3
# Chapter 3
Beomjun nodded as he thought.
The patient in the first episode of Doctor X was a two-year-old child. At this point in the story, Seonghyeok had been
trying to persuade the hospital director, who was opposed to operating on the patient.
“If things continue like this, the patient won’t last much longer. You know that too, Director.”
The child had been undergoing surgery ever since birth, but there was no sign of improvement.
‘Complications had been discovered, so everyone was basically ready to give up.’
But like the protagonist he was, Seonghyeok never gave up on the patient.
This was what the original hospital director had said in the novel.
‘If the surgery fails, are you going to take responsibility? Let’s play it safe. It’s not like there’s absolutely no
other way.’
He wanted to maintain the status quo without treating the underlying problem.
If Seonghyeok’s surgery failed, the hospital would be held responsible.
Of course, if they didn’t operate, the child would gradually get worse as time passed. Very slowly.
But it would be difficult for the child’s parents, who were ordinary people, to notice those changes. Unless you were
directly involved, it was difficult to tell whether the medical staff were genuinely doing their best or simply paying
lip service.
After hearing those words, Im Seonghyeok had left the director’s office trembling with anger. From then on, he had
gradually become hostile toward the director.
To survive in Doctor X, Beomjun absolutely could not become Seonghyeok’s enemy. If he did, Seonghyeok would eventually
take the hospital director’s position just as he had in the original story, and the vice director and board of directors
would kill Beomjun to make that happen.
But what if Im Seonghyeok became his talent?
Then the more Seonghyeok grew, the stronger Beomjun’s own position would become as well. If Seonghyeok even said he
couldn’t treat patients without him, that would be even better.
‘Alright. I’ll do the opposite of what the original hospital director did.’
After finishing his thoughts, Beomjun slowly opened his mouth.
“That’s a very good idea. Go ahead with the surgery immediately.”
The answer was already determined. The surgery would succeed.
“If that’s Professor Im’s opinion, then we should operate. Of course we should. What good is superficial treatment?”
Medication wouldn’t be able to control the condition anyway, and the patient’s condition would only deteriorate as time
passed.
Im Seonghyeok might seem reckless, but he never acted without reason. Whenever he insisted that something impossible had
to be done, there was always a clear reason behind it, and at its foundation was his concern for the patient.
“What?”
Seonghyeok responded in bewilderment at Beomjun’s words.
He had probably come prepared with all kinds of arguments to push back, but the completely different response from the
director left him speechless.
Beomjun, who had intended to intercept him before he could start arguing, gave the bewildered Seonghyeok a thumbs-up.
“To think you’d take on something that difficult. That’s Professor Im for you. Amazing. Truly!”
Ah, maybe that was a little too much.
The more Beomjun praised him, the more distorted Seonghyeok’s expression became.
“…What are you thinking?”
Seonghyeok asked suspiciously.
It was a question, but the answer had already been decided in his mind. This was one of the ways a principled person
like him protected his convictions.
“Are you planning to hold me responsible if the surgery goes wrong?”
A patient had the right to know about their own treatment. That was why there was a procedure for obtaining surgical
consent and a signature.
Even so, when a patient was unable to accept the outcome, it was the hospital’s role to take responsibility and protect
the medical staff. After all, doctors were employees too.
“I know you don’t trust me.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.”
Beomjun was frustrated, but he couldn’t exactly tell him that the surgery would succeed.
He was supporting him, yet the guy was still being difficult. Instead of saying thank you, he immediately became
suspicious.
“I trust you. You’re going to do well, aren’t you? You’ve performed this surgery before.”
The moment Beomjun said it, he realized his mistake.
The situation was much worse than before. It was a precarious situation where they couldn’t even tell whether the
patient was physically capable of enduring the surgery. That was the biggest obstacle in this operation.
As expected, Seonghyeok clenched his teeth at Beomjun’s words.
Thinking that the director was mocking him, Seonghyeok ground his teeth and spoke.
“Just wait and see. I’ll definitely save the patient.”
Unaware that Beomjun was actually frustrated, Seonghyeok slammed the door of the director’s office shut and left.
‘Look at him, look at him. What an attitude. And I’m the director while he’s a professor who just arrived.’
Beomjun understood that Seonghyeok was desperate. After all, the child’s life was fading away while they were having
this conversation.
