Chapter 112: Let’s See Who Wins [3]
Chapter 112: Let’s See Who Wins [3]
“Is this something good?”
Dolseok, who until just moments ago had nearly become a living blood bag, blinked and asked.
The reaction between Kanghyeok’s blood and the patient’s was definitely very different from everything they had seen so far.
Unlike Dolseok’s and Makbong’s, which had coagulated almost the instant they touched, this one still remained completely liquid.
No… is it really type B…?
Kanghyeok stared at the drops of blood with a half-stunned face.
No matter how long he looked, there was no change.
The edges were gradually starting to harden, but that had to be ordinary coagulation from contact with air, not coagulation caused by interaction between the two blood samples.
Kanghyeok and the patient were, with near certainty, the same blood type, which meant the transfusion should also pose no problem.
“Wow…”
“What is it?”
“Shut up.”
Kanghyeok smacked Dolseok on the head for no reason.
Dolseok looked deeply wronged, but he could not bring himself to protest.
The look on Kanghyeok’s face was far too vicious.
That look in a man’s eyes…
And this was supposed to be a physician who saved lives?
If there were such a thing as a butcher of men, he would probably look exactly like that.
Indeed, Kanghyeok was glaring in turn at the drops of blood, the patient, and Dongpa outside with a harder expression than ever before.
Each time he turned his head, the viciousness in his face was enough to make even Makbong’s knees go weak.
This damned… Do I really have to save someone by giving up my own blood?
There were people like that, from time to time.
Doctors who truly saved patients out of some noble spirit.
One of Kanghyeok’s colleagues had even gone so far as to donate bone marrow to save a life.
Good grief.
That man had been one of Kanghyeok’s closest friends, which made it all the more shocking.
He could still remember his friend pressing ahead with the transplant without wavering, no matter how many times Kanghyeok tried to stop him.
It had made him feel respect, yes, but also that such a thing had nothing to do with him.
Kanghyeok was the sort of person who rarely even did ordinary blood donation.
More than anything, he was terribly afraid of needles.
He had been scolded before for that. How could a man who cut into other people with knives every day be like that?
But what could he do?
He really was afraid.
Even having that little bit drawn just now was miserable enough…
At least Yeoju had been fairly skilled.
If she had failed to draw blood on the first try, he would have given up immediately.
“Young Master, does it hurt very much?”
Yeoju, the one who had drawn his blood herself, asked with a worried expression.
That was only natural, since his face had gone a mess the moment the blood was drawn.
Though that was not actually the real reason.
“No… mm.”
At least Yeoju’s clear voice helped him regain a little composure.
Kanghyeok shook his head to clear away the distracting thoughts and examined the patient again.
Sunken eyes, lips dried tight. On top of that, this much change in consciousness…
The problems he had listed earlier were not, in themselves, the most critical.
But altered consciousness was on an entirely different level from the others.
At this point, it’s hard to think of any cause besides dehydration.
Who was Kanghyeok?
Was he not a man regarded as the finest surgeon even in South Korea, a nation that had boldly entered the ranks of advanced medical countries?
Granted, because of his age, he did not appear in the media often.
But everyone inside the hospital knew.
They all knew that Kanghyeok’s skill was easily twice that of those people in the academic societies who acted as if they were something important.
Because he was that kind of man, the moment he saw the patient, he could complete the entire differential diagnosis in one sweep.
If it were bleeding, the area around the face would not be this clean. The pupillary reflex is also clear… It’s not cardiac arrest either.
There were, of course, other things that could cause altered consciousness, but their likelihood was much lower.
Compared to those, dehydration was entirely plausible as a preceding factor.
So he was certain that if he corrected the dehydration, the patient’s consciousness would return as well.
And he won’t die either.
From the look of it, Dongpa had been absurdly lucky.
It seemed that none of his patients had yet progressed to dehydration this quickly.
In fact, perhaps because Dongpa had reduced fluid intake, the patients on his side looked much better right now.
They were still defecating, yes, but the amount had dropped noticeably.
Compared to that, Kanghyeok’s side was pure chaos.
“Aaaah!”
“Ugh…”
Of course it was. They were passing watery stool, and he had been making them drink water.
Even Heo Jun and Heo Im looked as though they were starting to hesitate in the face of that relentless scene.
Their minds were probably full of the same thought.
Is it really right to keep feeding them like this?
It was only natural. Everything they gave them came right back out.
The problem was that the patients were even more shaken than they were.
A few had already begun quietly moving over to Dongpa’s side.
It was a road toward death, but they had no way of knowing that.
If this man dies here too…
Then there would be no way at all to stop people from leaving.
Ah, damn it…
No matter how much he thought about it, no other method came to mind.
Wearing a half-resigned expression, Kanghyeok lay down beside the patient.
Even so, he kept giving instructions without pause.
“The IV fluid… that bag, right?”
“Yes, Young Master. But why are you suddenly lying down?”
“Shut up, bastard.”
Kanghyeok smacked Dolseok on the head once more.
Dolseok was always asking, always getting hit, and yet he never managed to fix the habit.
In some ways he was quite clever, but in others he was blatantly stupid.
“From now on, draw my blood and put it into that bag. Then give my blood to the patient.”
“What?”
“No, what is this supposed to mean?”
“Huh…”
The reaction was even stronger than expected.
