Please, Save Song-i
A phone call out of nowhere, asking for the director. Jang Sora wondered if it might be a solicitor and asked again.
"The director? I'm sorry, but who is this?"
"I'm a classmate of Director Lee Jun. From high school."
"Ah, I see."
A common solicitor's trick. Jang Sora gave a vague answer and was about to hang up. But he sounds like he's about to cry... Just as she thought that and was about to ask something more, a voice spilled from the receiver.
"Please. Put Director Lee Jun on. Please."
"Excuse me?"
And then a calm voice followed.
"Hello. This is the director of Mami Animal Hospital."
"Ah, hello, Director."
Jang Sora, who had spoken with him a few times before, returned the greeting.
"The guardian here seems to know your director at Mongmong. The truth is, his dog is quite ill."
That changed things.
"The director is with a patient right now. I'll have him call you the moment he's finished."
"I'd appreciate that."
Jang Sora ended the call and wrote on the whiteboard.
Director Lee Jun — Please call Mami Animal Hospital
The moment Lee Jun finished his appointment, Jang Sora would report it to him.
She never got the chance. Less than fifteen minutes after the call with Mami Animal Hospital, the man himself walked through the doors of Mongmong Animal Hospital.
A scream like ripping cloth tore through the entire lobby.
In that instant, every staff member with free hands came running.
"Is it a traffic accident?"
"A fall?"
Yoo Daehyun's face was taut as he asked if the animal had been hit by a car; Yeo Un-hyeok looked just as frantic asking if it had fallen from a height and broken bones. Lee Jun and Go Gi-jin came sprinting right behind them with the same questions.
"Traffic accident?"
"Where'd they fall from?"
The family of the animal hospital had come running at that blood-curdling scream, certain that whoever was making it had been in an accident terrible enough to shatter bone.
The moment Lee Jun stepped into the lobby, Kim Dong-wook came striding toward him—a stretched, frayed T-shirt, shorts, bare feet shoved into slippers.
"L-Lee Jun."
"Kim Dong-wook?"
Lee Jun's eyes went wide. That was how startled he was. But he steadied himself just as fast and asked,
"What happened?"
"I-I don't know. Please save our Song-i."
"Song-i?"
Lee Jun looked down at the dog in Kim Dong-wook's arms. Even as he watched, Song-i was screaming as if her breath itself were being torn out of her.
"S-so they said our Song-i might have cancer. But they can't put her under. They said it might be a disc. They said there's nothing they can do. Please, please save our Song-i, will you?"
The words tumbled out with no order at all. Lee Jun read a great deal from them. They need a diagnosis, but anesthesia is too risky. That means they wanted a CT or an MRI. But why? He stopped himself. Spending even one more second on speculation, when Song-i was suffering right in front of him, was not what she needed. A diagnosis, as fast as he could give it—that was.
He had no fondness for Kim Dong-wook, who had hurled such vicious words at him. But that feeling did not reach the little Pomeranian in his arms. Lee Jun made up his mind at once: if there was anything he could do for her, he would do it.
That was when Jang Sora spoke, her voice low.
"The director at Mami called a little while ago. I think it was about this guardian."
Which meant they had already run tests at Mami Animal Hospital. Better to ask the director there than this man who's barely in his own body. The woman standing next to him looks just as wrecked. The man was married, so the person beside him would be his wife.
Holding that thought, Lee Jun started toward the reception desk to call the director of Mami Animal Hospital.
Then a heavy thud sounded behind him.
Lee Jun spun around on reflex. Kim Dong-wook was on his knees on the floor. He had dropped to his knees right there in front of Lee Jun.
Kim Dong-wook was wailing. Lee Jun pulled him to his feet.
"Whatever you said to me, I'm going to treat Song-i. So don't worry."
"Kh—kh-kh-kh."
Once the tears had broken, they would not stop. It had been less than two hours, but to him it had been an eternity. And even now, the terror that Song-i might be dying—that was all that would come out of him.
