Chapter 90 – Future Plans of a General Hospital (7)

The next day.

Dowook was going down to the first floor for emergency call duty when he took out his phone. There was a message from his mother.

[Son. What do you plan to do for the New Year’s?]

‘New Year’s?’

Looking at the date at the top of the cell phone, the holiday was just around the corner.

Although Dowook always tried to take time off to go see his parents during the New Year’s, he really didn’t have the time this year.

Surgery, outpatient, training.

The tasks increased as his first year as a specialist began in earnest.

Considering what he had to do at the hospital, he thought it would be only on New Year’s Day that he would have time at best.

[I have about a day.]

Dowook saw a familiar head as he was heading towards the emergency room after sending a reply.

“Chang Soo, did you have dinner?”

“Huh?”

Since Seong Chang Soo, who turned around, had a hot hoppang in his hand, Dowook pointed at it. [T/N: hoppang is a steamed bun with a sweet filling. Usually the filling is red bean paste.]

“Is that filled with red beans?”

“Uh-uh. There was only one left. Don’t even think about it.”

“I don’t like those with red beans. It’s not a smell I like.”

“Phew, poor guy who doesn’t even know anything about taste. This is amazing.”

“If you feel sorry for me, give me a bit. Hoppang has a pretty nice texture.”

Seong Chang Soo, who took a bite while hiding the hoppang from Dowook, showed his refusal through his actions.

“Oh, it’s hot.”

“I’m not going to eat it. Eat slowly.”

Dowook shook his head and quickly took his ringing cell phone out of his pocket. He thought it was his mother, but it wasn’t.

“It’s Professor Choi. Shh.”

Seong Chang Soo closed his mouth immediately after fanning his tongue.

“Yes, professor.”

-Where are you right now?

“I came down to go to the emergency room.”

-1st floor? Where exactly?

“In front of the hallway to the center.”

-I’m nearby. Wait a minute.

As soon as he hung up, Seong Chang Soo asked.

“What did he say?”

“He told me to wait.”

“Now? Did you make any mistakes during the surgery?”

“If I had made an accident in the operating room, would I be standing here intact? I would be beaten on the spot.

“Oh.”

“And Professor Choi. He’s a very considerate person outside. Don’t misunderstand him.”

“Last Choi’s consideration? I think it’s more like horror.”

Seong Chang Soo bit a piece of hoppang with a horrified expression. And he smiled as if he had never done that.

“This is really a specialty. If you don’t go when it’s steamed, it will be all sold out.”

A shadow approached behind the happy Seong Chang Soo.

“Dr. Park.”

A cold call. Seong Chang Soo instinctively flinched and walked to Dowook’s side. When he turned around, Last Choi was standing there in his casual clothes.

“I have an appointment, so it’s hard to deal with it.”

Choi Hoo held out a rough paper bag to Dowook. Dowook received it and asked.

“Were you going somewhere?”

“Yeah. I’ll be back before tomorrow’s surgery schedule. Chief Ha will be in charge of the morning round, so you don’t have to pay attention.”

“Okay.”

Seong Chang Soo stabbed Dowook in his side as he saw Choi Hoo disappearing toward the lobby.

“What is this incredibly normal conversation?”

“He’s always like this. You’ve become a specialist, and it’s time to be confident in front of Prof. Choi.”

“Is trauma easy to overcome? I still remember being smashed for doing something wrong with the patient’s notification in my first year.”

Dowook opened the bag handed to him by Choi Hoo and raised his head. His eyes remained on the hoppang held by Seong Chang Soo.

“Is that really a specialty?”

“I can’t give it to you. Shoo shoo.”

“Who wants it? How dirty.”

“There’s a big dumpling snack bar on the 3rd floor. There’s a seasonal item that they only sell in the winter. Bulgogi disappears in a minute as soon as it’s displayed.”

Dowook took the hot hoppang out of the bag. It was a steamed bun with a fragrant soy sauce meat scent that was essentially different from red beans.