To Kanghyeok, transfusion was something familiar, but to people living in Joseon, it was utterly strange.
And not just anything else, but giving someone your blood.
In more cultures than one might expect, blood was treated as life itself.
That was not always written down explicitly, but the idea was common enough.
“No, what do you mean, give him your blood?”
As expected, Yeoju, who had been raised as the daughter of a yangban household, objected the most strongly.
For once, she looked at Kanghyeok with outright defiance.
Not that it was very threatening. She looked no different from an adolescent girl.
If anything, it was rather cute.
If Yeoni had acted like this, it would’ve been a little frightening.
That girl was someone who actually resorted to physical force.
He had already lost count of how many times she had hit him.
After forcibly shaking off that depressing memory, Kanghyeok answered.
“Why?”
“Blood… may be regarded as your very life and your foundation, Young Master. To give that to this patient is therefore…”
“So, blood brothers or something like that?”
“That would be one possible interpretation. It is also certain that your own vital force would be greatly diminished.”
“Mm.”
“And according to the words of the ancient sages, blood even carries a person’s character and past. You must also consider what may become of this man.”
Nonsense sounded plausible when spoken by an educated person.
Especially when that person came from the literary side of things.
People who only knew thirty could dress it up to sound like they knew a hundred.
If he kept listening, Kanghyeok felt he might almost be persuaded.
Because mixed in with Yeoju’s words were a few grains of truth.
Well, some of my DNA would technically go into him.
Not that it could affect the man’s character or memories.
Of course, there were stories about people changing their tastes or hobbies after receiving a heart or another organ transplant.
But those were just stories. They had never been medically proven.
So what Yeoju was saying now was nothing but plausible-sounding nonsense.
“Yeoju.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“Blood is ultimately just a part of the body too, isn’t it?”
“That’s true.”
“Then wouldn’t I know that best?”
“Mm…”
Yeoju wore a look that said she did not really agree, but she nodded anyway.
“Blood is important, of course. But if it leaves the body, it gets made again.”
Even knowing that, blood donation was still no easy thing.
I’m really saying the same things I always heard.
Now that he thought about it, these were exactly the words his internal medicine colleagues, all those blood-donation fanatics, used to repeat all the time.
He had hated hearing them back then. He had never dreamed he would one day be the one repeating them.
Kanghyeok shook his head briefly at the strange irony.
“Whew. Anyway, I’m not going to give that much… so don’t worry. Just draw it without hurting me.”
“Mm…”
“I said it’s fine.”
Kanghyeok took Yeoju’s still-hesitant hand and gave it a little shake.
She had gone through quite a lot by now, but her hand was still soft and fine.
Because of that, for the first time in a very long while, Kanghyeok felt as though he was actually facing a woman.
Hoh.
He had forgotten because they had already seen each other in every possible state.
But looking at her like this, she really was beautiful.
Legally speaking, it would probably be difficult for anything to come of it.
The old man probably did have Yeoju in mind originally.
But after the Jeong Yeo-rip affair broke out, all talk of that disappeared at once.
No matter that she was the daughter of his teacher. How could anyone send a son into the family of a traitor?
Baek Seungmun was not just some reckless old man from the market.
Within Suwon, he was considered a scholar of some standing.
So neither Yeoju nor Yeoni could become Kanghyeok’s match.
But if I keep bringing just these two around like this, the old man might eventually give in.
After giving a bitter smile, Kanghyeok voiced his thoughts once more.
“Just make sure it doesn’t hurt. I really hate needles.”
“Mm… understood. Well… if it is your order, Young Master.”
“And hurry while you’re at it. This patient is in very bad shape.”
“Yes, yes.”
Who would have thought he would one day end up drawing blood this willingly?
Feeling the absurdity of it, Kanghyeok lay back down.
Meanwhile, Dolseok and Makbong opened the upper part of the IV bag that had been connected to the patient.
If this had been a hospital, that alone would have caused absolute uproar.
Infection is definitely a concern.
Still, he could always give antibiotics afterward.
He did have to think about the possibility that antibiotics might not work.
But if they did not give blood right now, the patient was almost certain to die immediately.
“All right then, let’s draw it…”
Kanghyeok muttered with half a resigned face.
Yeoju nodded and tied the rubber band around Kanghyeok’s thick upper arm.
“Your veins are good, so don’t worry too much.”
“Yes. Well… you know it has to be a thick one, right?”
“Yes. Would this one do?”
Among the needles Kanghyeok had, Yeoju picked the thickest one available apart from the one for IV fluid.
Just looking at that needle wavering before his eyes was enough to make the backs of his knees go weak.
A sigh escaped him on its own.
“Whew.”
The thought of that thick needle going into him made his hands and feet grow damp.
But there was no other way.
This time, they were not drawing blood merely to observe blood interaction.
If they used too fine a needle, the blood cells would rupture, and then there would be no point in giving the blood at all.
After sighing several more times, Kanghyeok finally nodded.
“All right. Draw it now.”
“Yes.”
“Ugh… ngh.”
Because the needle was so thick, the pain was no joke.
The one fortunate thing was that Yeoju’s hands were quite skillful.
She managed to seat the thick needle properly into the vein and held it firmly in place with her left hand.
Then, switching syringes one by one, she began to draw out the blood.
“All right… it’s starting to come now.”
“Hah.”