Chapter 84

‘ON AIR’

The light in Main Building Operating Room 11 turned on.

Nurses, already notified by Jang-mi, were busy preparing the instruments.

“I’ve never met that Baek Kang-hyuk before. What’s he like?”

“Me neither. Rumor has it he’s a mad dog…”

“Mad dog? What does he even do?”

“I don’t know. I heard it from the anesthesia docs.”

Among people who often interacted with the OR nurses, it was naturally the doctors operating in those rooms.

But surgeons themselves, despite working together, rarely had time for real conversation.

Both sides were always busy mid-surgery; small talk was a luxury.

So nurses often heard doctors’ rumors through the anesthesia department.

They shared the same space and had similar break times.

“Yeah… I heard from recovery room nurses. They said he’s no joke. Thanks to him, anesthesia’s atmosphere is a mess lately.”

Plus, anesthesia ran the recovery room, where more nurses worked.

Since they were in the same field, nurses talked to each other more than to doctors.

“I really don’t like people with a bad temper.”

“So what did Jang-mi say? Isn’t she directly under him?”

A nurse, quickly laying out instruments on the surgical table, asked.

Someone who didn’t know better might wonder if it was okay to chat like this while handling sterile instruments.

But every nurse in this OR was a veteran—nurses from Hanguk University Hospital, the best in the country.

They followed the basics, whether they liked it or not.

They wore masks, after all.

“Ah, Jang-mi. She says it’s fine… You know how laid-back she is.”

The nurse taking out instrument trays from the shelf replied.

The nurse arranging the instruments chuckled.

She was reminded of when Jang-mi was still a rookie.

“Yeah. No matter how badly she got chewed out, she was fine. Amazing, really.”

“Right? You can’t take her word for it.”

Still, their hands didn’t stop moving as they chatted.

Because of that, they finished prepping much faster than most ORs.

Whirr.

That’s when the OR door opened.

Kang-hyuk, not even changed into scrubs yet, rushed in along with Han Yoo-rim—who was hurriedly, sloppily dressed.

Of course, the patient and anesthesiologist Park Gyeongwon were with them.

“Hey, hey! You can’t just come in with your street shoes on!”

The nurse who’d once put rookie Jang-mi through the wringer called out, momentarily startled by the commotion.

Now a senior, she was one of the top authorities in the Main Building OR.

Her voice carried serious weight.

“If it’s urgent, you go in. Who cares what the rules say.”

Naturally, Kang-hyuk paid no attention.

He was focused only on the deep wounds in the patient’s upper and lower abdomen.

If he wasted even a second to change clothes, blood would spray everywhere.

‘Can Han Yoo-rim hold things down for me?’

Probably, but only after everything was fully set up.

For now, it was out of the question.

A greenhouse flower still needed a greenhouse.

Of course, this was only true in Kang-hyuk’s mind.

For everyone else, it wasn’t.

“Even if it’s urgent, you can’t just walk into the OR in your shoes!”

“You don’t even consider the OR floor sterile, do you? If you’ve got time to complain, help move the patient. Can’t you see this?”

Kang-hyuk rebutted sharply, gesturing at his hands.

Blood was running thick and fast down his forearms.

Only then did the nurse realize the patient was facing massive hemorrhage—and that the brute in front of her was the only thing stopping it.

“Uh…”

“Move the patient! Anesthesia needs to start!”

“Y-yes, understood! Move her, now!”

At the senior nurse’s command, all the previously chatty nurses rushed to the patient.

On cue, they quickly transferred the patient from the stretcher to the OR table.

Thump.

Kang-hyuk’s hands slipped away for a moment, missing the wound.

Blood instantly spurted, splattering across the OR floor.

“Ah, geez…”

Han Yoo-rim shook his head at the sight.

He couldn’t help but wonder if this patient could survive even with surgery.

Blood was gushing just from missing the wound for a second.

Even if Kang-hyuk’s grandfather showed up, it wouldn’t be enough.

‘At least her blood pressure is holding.’

By contrast, Kang-hyuk looked relieved.

This much spurting blood was bad, sure.

But it was better than none at all.

It meant the heart was still working.

‘But the damaged vessel… It’s probably a major artery.’

He glanced at the spot he’d briefly let go.

It was the upper abdomen—more precisely, the left upper posterior side.

‘The kidney? Or maybe the spleen?’

Either way, it wasn’t good.

While he was lost in thought, Park Gyeongwon calmly began his part.

“[Lidocaine] is in, propofol going in now. Watch for blood pressure swings.”

(T/N: [Lidocaine] is a local anesthetic and antiarrhythmic drug commonly used to numb tissue in a specific area or to treat irregular heartbeats. In surgery, it helps reduce pain during procedures.)

“Hmm.”

At the mention of [propofol], Kang-hyuk nodded slowly.

Normally, in a situation with suspected [hypovolemic shock], this drug would be contraindicated.