Beomjun accessed the hospital’s electronic medical record system, HIS, Hospital Information System.
For privacy protection, medical staff could only access the records of patients under their care. But in Doctor X, the
hospital director had master-level access. In other words, he could view information on every patient.
Without much hesitation, he searched for Im Seonghyeok’s patients and found the child scheduled for surgery.
Ryu Iseo / 2 years old / 7.3 kg
He was two years old, yet weighed only 7 kilograms.
For this child, survival had taken priority over development, leaving him ridiculously small for his age.
Iseo’s diagnosis was exactly as it had appeared in Doctor X: Tetralogy of Fallot.
A congenital heart defect involving four abnormalities at once: narrowing of the right ventricular outflow tract, a
ventricular septal defect, an overriding aorta, and right ventricular hypertrophy.
Beomjun had encountered it fairly often as a medical student. It was relatively common among congenital heart defects.
Since it was genetic, there was no way to prevent it. Usually, surgery was performed around the age of two, after which
the condition could be completely treated.
But Iseo was different.
After his first surgery, he had developed a complication in which blood flowed backward through the pulmonary artery.
“Even so, he’s determined to try.”
As the surgeon, Seonghyeok could never be 100 percent certain that the surgery would succeed.
But the Seonghyeok in Doctor X was that kind of person. Whenever an obstacle appeared, he was the type to smash straight
through it.
Of course, the novel had included many opinions regarding Iseo’s second surgery. There had been plenty of voices
expressing concern.
But our protagonist would overcome all of that and successfully perform the surgery.
Beomjun was the only one who knew that.
“Ah, right. His mother was opposed to it, wasn’t she?”
Remembering something, Beomjun searched through Iseo’s patient information in the HIS.
In Doctor X, there had been someone besides the hospital director who opposed Iseo’s surgery.
Someone who was just as exhausted as Iseo himself after two years of repeated surgeries.
His parents.
Iseo’s mother in particular had been extremely worried about the risks of the surgery.
Seonghyeok had persuaded her, but his words had ultimately been nothing more than a confident promise, accompanied by
hope that they shouldn’t give up.
Fortunately, the surgery had succeeded in the end. If something had gone wrong, however, it would have been grounds for
a medical lawsuit.
The doctor would have pressured them into undergoing a surgery they had refused.
Beomjun lowered his eyes and raised his chin.
If praise didn’t work, he had no choice but to use another card.
There was one way to increase Seonghyeok’s favorability while also saving Iseo.
He picked up the receiver and made a call.
“Hello, are you Iseo’s mother? This is Choi Beomjun, the director of Korea National University Hospital.”
---
What did patients and their families want to hear from medical staff?
“I’ll definitely save them.”
Or perhaps, “Trust me and don’t worry.”
But very few doctors could make promises that confident. Unless they were someone like Im Seonghyeok.
That was why most doctors said they would do their best. They would say that they would try their hardest.
It was a form of reassurance that they were doing everything they could for the patient, that the patient wasn’t alone
during this difficult treatment process.
Perhaps this was the attitude a doctor should have toward a patient and their family.
When they cursed the world, asking why something like this had happened to them,
a doctor was someone who could tell them that it wasn’t their fault.
Beomjun had realized this only after several years as a professor. After sending away all the residents who had been
filled with nothing but passion and completing his fellowship, he had finally come to understand how the hospital
actually operated.
By the time Beomjun became a professor and took complete responsibility for his patients from beginning to end, he had
already hurt many patients.
“Um, may we ask why you called us here?”
The parents of Iseo stood awkwardly at the threshold of the director’s office and spoke to him.
Beomjun got up from his seat and guided them to the soft sofa.
“Please sit here. Would you like a cup of warm tea?”
Iseo’s parents fidgeted with their necks and glanced at each other.
Just before the meeting, Beomjun had looked over Iseo’s chart again.
It was a kind of habit.
You could call it his routine before seeing a patient.
Iseo’s heart disease was congenital, so it had been discovered immediately after birth.
He had gone straight from the neonatal intensive care unit to the pediatric intensive care unit, meaning that the amount
of time he had been alive was practically the same as his length of hospitalization.
Beomjun spoke first to the two people sitting uneasily on the sofa.