“Like this?”

Seong Chang Soo’s eyes got bigger. Dowook took a bite and nodded.

“It’s a specialty. It smells good.”

“No way. Is everything in the bag steamed buns?”

“I guess so. What does the green taste like?”

“The legendary vegetable hoppang?”

“Legendary?”

“I’ve only heard rumors. Myeongdeok said that the ratio of chives to pork is crazy.”

“Oh. This would be perfect for dinner.”

Dowook looked around and moved to an empty table in front of the convenience store. Seong Chang Soo followed with shining eyes.

“I want one, too!”

Dowook jerked the bag aside.

“If you want a bite, buy me a drink first.”

Seong Chang Soo, who rushed into a convenience store, came out with two sodas.

“Here you go”.

“Dessert, too.”

“You got it for free, too.”

“If you don’t like it, just leave.”

It was not until he ran to the coffee shop across the street that a vegetable hoppang landed in Seong Chang Soo’s hand.

Seong Chang Soo looked thrilled.

“You’ll be blessed, Professor Choi.”

“Hey. Trauma?”

“Starting today, it’s no more!”

10 minutes passed as they shared the gift from Prof. Choi.

After a sip of coffee Dowook looked up at the ceiling. To be exact, he looked in the direction of Room 2007.

-My heart beats as I keep listening to your voice. What kind of symptom is this?

He was sure that she had asked because she really didn’t know Lim So Yool had always been honest with him.

Why did such a smart mathematician ask something like that?

The situation at the time was too sudden to ask.

He had to go check her health and help with work tomorrow evening, but he couldn’t seem to move easily.

“What are you thinking about?” Are you upset because I ate three?”

Dowook’s attention turned to Seong Chang Soo at his question. Since they had known each other for more than a decade since college, they knew each other very well and helped each other whenever they had difficulties.

“Chang Soo.”

Dowook quietly told him his worries.

“If, you know, some girl tells you her heart beats when she sees you. What would you do?”

“Huh? Who likes you?”

Since he hit the nail right on the head, Dowook hid his embarrassment and made excuses.

“If. I said if.”

“Who is it? Show me a picture.”

Seong Chang Soo, who already accepted it as a fait accompli and reached out his hand first, was relentless. Dowook shook his head.

“Never mind. I’m a fool for asking this question to a single person who has never dated before.”

“The theory of a single person who has never dated is more accurate. There’s nothing to worry about. If you’re charming, you can start dating. If not, just mind your own business.”

“It’s because there are a lot of problems involved.”

“Problem? You avoided me because you felt pressured when Ina followed you around because of her crush.”

Ina was Seong Chang Soo’s younger sister, Seong Ina.

“That was a long time ago. Why bring it up?”

“She’s a stewardess now. It’s also a class A airline. She’s been recognized for being charming. If you argue like that, you’ll totally remain alone your whole life.”

“I’m not asking you to nitpick. Your sister is just like you, so I didn’t like her that way. And you always gossip about your younger sister’s personality. Why are you suddenly complimenting her?”

“She asked me this and that and asked if she could come over this New Year. She even offered a bribe.”

“Don’t do things like that.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve already scolded her. Dowook is busy because of his flower-like…….”

Seong Chang Soo paused.

“PARK DOWOOK. The woman who said you made her heart race… By any chance?”

“No.”

“This guy. This guy. You confessed your feelings and got rejected?”

“Don’t turn your thoughts around. It’s not like that.”

Dowook stopped moving while trying to correct Seong Chang Soo’s misunderstanding. But a call interrupted the conversation.

Among the two people who confirmed the call at the same time, Seong Chang Soo raised his head.

“I won. It’s an order from Commander Ji. There are two patients coming in from the collision.”

“Go ahead. I’ll follow you right after I clean this up. I’ll be on shift soon.”

“Alternating? You’re on emergency duty again? How many cards did you max out? You shouldn’t use more than your salary like me. It’s not a difficult thing.”