(T/N: [Propofol] is a powerful anesthetic that can cause blood pressure to drop suddenly. [Hypovolemic shock] occurs when there is not enough blood in the body, usually due to severe bleeding.)

[Propofol] provides a very smooth anesthesia, but sometimes causes blood pressure to plummet.

‘But right now, it’s appropriate. Actually a great choice.’

In this patient’s case, blood had spurted but pressure was still maintained.

If anything, the high blood pressure was a problem.

With pressure this high, there was a risk of sudden massive blood loss.

‘80/40.’

As expected, not long after the [propofol] went in, the patient’s blood pressure plummeted.

At the same time, Kang-hyuk felt the pressure in both his hands decrease.

“Intubating now.”

Gyeongwon confirmed the drop in blood pressure, just as he’d predicted, and inserted a tube into the patient’s throat.

Then he administered [anesthetic gas] and a [muscle relaxant], achieving complete anesthesia.

The [anesthetic gas] played a part, but as the [muscle relaxant] caused vascular relaxation, the blood pressure fell even further.

“Sixty over forty! Is this even okay?”

Han Yoo-rim, who hadn’t seen such low blood pressure in a long time, was alarmed.

Kang-hyuk shot him a glare and shouted.

“Leave blood pressure to anesthesia—just focus on what we’re doing!”

He’d slipped into speaking informally, but Han Yoo-rim didn’t even notice.

The situation was that urgent, and Yoo-rim was barely holding it together.

“Th-then what should I do?”

“Wipe here with betadine first.”

Kang-hyuk pointed with his chin at the patient’s abdomen, where two massive wounds marked the belly—so large that even his big hands could barely cover them.

“Got it.”

Without any hesitation, Han Yoo-rim grabbed the [betadine] from the tray and started wiping the patient’s abdomen.

And immediately got scolded.

“We don’t have time for gauze—just pour it!”

“A-ah!”

For Han Yoo-rim, a department head in his mid-fifties, getting yelled at was an unfamiliar experience.

Maybe that’s why, after years of keeping his doctor’s instincts buried since residency, they began to stir awake.

Sluuush—

He poured the [betadine] with a speed that made it hard to believe he was the same person as before.

“Good! Go gown up and get back here!”

“Okay!”

Han Yoo-rim, using English he almost never used, sprinted out of the OR.

Less than a minute later, he re-entered, water still dripping from his hands.

Normally, he would have been chewed out for not scrubbing long enough before surgery.

But in times like this, the usual rules had to bend.

“What are you doing! Give him a towel and help him gown up!”

“Y-yes!”

The nurses, flustered by Kang-hyuk’s scolding, rushed to help Han Yoo-rim into a gown and gloves.

Thanks to that, Han Yoo-rim was able to stand in front of Kang-hyuk, fully prepped for surgery.

“Watch closely. Right now, I’m pressing down on the main upper abdominal bleeding sites with my index, middle finger, and the base of my palm.”

That meant he was plugging three bleeding spots with just one hand.

If Jung-heon had seen it, he’d finally understand why the difference in bleeding was so stark between when he pressed and when Kang-hyuk pressed.

But Jung-heon was already outside the hospital, rescuing other patients.

He was saving more lives elsewhere.

“Alright, got it.”

“Now, put your hand right here.”

“Uh, like this?”

Han Yoo-rim, feeling awkward for some reason, placed his hand over Kang-hyuk’s.

“Ah.”

That’s when Kang-hyuk realized—his hand was huge, while Han Yoo-rim’s was almost childlike by comparison.

“Uh… you’ll probably have to give up on either the finger side or the palm side.”

Han Yoo-rim had noticed it too and muttered.

But Kang-hyuk didn’t agree.

“No. From what I can feel, all three spots are arteries.”

It might sound odd to use ‘feel’ in medicine, but because it was Kang-hyuk, Han Yoo-rim believed him.

“Then what should I do?”

“What else? Use another hand. Hey, you!”

Not the main scrub nurse, but another assistant nurse turned with wide eyes.

Her job was to quickly fetch supplies or respond to unexpected situations—not actually touch the patient.

She wasn’t even gowned and was clearly nervous.

“Yeah, you. Put on gloves and press here.”

“Me? But I’m new…”

“So what? New nurses don’t have hands?”

“Uh…”

“Now! Or the patient dies!”

“Y-yes!”

Only when Kang-hyuk threatened her with the patient’s life did the nurse finally spring into action.

While she was donning gloves, Kang-hyuk explained about his left hand.

Fortunately, the major bleeding site under his left hand wasn’t very large—Han Yoo-rim could manage it.

“You can do this, right?”

“Y-yeah. I can… do it.”

“Just until I scrub in. Three minutes, max. That’s all you need to last.”

“Three minutes…”

“Do it. No, you have to.”

“Okay…”