Chapter 186

               

“Yes!”

Everyone answered Kang-hyuk at the same time.

To Jun-hyuk, it looked like a perfectly trained choir responding on cue.

‘As expected of professionals…….’

As a consumer—meaning, as a patient—when you visit a university hospital, you’re bound to notice shortcomings.

Most university hospitals had practically given up on certain aspects because of manpower shortages caused by the billing system.

Convenience.

‘Someone like me……. Is it really okay for me to be here…….’

But on the other hand, there was something university hospitals absolutely refused to neglect.

Minimizing mistakes to the point of eliminating them entirely.

Given that they mostly treated critical patients, mistakes often led directly to serious accidents.

‘Can……. I really do this?’

That was why any medical professional given an important responsibility for the first time—or even assisting with one—felt crushing pressure.

And Jun-hyuk was the type to feel that pressure twice as strongly as anyone else.

“Hey, what are you doing! Follow us!”

“Ah, y-yes.”

As his senior both in school and in the department, Jae-won tried to guide him forward.

Thanks to that, Jun-hyuk, who had been spacing out, managed to catch up to the foot of the bed before it was too late.

Kang-hyuk grabbed the bed rail and pulled as he asked the paramedic,

“You said earlier he hit his head, right? Where?”

They would perform a rough assessment once inside the operating room anyway.

But he knew simple questioning like this could drastically reduce the time needed for examination and even improve accuracy.

“Left temporal area.”

“Temporal area…… What was the direction of the fall?”

“Even the witnesses don’t remember clearly…….”

This was why on-site accidents were so difficult.

They happened while everyone was busy working.

Proper first aid was often impossible, and piecing together what happened wasn’t easy either.

“But judging from the splash location, we think it went like this.”

The paramedic pointed at the patient’s shredded left forearm.

“I forgot to mention earlier, but this part is broken.”

“Nice of you to mention it now. So he probably braced himself like this?”

“Most likely. And the left temporal area hit something, which seems to have caused cervical spine damage.”

“It folded…… So something was on the ground near his chest?”

“Yes. There was a protrusion. We believe he hit it.”

It was a level of misfortune that bordered on absurd.

Falling was already bad enough.

But for there to be a protrusion exactly where he landed—what terrible luck.

“You said he was unconscious when found…… How was his breathing?”

“The rate itself wasn’t particularly fast or slow.”

Paramedics were not simply people who pulled victims out of danger.

These were highly trained individuals capable of assessing condition and performing emergency care.

“But it was a bit…… shallow. It felt like air was just moving through the [Dead space] instead of actual gas exchange.”

(T/N: [Dead space] refers to the part of the airway where no actual gas exchange occurs.)

“So basically, effective breathing wasn’t happening from the beginning?”

“Correct.”

“Hmm.”

Kang-hyuk and the team were now passing by the examination rooms.

If possible, it was always best to run every test they could before surgery.

Especially for a patient like this who had injuries to the head, cervical spine, arm, and chest.

‘The golden hour…….’

But no matter how important an accurate diagnosis was, nothing outweighed the patient’s life.

‘It took 15 minutes from the initial call to arrival.’

He had been unconscious the entire time, and CPR had started two minutes before reaching the hospital.

Now six minutes had passed since arrival.

That meant he had been unconscious for a total of 21 minutes.

Jae-won must have been thinking about this too, because he shouted desperately,

“Professor! Should we at least get a head CT first?”

There was external trauma on the left temporal area, but that didn’t tell them what was happening inside.

The brain didn’t sit flush against the skull—it floated in cerebrospinal fluid—so the actual damage could be somewhere completely different.

A CT scan minimized such guesswork.

“Shit…… Head and cervical spine in one go! No contrast needed!”

If the patient had even a shred of consciousness, they might have been able to infer what hurt based on reaction.

But that was impossible now.

They needed imaging.

“Head and cervical spine, got it!”

Jae-won immediately turned the bed toward the scanner room.

The radiology tech had been mentally preparing ever since the patient arrived.

Doctors from the Severe Trauma Center—especially Kang-hyuk—weren’t the type to wait nicely.
Rather than get yelled at, it was better to be ready and take the scan immediately.

“Alright, this way!”

Thanks to that, Kang-hyuk’s team entered the CT room without waiting.

Patients who had been waiting beforehand looked at them with resentment.

But no one dared complain.

It was obvious to anyone that the condition of the patient on the bed was far more serious than someone sitting and waiting.

The emergency room was not a place where you treated whoever arrived first.

It was a place where you treated whoever was closest to dying.

“Up we go!”

Kang-hyuk’s team was well-trained in every respect.

Even transferring a patient from the bed to the CT table was done flawlessly.

Jae-won and the others supported the patient’s head and cervical spine carefully as they moved him onto the scanner.

Jun-hyuk could only assist in the most literal sense.

‘Different……. They’re all so different from me.’

The more he watched, the more his confidence withered.

