ll make a huge fuss, saying someone without qualifications hasn’t done anything. Even though they themselves are just as unqualified.”
On top of that, Robert Liston had enormous pride as a medical doctor.
No, perhaps excessive pride would be the better term.
“Can someone who takes several minutes just to cut off a leg really be called a doctor?”
Meaning that he could do it in thirty seconds.
In an era without anesthesia, that really was a tremendous advantage.
Wasn’t it better to suffer for thirty seconds rather than several minutes?
There were even nobles who specifically sought out Robert Liston, which said more than enough.
But now that anesthesia had been discovered, that very advantage might become a disadvantage instead, though it seemed the professor had not yet thought that far ahead.
“Anyway… that means you need to become a doctor. They’ll still make a fuss, but it’ll at least be somewhat better.”
What Robert Liston said was a bombshell in its own right.
Everyone listening widened their eyes.
Even Colin, who had remained in the ward until this hour thanks to the merit of having had his tooth pulled, did the same.
Joseph and Alfred did too, of course, but the one who spoke was, as expected, Blundell, the other professor.
He looked dissatisfied.
“Hm? What did you say? This young man has only been here a little over a month.”
“Then look at what he’s accomplished in that one month.”
“What has he accomplished?”
“You fool… look at the mortality rate in your ward.”
“Ah, well, that… it’s not exactly the sort of thing you’d call a medical discovery….”
I almost wondered if he was an idiot.
And I started to understand why Robert Liston had called him narrow-minded.
Why was handwashing not a medical discovery when it helped save patients?
“And yet the patients lived. And look at today. Anesthesia. We achieved anesthesia. This is a great advance for humanity.”
“That… I won’t deny that. But to grant him a medical qualification right away… there will be objections….”
Even that sort of man backed down when anesthesia was brought up.
It was that extraordinary a discovery.
Even to nineteenth-century doctors who knew nothing, it was.
“There will be objections. I’m not saying I’ll grant it today.”
“Ah, that’s what you meant. I thought…”
“Do you take me for someone so unreasonable?”
“Well….”
You stormed in and pulled a student’s healthy tooth out without warning, and you’re saying you’re not unreasonable?
Blundell clearly wanted to say that, but he clamped his mouth shut.
In the meantime, Robert Liston continued.
“He has to prove his knowledge. First, he’ll need to take an examination.”
“If it’s an examination, I’m confident.”
At those words, I broke into a grin.
Strictly speaking, nineteenth-century scholars did work hard.
And the students worked fairly hard to become scholars too.
But….
I was Korean.
Not only had I survived that monstrous education system, I had entered medical school ranked first in the entire school.
Which meant that when I said I was confident about examinations, it was by no means empty talk.
“And what examination do you think it is?”
But Robert, who knew nothing of that background, laughed.
Blundell outright sneered.
That was natural enough. A man who had been here for only a month was confidently talking about examinations.
Just wait and see, you bastard.
While I laughed inwardly, Liston said, “First, anatomy. No matter how much of a genius you are, you can’t possibly know the entire inside of the body.”
That only made me want to laugh even more.
Couldn’t possibly know the inside of the body?
I had been a professor of surgery.
“So from tomorrow onward, you’ll have to undergo special training with me. It will be hard.”
“No. I have to do it. I will.”
“Good. I’ll count that in place of the examination. And Blundell… his part will be replaced by the handwashing matter.”
“Hm?”
“You’re not refusing, are you?”
“No, I’ll accept it.”
And just like that, I got to pass two examinations for free.
“The rest is the interview… but, well, you speak well enough, don’t you? And I’ll be there too, so you needn’t worry.”
“Ah, yes.”
No, it felt like I had gotten every examination for free.
The interview still gave me a little pause, but if Robert Liston would be present, that changed things completely.
Calling it an interview would be generous. It would practically be coercion.
I could already picture it.
Do you not understand what you’re hearing? If you don’t approve, none of you are leaving here today~
Liston shouting like that….
In other words, the only examination I had left was anatomy.
And I had been good at anatomy since I was a student.
Meaning I had been good at it even before getting my medical license, so naturally I would be even better now.
“Then you’ve worked hard today. Go have a drink.”
“Huh? At this hour of night?”
“If you go with me, it’ll be safe.”
“Ah, yes. That’s true.”
“Then Colin, Joseph, Alfred. You all come too. I’m in an excellent mood today. Drinks are on me. We might as well celebrate the birth of Doctor Pyeong in advance.”