Chapter 6
Episode 6 Urgent Quest (3)
[Remaining Time : 00:06:51]
At this rate, in 7 minutes, 1,000 LP and the Hidden Trait will slip right through my fingers.
This won't do.
I must grasp at straws.
In the end, I decided to reach for my last resort.
I couldn't resist the power of Collective Intelligence.
Once again, I conjured the [Dead Medic Gallery] into the void before my eyes.
Title: Urgent) Male patient in his 50s, paresthesia
Author: Korean Slave 1 (Male)
R/O Acute gastroenteritis patient. Chief complaint: N/V/D, abd pain. Vitals stable, labs show no specific findings. However, showing signs of cold-hot reversal. Feels cold water as warm. What should I differentiate first? No time.
[Register]
The moment I pressed the button, comment notifications Started coming in like crazy.
ㅇㅇ (210.94): No, so are you saying you're actually alive or what?!!!!
Hippocrates' Descendant: Paresthesia, you say. Is there no possibility of a stroke? Describe the physical examination findings in more detail.
Pediatric Ghost: Hey, you bastard, say something!!!! Do you have no intention of communicating with us?!!!!
As expected.
These ghost bastards didn't care about my question at all; they were just crazily obsessed with me.
Just then, that specific IP appeared again.
ㅇㅇ (118.235): Are you stupid? Ask about their Southeast Asia travel history or what kind of fish they ate first. Go, go. Re-take the history. Go, go.
Huh...?
Fish...?
All of a sudden...?
I narrowed my eyes.
Southeast Asia travel? Fish? What at all did those two things have to do with enteritis symptoms and temperature sensation anomalies?
Even after mobilizing all the medical knowledge in my head, I couldn't find a connection.
The words of 'Hippocrates' Descendant', who suspected a stroke, sounded much more plausible.
I was suspicious of the gallery—no, of that anonymous user named 118.235.
However, right now, I had no options. Remaining Time: 4 minutes. I had nothing to lose.
I headed back to bed B-17.
Groaning with a face even paler than before, the patient painfully opened his eyes looking at me.
"Doctor gentleman, what is it this time...?"
"Patient, I'd like to ask you just a few more questions. It's because it's important."
"By any chance, have you recently traveled to Southeast Asia?"
The patient shook his head.
"Southeast Asia? Going to Jeju Island is the extent of my entire life. What Southeast Asia."
The first clue missed the mark.
"Then, by any chance, yesterday or today, did you eat raw fish or some unusual fish dish? The kind you don't usually eat."
At my question, the patient's eyes Faintly gleamed.
"Ah, fish!"
"Yesterday for lunch, my company president came back from the Philippines and made braised fish... What was the name of that again? Lapu... Lapu-something, they called it. About three or four hours after eating that, my stomach turned upside down and this mess started."
Fish from the Philippines, Lapu-lapu.
After shouting to the patient, "I understand, please wait a moment!", I ran back to the station like crazy.
And immediately, I posted a second thread in the gallery.
Title: Anonymous user, get in here. ㅇㅇ
Author: Korean Slave 1 (Male)
No, I got the answer, but why did you tell me to ask?
The patient said they recently ate fish from the Philippines (Lapu-lapu). No travel history, said an acquaintance brought it. What is this?
And less than a second after my post went up, the gallery exploded.
ㅇㅇ (210.94): LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Pediatric Ghost: Hey, you crazy bastard, what are you doing? Lmao, the table is fully set, and you're asking to be spoon-fed? Lmao.
Operating Room Ghost 3 (Male): Lmao, I'm seriously losing it, haha. Is this guy really a doctor? Lmao.
Hippocrates' Descendant: It is certain that you are alive. And it has also become certain that you are foolish beyond imagination.
ㅇㅇ (1.234): It's certain he's alive, and it's also certain this guy is an idiot, lol.
Have these crazy ghost bastards gone collectively insane?
Just then, amid those countless ridicules, the answer I wanted finally came up.
ㅇㅇ (118.235): It's Ciguatera, you dumbass.
ㅇㅇ (118.235): Starting with gastrointestinal symptoms, headache, muscle pain, and that temperature sensation anomaly you saw are damn characteristic symptoms. It's taught in toxicology class, you bastard.
Ciguatera. Ciguatoxin.
Yes, there was such a thing.
That rare toxin I had just roughly underlined in a textbook and skipped over, thinking I'd never see it in Korea in my lifetime.
In the end, I found the answer again with the help of these crazy ghost bastards.