Lee Jun swallowed a sigh as he looked at him. Since high school, Kim Dong-wook had been famous for being fastidious. And now he looks like a wreck, hair a wild mess. I don't even need to ask how frantically he's been running around. The wife standing beside him was no different. The two of them looked like they had been through a war.
Lee Jun turned to Yoo Daehyun.
"Dr. Yoo."
"Yes, Director."
"While I call the director at Mami and get the situation, start Song-i on oxygen."
"Understood. And no painkillers, I assume?"
"Not yet. They may have already drawn blood, so just oxygen for now. Rest in the oxygen chamber might be better."
"Understood."
Yoo Daehyun lifted Song-i from Kim Dong-wook, who looked ready to collapse, and carried her quickly into the treatment room. Lee Jun dialed the director of Mami Animal Hospital.
The director picked up and walked him through everything they had found.
"I understand. Thank you, Director."
"I was hoping it wouldn't be too serious, but something this grave..."
"It's all right. I'll call you later."
"Of course. Oh—I just sent everything by email, so please take a look."
"Thank you."
"There's one more thing I should tell you. It seems the guardians haven't been managing the heart disease."
Meaning they had not been giving heart medication to a dog who had heart disease.
"I understand. Thank you, Director."
Lee Jun went into the consultation room and opened the chart at once, reviewing every test they had run. Mami Animal Hospital seemed to believe Song-i's paralysis was caused by something compressing a nerve.
"There is a disc in this area, but..."
On the X-ray glowing on the monitor, there was a sign of disc herniation between T5 and T6. It was not severe, though. Could that really be causing pain this violent? Wasn't there something else?
"Doesn't look like a splenic rupture, either..."
Lee Jun stood and went to the treatment room.
Kim Dong-wook was sitting in a waiting-room chair now, still crying in a thin, unbroken stream. Go Gi-jin had picked him up off the floor where he had been collapsed and set him in the seat.
The moment Lee Jun entered the treatment room, he put Song-i's X-ray up on the monitor there. That was when Yoo Daehyun spoke.
"Director, the murmur in Song-i's heart is extremely severe."
"It's pulmonary edema. The heart's been under a lot of strain."
"Shall we start Lasix, then?"
"Well—let me look first. Are the legs cold?"
"Yes. Both hind legs are completely cold. Pulmonary edema, arrhythmia, and paralysis..."
"Wait."
Lee Jun took hold of Song-i's legs. They were cold. Of course there was no pulse either. It felt completely cut off. The nerves could have been blocked. But something about it sat wrong with him. I've never had a disc dog scream like this, like she's coming apart. And even for pulmonary edema, the panting is far too severe.
Animals told you when they were in pain. They even told you where, and how. And then they pleaded with Lee Jun to help them.
But the sound that reached him now was—
Aaaagh—! Agh, agh, agh! Aaagh!
Song-i was only screaming that it hurt. Which meant the pain was extraordinary.
"They said they didn't give her the heart medication..."
In that instant, something clicked into place in Lee Jun's mind.
"This looks like ATE."
The moment Lee Jun said Arterial Thromboembolism, Yoo Mu-hwan's eyes went wide.
"Thromboembolism?"
"Yeah. I think so. Let's check. Gi-jin, go tell the guardian we're doing an A-FAST."
"You mean the emergency abdominal ultrasound, yeah?"
"Right. Tell them we suspect a thrombus. Then take them into the consultation room and let them watch the exam."
"Got it."
Lee Jun and Yoo Daehyun headed for the ultrasound room, where Cha Da-jeong was already waiting, everything prepared. Lee Jun looked at Song-i, still screaming. She may be in too much pain to hear me. But telling her anyway will help her feel safer. Especially since she can't see. He looked at her eyes and found the traces of surgery. They removed the globes. Pity filled his gaze as he looked at her. He explained the situation as quickly and clearly as he could.
"Song-i, I'm your dad's friend."
That was when it happened. The full-body trembling of the little dog who had been screaming herself apart eased, just a little. She could hear him. Relieved, Lee Jun went on.