“Don’t make me laugh and go.”

When Dowook entered the emergency room, it was after the patient in the collision had already arrived at the severe treatment room.

Chief Ji was in charge of one side and Seong Chang Soo was in charge of emergency treatment on the other. The condition seemed to be more severe for Chief Ji’s patient. It seemed like they weren’t able to find where the bleeding was since there were several blood packs around them.

‘Hope you survive.’

Dowook passed by the treatment room and found Lee Sang-moon, a day shift worker. He was paying attention to the severe treatment room.

“Dr. Lee.”

“Oh, you’re here, Dr. Park.”

“Is there any special patient you want to hand over today?”

“There’s no urgent patient. One patient who is on a line in treatment room 7 will be discharged from the hospital on his own afterwards. He comes here often. The patient in No.3. is sleeping off the alcohol.….”

Lee Sang-moon could not stop paying attention to the severe treatment room even as he was ending his shift. It was not easy to focus on other things when a patient was next to you on the verge of life and death.

However, there were already enough emergency response personnel in that severe treatment room. In addition, Chief Ji’s response was as quick and effective as ever.

“There’s no need for serious damage control. If the patient’s vitals stabilize soon, they just need arterial embolization, so it will be a little helpful if you move to the CT room and prepare in advance.”

Lee Sang-moon’s head turned at Dowook’s explanation.

“They used up 4 blood packs, but it’s easy to fix?”

“They’ve already found where the bleeding is.”

Beep beep.

When Chief Ji pulled out, a sign of vital normalization appeared on the monitor. Peace descended quickly in the treatment room, which seemed urgent.

-What are you doing? Why are you not going to prepare for angiography!

Chief Ji’s shout rang out.

As Dowook said, Lee Sang-moon’s eyes widened as emergency treatment flowed.

“Thank you, Dr. Lee.”

“H-have a good day.”

Lee Sang-moon was surprised and could only look at Dowook passing by casually.

It was ridiculous that a first year neurosurgeon, who received his specialist license this year, was more knowledgeable in emergencies than he was, an emergency surgery chief resident.

“Now that I witnessed the rumor in person, it’s really something else.”

The first door of the Severe Treatment Room opened. Chief Ji saw Lee Sang-moon and shouted.

“Sang moon! Run to the video studio and set up the basic embolization!”

“Yes, chief!”

Upon arriving at the general area, Dowook entered his name in front of the working computer, and then moved in front of the reception desk, where many waiting patients were located.

The nurses on duty today saw Dowook and bowed their heads briefly.

Dowook asked one of them.

“How many patients are waiting?”

“There are currently 23 people.”

There were a lot from the start.

“Dr. Dowook, are you working today?”

Hong Chul-soon, a third-year resident, greeted Dowook from where he was sitting in front of his working computer.

Behind him was a doctor Dowook hadn’t seen before, and looking at how young they were, it was likely a new sprout starting this year’s residency course.

Hong Chul-soon hit the sprout’s shoulder.

“Jinsu. Say hi. This is the famous Dr. Park Dowook. Doctor, this is Yeom Jinsoo, one of our new residents.”

“Hello, senior! I look forward to working with you!”

12 months since she started as an intern. The voice of a prospective resident had the energy of a new sprout.

But that was also a spirit that would die down by the intensity of the hell-like residency that was incomparable to when she was an intern.

Dowook encouraged her quietly to hold on as he said.

“You don’t have to be so energetic in your greeting. I’m from a different department. Feel free to call me doc.”

“Oh…”

“There are 23 patients waiting. Shall we start now?”

“Yes. Senior… ah, doc.”

The first patient was a man grabbing his nose.

“Sir, can you let go of your nose?”

“It hurts so much…”

The upper part of the patient’s nose was slightly touched with a hand wearing sterile gloves. There was edema under the skin.

“How did this happen?”