Of course, I was treated like an incompetent quack in the process.
[Remaining Time: 00:01:21]
Now, there was no time.
"Senior Choi Soomin!"
I shouted toward the senior sitting at the station.
"The B-17 patient has Ciguatera fish poisoning!"
All the noise at the nursing station stopped in an instant.
The sound of charts turning, the ringing phones, and even the small talk all ceased.
Senior's eyes were full of bewilderment, as if asking, 'What kind of bullshit is he talking about now?'
"Hyeonjae, wait a minute. Ciguatera? That tropical fish toxin?"
The reaction was perfectly normal.
Ciguatera.
At best, it was a disease where case reports occasionally appeared in the southernmost of the south, like Jeju Island.
A textbook disease that a clinical doctor working in Korea might encounter once in a lifetime.
And a 1st year resident diagnosed such a rare disease in an enteritis patient?
If I were the senior, I wouldn't believe it either.
Catching my short breath, I continued speaking.
"The patient says he ate a dish made with a fish called Lapu-lapu that an acquaintance caught directly in the Philippines yesterday. Gastrointestinal symptoms started several hours later, and right now, he's even showing signs of cold-hot reversal."
As soon as my words ended, Senior's eyes flew wide open.
"...Ah, hey! That's it!"
With a short exclamation, Senior turned her body without hesitation and placed her hands on the keyboard.
Clack-clack-clack-clack-!
Senior started entering orders into the EMR at a crazy speed like a storm.
"Establish another IV line, and load Mannitol 20 at 1 gram per kilo over 30 minutes! Right now!"
"Keep up the EKG monitoring, and check blood pressure hourly! Keep a close eye out for bradycardia or hypotension!"
"Administer Gabapentin 300 mg right now, and if pain isn't controlled, give more according to the schedule!"
"We need to check urine output, so let's insert a Foley catheter right away!"
Wow, shit.
Looking blankly at that scene, I let out an exclamation of admiration.
A 3rd year isn't a 3rd year for nothing.
The speed is just on a whole different level.
I had merely thrown out the single diagnosis of Ciguatera, but Senior was pouring out orders like a storm without even needing time to think.
Is this what experience looks like?
To give those orders one by one, I would have definitely searched through books, asked Senior, and agonized over it for a long time.
However, Senior finished that entire process in just a few tens of seconds.
I genuinely came to respect Senior.
The savior who saved my life—no, my LP.
[Remaining Time: 00:00:12]
[Remaining Time: 00:00:11]
Just before the quest timer ended, Senior Choi Sumin finally pressed the enter key vigorously, confirming the final order.
Phew. I did it.
I let out a sigh of relief.
Although I did nothing other than the diagnosis, anyway, the quest was a success.
1,000 LP and a Hidden Trait.
What on earth is the Hidden Trait?
It was an exciting moment. Hehehe.
Right at that moment.
Ding~!
Along with a quiet, cold notification sound, a new system window popped up in my vision.
[You have left the management to another doctor!]
[Acquired LP is reduced by 50%!]
[Final Reward: 500 LP, Hidden Trait Open (Locked)]
"...."
My brain stopped.
What?
Acquired LP reduced by 50%?
1,000 points instantly became 500 points.
Even worse, behind the Hidden Trait Open, a fucking parenthesis saying (Locked) was attached.
No, I was the one who asked the gallery and informed her!
I was the one who found it!
Just because Senior wrote the orders, the reward is cut in half? What an irrational and absurd thing!
I heard a snapping sound inside me.
The mix of fatigue, tension, and anger over the injustice paralyzed my brain, and without realizing it, I blurted out my inner voice without a filter.
"What a piece of shit!"
It was too loud to be a monologue, and too quiet to be a shout.
The clacking sound of Senior's keyboard that had filled the air stopped.
All the air in the Emergency Room froze.
Senior Choi Sumin slowly turned her gaze, which had been fixed on the EMR screen, and looked at me.
An unreadable expression, a face covered in shock and question.
Opening her lips, Senior quietly asked me.
"...Hyeonjae, what did you just say?"
...Uh?
Did I just curse out loud?
Really? I blurted it out? A double curse?
In front of Senior?
Am I seriously crazy?
That's right.
Han Hyeonjae, a 1st year resident in Emergency Medicine.
Being the absolute lowest of the low, I had just become a crazy bastard who threw a double curse right in front of a 3rd-year senior—who was called the angel of the ER—directed at the orders she had just given.