"We're going to do something for you now. When you lie down, something cold will move back and forth over your body. It won't hurt. It'll just be cold. That's us checking where the pain is, so we can make it stop. Breathing might feel a little hard, but hang on just a little. I'll make it so you don't hurt anymore."
Song-i was still screaming, but the sound had softened a great deal from a moment before.
Lee Jun spoke to Yoo Daehyun in the exam room.
"The first place I'm worried about is the heart. In cases like this, you sometimes find a thrombus inside the left atrium. After that, the abdominal arterial vessels are the next most likely."
So saying, he swept the probe rapidly over her body. Both Cha Da-jeong and Yoo Daehyun marveled at the speed of his hands. He's even faster than I was, and I used to run these exams constantly in school, Cha Da-jeong thought, her eyes on the monitor.
The hands that had been moving so quickly stopped. They had stopped over the abdominal aorta. At the abdominal aorta, a large mass was clearly visible.
"It's a thrombus."
"Yes. It's a thrombus."
"Whew. It's huge."
"What stage would you call this?"
At Cha Da-jeong's question, Lee Jun let out a breath.
"Stage 4 at minimum."
On the ASA scale, anything past Stage 5 was critical. In a case like this, table death was all but certain. If not on the table, then after the surgery.
"Shall I prepare a thrombolytic?"
Yoo Daehyun asked whether they should dissolve the clot with medication.
"Hmm. For that, the thrombus is... Dr. Yoo, go ask the guardian when these symptoms started—no. I'll go ask myself. We'll need a consent form for surgery anyway."
At Lee Jun's words, Yoo Daehyun and Cha Da-jeong both stared at him.
"You're going to operate?"
"If it only started a few hours ago, taking it out leads to a faster recovery."
"Is that even possible?"
"The arrhythmia is severe—will she be all right?"
Both of them made their doubts plain.
"Then can we save her with a thrombolytic?"
"That's..."
There was no guarantee a thrombolytic would succeed in this situation either. A dead end either way. Whatever they chose, she could die.
"Take Song-i to rest in the oxygen chamber. I'll go see the guardian."
"Yes."
Before he left the exam room, Lee Jun stroked Song-i and spoke to her.
"Song-i, I'll be right back. I'm going to see your dad."
Lee Jun stepped out of the exam room and walked toward Kim Dong-wook with a heavy heart. The heaviness was not because the man was hostile toward veterinarians, and Lee Jun was worried how he would take the news. It was because Song-i's situation was so pitiful it hurt to look at. I'm angry at him, but I need to hold it in. If they had found the heart disease even a little sooner and given her the medication, this might never have happened. Thinking that, he wanted badly to grab Kim Dong-wook by the collar. She must have been coughing at home. God... Looking at that heart, she would absolutely have been coughing. The family at home could not have missed it. I don't know what was going on, but if a kid is coughing, you take them to the hospital, don't you? But that was the past. Lee Jun decided to think only about what was in front of him now.
Kim Dong-wook and his wife were in the director's office. The moment Lee Jun walked in, Kim Dong-wook sprang to his feet. His wife rose with him.
"S-Song-i?"
"How is our Song-i?"
"As you saw on the imaging just now, Song-i has a thrombus. The blood vessel is blocked."
Lee Jun looked at Kim Dong-wook's wife and said it again.
"Song-i has thrombosis. Arterial thrombosis."
"Th-then what do we do?"
"There are two options. One is dissolving the clot with medication. The other is opening the vessel where the thrombus is and taking it out."
"W-will that work? Will our Song-i live?"
"That's..."
Lee Jun let out a short breath. Seeing it, Kim Dong-wook clung to him all over again.
"Lee Jun, please save our Song-i. Please?"
"Honestly, both are hard. She could die during either one."
A hush settled over the room. Lee Jun, Go Gi-jin, and Kim Dong-wook and his wife were all sitting there, and yet it felt as if no one was in the room at all.
Several seconds passed before Kim Dong-wook opened his mouth.
His voice was as raw as steel scraping over stone, completely hoarse after only a few hours.