Chapter 21 – Battlefield(3)

Push down on the abdomen! Pressure! Pressure!”

The male student lying on bed no. 2 was on the verge of death before being taken to the ambulance.

“Emergency! Aren’t you going to secure the central vein?!”

At the thoracic surgeon, Hwang In-gang’s urging, the emergency surgeon, Yoon Jin Cheol, answered in bewilderment.

“The vein’s diameter is too small. The needle isn’t going in.”

“Can’t you see that the blood pressure is all over the place? Dr. Seo! You come over here as well!”

Seo Dae Jun, an orthopedic surgeon who was trying to stop the abdominal bleeding as well, pulled out a thick syringe with a frown. Then he walked to the side of the neck to secure a different vein from that of Yoon Jin Cheol.

The moment he was about to daringly stab the needle.

“Stop.”

Seo Dae Jun’s head turned in the direction of the quiet voice that halted his action.

“If you stab there, the neck vein will burst. It’s very swollen.”

“What the hell? Emergency is complaining that the blood vessels have shrunk.”

Dowook illuminated the patient’s neck with the penlight he’d been examining the patient’s pupil reaction with. A line of bulging blood vessels was revealed through the scratches caused by something heavy.

“This patient’s veins and arteries aren’t in a good condition.”

Seo Dae Jun swallowed his embarrassment.

“D*mn. This place was a land mine.”

“Hey, Dr. Seo! Didn’t I say to get the central vein!”

At Hwang In-gang’s shout, Seo Dae Jun showed a troubled expression.

“We can’t do it on the neck. The abdomen is that bad so the legs won’t work either. In conclusion, there’s only the collarbone. Emergency! Can’t you secure one central vein?”

“I’m trying to!”

Regardless of the confusion, Dowook calmly finished the head examination. Then, he turned to gaze at the blood flowing from the stomach wound.

There were 4 minutes until cardiac arrest shock, no 3 minutes.

That was what Chief Ji’s experienced sense informed him.

Be-be-be-beep!

When the bleeding became unbearable, the vital monitor started to beep.

“What are you all doing?! Hurry up with the blood transfusion! Am I the only one being serious here?!”

Despite Hwang In-gang’s scream, the situation showed no sign of improvement.

Meanwhile, Dowook put on sterile gloves and stood beside Yoon Jin Cheol. He looked below the patient’s collarbone where there were several marks from the unsuccessful injections.

“I’ll do it.”

“You?”

Having already lost his confidence, Yoon Jin Cheol, took a step back. Dowook looked at the nurse.

“Scalpel.”

“What?”

When he asked for a scalpel in a situation that required a needle, the nurse gave him an incredulous look. But, she habitually grabbed the most used no.10 scalpel and passed it to him.

Holding the scalpel, Dowook placed it on the patient’s collarbone and followed it with the blade.

Hwang In-gang’s eyes widened as he turned away from the stomach wound for a moment.

“Hey, nerve! What the h*ll are you doing!”

“I’m securing a central vein. Forceps.”

Among the shocked people, Dowook calmly inserted the forceps into the incision.

“I have the vein. Syringe.”

Receiving the syringe with his other hand, Dowook gently stabbed it into the vein he had secured with the forceps.

“Done.”

Blood flowed into the syringe, indicating success.

Dowook’s drastic response of making an incision to secure a vein directly was a skill that even emergency specialist Yoon Jin Cheol could not help but be disconcerted by.

It was a method of literally not thinking about procedures and aftermath. However, it was very effective.

Dowook quickly scanned the people who were currently not holding anything around the bed.

“Emergency doctor, please insert a catheter. Orthopedic doctor, the staple. Ms. Nurse. Tape, quickly.”

The instructions were precise and appropriate so everyone reflexively followed them.

After stapling the incised skin with surgical staples and attaching tape to it, a perfect central venous tube was mounted on the patient’s right clavicle.

The falling blood pressure was barely restored by the fluid and blood administered through the tube.

Seeing the monitor, Hwang In-gang finally relaxed.

“Hoo, we almost sent the patient to the next world. We passed through a hurdle thanks to you, neurosurgery doctor.”

Dowook shook his head at the signal from his hands.

“Not yet. There’s less than a minute before this patient goes into cardiac arrest. We have to aggressively treat the wounds in the abdominal cavity.”

“The vitals have stabilized though. We have to continue stabilizing him in order to get him ready for surgery.”

“As long as there is a strain on the heart, that’s not possible. Even if we send him up now, he’ll go into arrest before the anesthesia works.”

Hwang In-gang quickly turned his head as he was pressing on the abdomen.

“What nonsense do you keep spitting out? Is a neurosurgeon trying to tackle a heart problem in front of a thoracic surgeon?”

Finding the question funny, Seo Dae Jun hid a laugh.

“That’s true. Just because you stabbed a needle properly once doesn’t make you an expert in thoracic surgery.”

As Dowook’s opinion was being insulted.

Be-be-beep!

The ECG readings fluctuated rapidly. In a hurry, Dowook went over to the stomach and shouted.

“Keep increasing the blood transfusion levels!”

Dowook scanned the dented wounds caused by sharp mechanical parts on the patient’s abdomen.

‘Here!’

He put his fingers straight into a wound.

“The nerve! This b*stard is!”

Dowook responded calmly to Hwang In-gang’s raised voice.

“I’ve grabbed the cut artery.”

“What?”

Hwang In-gang, who had just picked up a trauma ultrasound device to check for internal bleeding, had an expression of disbelief.

“You found it?”

“I’m holding it.”

Coldly answering him, Dowook looked at the nurse.

“Give me a forceps. It’s slippery, so it might slip out soon.”

Dowook inserted the forceps between the fingers he put in the patient’s abdomen and grabbed the artery accurately.

“One more.”

Grabbing the opposite side neatly, the blood flowing out decreased visibly.

“How….”

In Hwang In-gang’s knowledge, it was not possible to pick out a wound among several without the sophisticated tools in the operating room.

Dowook once again repeated his previous opinion to Hwang In-gang who was at a loss for words.

“The patient is still young. His heart pumps faster than an adult’s. That’s the only reason blood pressure didn’t drop. If we don’t deal with it here, we have to send him on to the next world.”

“Umm……”

While the thoracic surgeon who should be leading the first aid operation was lost in thought, Yoon Jin Cheol, who had watched the process of Dowook exquisitely grasp the blood vessel, started to ask.

“Dr. Park Dowook. What should we do now?”

Yoon Jin Cheol looked utterly trusting. Seo Dae Jun also stepped away from Hwang In-gang and waited for Dowook’s next instruction.

“That’s….”

Dowook couldn’t say anything.

With Chief Ji’s sense, he was able to deal with the fatal situation actively. However, afterward, his fingers only twitched as his knowledge of chest surgery was lacking.

Just like with Lim So Yool’s calculations, he knew the feeling but didn’t know what to say.

‘It’s not like I can look through papers on serious trauma here.’

The feeling pulsing from his fingertips implied it was only a matter of time before the bomb exploded.