When he had first entered surgery—when he first became a first-year resident—he had felt full of confidence.

‘Finally, this damn internship is over!’

With the endless sense of liberation, he thought he had finally become the doctor he set out to be—the kind who handled human lives.

But he had misunderstood something.

Becoming a resident was not the end of training.

It was the beginning of endless training.

The gap between the expectations he had for himself and his current reality crushed him.

“Hey! Where’s your mind at? Put this on! Want radiation to fry your balls?”

Jae-won shoved a lead apron at him.

“Ah…… y-yes! Yes!”

“Kyung-won will handle the setup. You and I hold the patient! If he slips, we’re screwed!”

“Yes!”

Jun-hyuk hurriedly put on the lead apron.

It covered not only the part Jae-won was worried about, but everything several layers below.

Meanwhile, Kang-hyuk had already slipped out of the room into the control area.

In his mind, more radiation didn’t mean infertility—it meant cancer.

“Shooting now!”

“Yes! Go ahead!”

“Okay!”

The tech’s voice echoed from the overhead speaker.

Because they weren’t using contrast, the scan began immediately as Jae-won requested.

Whirrr.

Compared to MRI, the sound was practically muted.

“Hey, hold him steady.”

But for the patient, whose head had to go inside the machine, it probably sounded loud.

Naturally, there was a risk his limbs might move.

The table was thin—thin enough that falling off was a real danger.

“Yes.”

“Good. Like that. Nice job.”

“Ah…… Thank you.”

Because Jae-won himself longed for Kang-hyuk’s praise, he was generous in praising others.

Seeing Jun-hyuk simply pressing lightly above the patient’s knee, he praised him repeatedly.

Whirrr.

The machine slowed.

Just when it seemed the scan had finished, the door swung open and Kang-hyuk burst in.

“Hey! Good thing we scanned! We almost got fucked!”

The profanity was a bit much for someone with his title, but this wasn’t exactly unusual.

So Jae-won simply asked why.

“Why?”

“The brain injury’s on the opposite side! Right side!”

“Ah…… Whiplash…….”

“Yeah! And the cervical spine is fine! Not fractured! Nerves are intact!”

“Oh, really? Then…….”

Jae-won looked down at the patient’s very limp legs.

He could now reasonably assume it wasn’t nerve damage—just unconsciousness.

“Right. So we just fix the chest and the head!”

Kang-hyuk exclaimed brightly—as if those two problems weren’t already catastrophic.

Transferring the patient back to the bed was just as impressive as transferring him to the scanner.

‘But…… Can he really survive this?’

Watching the suddenly energized team sprint toward the OR, Jun-hyuk tilted his head in disbelief.

He had heard about Kang-hyuk’s incredible skill.

But the rumors sounded like something out of a wuxia novel—too exaggerated to believe.

‘He’s……. really going to save this?’

It was insane.

Nothing was intact.
The brain, heart, and lungs were all failing at once.

Yet everyone was excitedly rushing toward the OR like novices.

Even so, Kyung-won maintained perfect rhythm as he squeezed the [Ambu].

(T/N: [Ambu] refers to a manual bag used for artificial ventilation.)

Clack.

Inside the OR, Jang-mi and Ji-min were moving busily.

‘Ah, so they were here.’

Jun-hyuk finally realized why he hadn’t seen them since the CT room—they had run ahead to prepare.

“Alright, anesthesia now!”

After transferring the patient onto the operating table, Kang-hyuk shouted.

“Yes! Medication going in!”

Since the tube was already in place, there was no hesitation.

Kyung-won administered anesthesia appropriate for the patient’s weight and connected the gas.

Meanwhile, Kang-hyuk and Jae-won quickly donned gloves and sterilized the incision area.

“You…… You go scrub in!”

While painting the patient brown with betadine, Jae-won shouted at Jun-hyuk.

Letting him assist with sterilization would only get in the way.

“Ah, yes!”

At the very least, scrubbing in properly and helping afterward would be better.

Kang-hyuk agreed with that logic.

“Good. You scrub too. I’ll shave his head first.”

“Head…… Understood.”

Originally, shaving the patient’s head was considered grunt work.

But anyone who had seen Kang-hyuk shave even once thought differently.

Swish.

He slid the scalpel through the hair at lightning speed.

Not a single cut on the scalp.

Godlike precision.

There was no real reason he needed to shave the head with such insane technique, but anyway—

He shaved the hair in seconds, painted with betadine, and walked out.

Clack.

Just then, Jun-hyuk and Jae-won finished scrubbing and stepped inside.

Kang-hyuk looked at them, tilted his head slightly, then said,

“Slave, you start opening the skull. I’ll handle the chest with him first, then come up.”

“Sir? Me…… alone?”

“You can open, can’t you?”

“That’s…… um…… Yes. I think I can.”

Jae-won hesitated but nodded.

Then he looked at Jun-hyuk with a pitying gaze.

‘He might just quit for good after today…….’