“Iseo and Korea National University Hospital have quite a long history together. Thank you for entrusting your precious
child to us.”
At the director’s gentle words, Iseo’s mother’s eyes quickly reddened.
As though her suppressed emotions were suddenly surging up, she couldn’t continue speaking.
“No, we’re the ones who should be thanking you…”
Aside from Im Seonghyeok, there were only a few professors in the country capable of treating pediatric heart disease.
That was also why they couldn’t simply find another hospital because Seonghyeok was a little unfriendly.
The parents must have been extremely worried about the second surgery. And on top of that, there was little chance
Seonghyeok had been particularly attentive toward the parents given his personality.
They were surrounded by problems on all sides.
Beomjun pulled out a tissue and handed it to them. The husband accepted it and took care of his wife.
“I heard you’ve been having a hard time deciding about the upcoming surgery. It really isn’t easy, is it? In so many
ways.”
Beomjun lowered his gaze toward the teacup and carefully guided the two toward the main topic.
“To be honest, I’m wondering whether we really need to force ourselves to undergo surgery. I heard there are other
options.”
“That’s right. Wouldn’t it be better to try medication first and observe how things progress?”
At Beomjun’s words, the couple spoke together as though they had been waiting for someone to ask.
Since there had been no one to listen to them, all the things they wanted to say had probably been piling up inside.
“Of course, that is an option, but it isn’t a fundamental solution. In fact, if we miss the right timing, the situation
could become even worse.”
Beomjun began explaining slowly, but Iseo’s father responded somewhat skeptically.
“You’re saying exactly the same thing as Professor Im.”
Perhaps they thought everyone at the hospital was in on the same thing.
Thinking that to himself, Beomjun opened his mouth.
“That isn’t my opinion. It’s Professor Im’s.”
Beomjun took a sip of the tea in front of him before pausing.
“I was opposed to the surgery as well. I’m sorry to say this, but performing a high-risk surgery is also a loss for the
hospital.”
If he acted too humble from the position of someone providing treatment, he would lose their trust.
He needed to maintain the proper distance with the patient, neither making things too easy nor too difficult.
“A loss…? Then, does that mean you’re not going to treat our Iseo anymore?”
At his words, the couple became flustered and didn’t know what to do.
“Of course not. If I did that, Professor Im wouldn’t let me get away with it.”
Beomjun smiled as he praised Seonghyeok.
Either way, he was the hospital director. Showing a little humility wouldn’t lower his position.
Beomjun continued.
“Professor Im came to me and insisted that Iseo absolutely had to undergo surgery. He said we couldn’t delay it any
longer.”
The surgery had been repeatedly postponed because of arguments with the parents.
Most people didn’t realize that the patient wasn’t the only one suffering while things dragged on like this.
“…Professor Im did?”
Once again, the couple looked surprised.
It seemed almost touching to them that the professor who had been shouting so loudly in front of them had been trying to
persuade the hospital director behind the scenes.
“To be honest, Professor Im is the only reason I’m willing to approve this surgery. If it were anyone else, I would have
given up long ago.”
Beomjun felt a pang of guilt as he spoke.
It was because he suspected he himself might have been included among those “anyone else.”
No, that wasn’t quite right.
He wouldn’t have given up.
He simply couldn’t guarantee the outcome of the surgery.
“But still, what if there are complications?”
“I heard there’s only a fifty-fifty chance that this surgery will succeed. Should we still do it?”
Iseo’s parents continued speaking in uncertain voices.
It was understandable.
Nothing would change just because they made the decision.
Ultimately, the surgery would be decided by the hands of Im Seonghyeok.
The couple still couldn’t give a definite answer, but the atmosphere had changed slightly.
Beomjun noticed it and finally brought out the weapon he had been keeping hidden.
He had called them all the way to the director’s office.
Surely he hadn’t intended to comfort them with just a few words.
“How about we do this?”
Beomjun leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.
Without realizing it, Iseo’s parents leaned forward in the same manner.
“If the surgery goes wrong, Korea National University Hospital will cover all of Iseo’s future medical expenses.”
At his words, both parents stiffened in shock.
“Really?”
“You would go that far for Iseo…”
Beomjun quietly smiled and drank the rest of his tea.
This was something he could say because he was the hospital director.