“I measured the wrong heading angle. Ugh, it hurts.”

“It isn’t that bad. Nurse. Headlamp.”

Dowook put a lamp on his head and lifted an inhaler and a cotton swab.

“Don’t glare at the light and close your eyes. Your eyesight will suffer.”

The blood clots in the nose were removed with a cotton swab, the ointment containing local anesthesia was applied to the torn mucous membrane, and a gauze was attached to prevent the patient from touching the swollen upper nose.

“It’s done.”

“Already? Don’t you take X-rays? I think my nose is broken.”

“Your bones are fine. If you feel itchy or sore after returning home, put on a cold pack or something. Until the swelling goes down.”

The wait was long, but when the treatment ended in two minutes, the patient looked puzzled.

Dowook winked at the nurse to explain it well and then moved to the next treatment room.

After dealing with bronchitis patients, severe hiccups, and finger dislocation patients, he came out and looked at the clock.

It was 7:10.

An average of 2.5 minutes per person. Dowook thought he should work harder because his pace seemed to have fallen compared to before.

‘What? I wasn’t using the chief’s sense.’

Chief Ji’s sense also began to meld into his daily life, so trial and error occurred for a while. It was important to accept and reflect carefully in order to completely meld with the sense.

Dowook slightly reached toward the video room where Chief Ji, who was in the midst of embolization, was located.

Tingle.

Just by looking at the patient’s eyes, he could feel Commander Ji’s sense extending completely throughout his neural circuit.

As he approached the treatment room where the next patient was, he could see the muscle spasms were caused by muscle cramps. That was where the key injuries were. It was muscle stiffness due to hyponatremia.

“Nurse, please prepare a prescription for fluids here.”

In a little bit.

Dowook came out of the general treatment room after the 13th treatment.

“How many patients are waiting?”

“Now there are only people who are registering.”

Dowook looked at the clock and thought he could take a breather at the nurse’s answer.

It was 7:25pm.

It was about 1.5 minutes per patient.

“There’s a difference like this.”

Although the treatment time varies from person to person because they had mild symptoms, he thought that Chief Ji’s senses still had a long way to go before he could completely integrate it as his own.

The patient’s prescription record was left on the computer chart, and Hong Chul-soon approached his side.

“Wow. I’m really happy whenever I’m on duty with Dr. Dowook. How many people did you cover by yourself?”

“I’m done with the records.”

When he stepped back from the computer chart monitor, Hong Chul-soon also continued to talk about a prescription.

“Senior Chang Soo needs to learn from Dr. Dowook, too. He always just tosses the patient. Or get angry.”

“Even if you talk behind someone’s back, you have to get the facts right. I only do that when there’s too many patients, not all the time.”

Hong Chul-soon flinched at the sudden voice.

As Seong Chang Soo approached with his eyes on him, Hong Chul-soon, who turned his head, closed his mouth. Seong Chang Soo, who was shooting Hong Chul-soon with a look of “I’ll deal with you later,” turned his head.

“I’m done working now.”

“The patient?”

“Done with the care. The chief also gave the okay.”

Earlier, Dowook saw Seong Chang Soo puncturing the central vein with a 24-gauge needle instead of a typical 14-gauge needle. That was a skillful response, which he could realize even without Chief Ji’s sense.

“Take a rest”.

“No way. I have to prepare for tomorrow’s conference. I’ll be in the medical office, so let’s have a late night snack later. Oh, by the way. What I couldn’t say earlier…….”

Dowook shook his head immediately.

“Just pretend you didn’t hear that. I don’t want any more advice from you.”

“What! I wasn’t going to say this. Recently, Chief Ji and Director Lim…….”

Seong Chang Soo’s voice was lowered even more in case anyone could hear him.

“They had a discussion. I heard it accidentally while sleeping in the medical office, but I think something huge will happen to the hospital. What was it called? A group boycott event? They’re preparing something like that.”

The board members’ plans seemed to have been poorly understood by the vice dean.

“Anyway. She said this to Chief Ji. Even if there is an internal dispute, the New Year’s business plan will not be shaken, so please keep your balance. It’s the day before the storm. Director Lim is at the center of it. What do you think this means?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Isn’t this a story of love rising up in this tragedy? So to speak, you’re Romeo and she’s Juliet.”

Dowook facepalmed at the weird conclusion Seong Chang Soo arrived at.

“Never mind. Go away”.

“The atmosphere at the hospital is extraordinary.”

“Okay, go home.”

Seong Chang Soo’s back was pushed in the direction of the staff locker room, and Yeom Jinsoo could be seen in front of the reception desk holding the receiver with teary eyes.

Seong Chang Soo was surprised and asked.

“Jjinsu. What’s wrong with you?” [T/N: Just a nickname Seong Chang Soo gave the new intern.]

“S-senior. The patient seems to have hyperventilation syndrome, but the internal medicine doctor refused to come when I called for help.”

“What?”

Seong Chang Soo looked at the treatment room where the patient was sitting. A male patient with dry hands, a typical symptom of hyperventilation syndrome. He was currently undergoing temporary treatment with a respirator in his mouth.

He took the phone.

“This is Seong Chang Soo from Emergency.”

-Come on. Why do you keep bothering me when I said no?

“Did you see the chart? Blood pressure 180 and 100. Pulse 98. Respiratory rate 40.There are also signs of the trozo.”

-Can’t you see that oxygen saturation has dropped to 94% even though he’s hyperventilating? Check properly and note with accurate symptoms. Don’t waste my time.

Click.

The phone was hung up.

Only then did Seong Chang Soo look closely at the computer chart and feel wrong.

“Jjinsu. Go and check the medical history again.”

“What?”

“It’s not hyperventilating syndrome. If you don’t know the symptoms, you have to only do objective things so that they can cooperate. Cheol-sooni. Follow me.”

Seong Chang Soo, who sent two juniors, sighed deeply. Dowook asked.

“What’s wrong?”

“These days, with the internal medicine doctors. Cooperation is not the same as before. The atmosphere changed dramatically this past month. Like they’re trying to eat emergency surgery.”

Dowook had already experienced the internal medicine’s aggression in the outpatient clinic, so he only listened silently.

“I can’t say anything because I’m not a professional. It’s still like that. If you have symptoms, what happens when you come down?”

“What kind of patient is it?”

“Over there. Treatment no.2. The patient with Jinsoo. It looks like hyperventilating syndrome, right? But he said no. I can’t figure it out at all just by looking at the chart.”

Dowook frowned at the chart.

“Hmm…. It’s definitely just a patient who’s not easy to judge. I need to do several checkups to confirm.”

“So please come down. That’s not it. Internal medicine doctors will be much better at diagnosing than emergency doctors. They’re trying to make you call them yourself later.”

One person came into Dowook’s sight as he listened to Seong Chang Soo’s lament.

“Huh?”

“Why?”

“Nothing.”

Dowook reached out after seeing his fairy who had just entered the emergency room’s drug warehouse. With the fairy’s sense, Dowook turned to treatment room 2.

Mouth dryness and fatigue.

Light was flashing in the most important areas for identifying symptoms.

“Senior. I’ve listened to the patient’s medical history, but there’s nothing much to refer to. What should I do?”

When Hong Chul-soon, who went with Yeom Jinsoo, hurriedly returned and said this, Seong Chang Soo had an awkward expression on his face.

“What do you mean? I’m going to spin the examination and then do a noti.” [T/N: Short for ‘notify’ it means to call a senior doctor to ask for help with a difficult diagnosis. This would be fine if it really was a difficult case but if it was a simple one, then there’s a high chance for Seong Chang Soo to be scolded for being unskilled]

“Wait, Chang Soo.”

After completing the reasoning, Dowook asked quietly.

“Should I try to noti?”