Chapter 176

Episode 176 Gambling (2)

Drrrrck—

The stretcher carrying the patient began heading toward the emergency operating room.

The hospital director entered the men's locker room without hesitation.

[Dead Medic Gallery]

Rock, paper, scissors for the ones who don't want to step up. @Mes of the God @Thoracic Surgery Oldbie

Author: Korean Slave 1 (Male)

Cut the crap and decide quickly. Patient has cardiac tamponade, pericardiocentesis failed, suspected clot, going for emergency thoracotomy. Abdominal ultrasound is clean. Who’s coming in?

[Comments]

Hippocrates' Descendant: The very moment where the specialties of multiple spirits overlap! The boundary between thoracic and trauma surgery, how fascinating!

Mes of the God (Male): What's the cause?

└ Korean Slave 1 (Male): Trauma. Blunt injury.

└ Thoracic Surgery Oldbie: Tamponade from a blunt injury means cardiac rupture or aortic damage, but I specialize in lung cancer.

└ Thoracic Surgery Oldbie: I tap out.

└ Mes of the God (Male): I'll do it. I have experience in both GS and CS anyway.

Hmm.

Clean.

No beating around the bush.

Was this the alpha-male surgeon style of decision-making?

Just then, a bustling sound echoed from deep inside the locker room—the sound of locker doors opening and closing, and the rustling of fabric.

'Looks like the director is about to come out too.'

I took a deep breath.

Once the surgery started, the on-duty thoracic surgery resident would come rushing down within ten or twenty minutes anyway. Therefore, the time I needed to endure was only about the first twenty minutes. I couldn't let my clumsy hand movements disrupt the director's tempo.

'Instead of guidance mode, direct possession would be better.'

I would hand over control of my body. I would retreat to the corner of my mind and put that monster in the driver's seat.

Click.

The inner door of the locker room swung open, and Director Lee Jae-yoon stepped out. He had already completely changed into scrubs, with his mask and cap perfectly in place.

It hadn't even been a minute.

'Does changing clothes get faster with seniority too? That was incredibly quick.'

Before I could even marvel at it, I closed my eyes. There was no time.

'Possession, Mes of the God.'

Swoooosh—

Instantly, I felt the sensation of my body going dark, and immediately afterward, my vision brightened again.

Flash—

'Well, is this already the fifth or sixth time being possessed...?'

It felt familiar. It was my body, yet it didn't feel like my body—a strangely comfortable yet alien sensation. And an overwhelming majority of those times had been with this guy.

My body, now equipped with Mes of the God, naturally turned its head to look at the entrance of the operating room. He saw the back of Director Lee Jae-yoon, who was about to follow the stretcher as it rolled into the operating room making a loud clatter.

Mes of the God clenched and unclenched his hand once to check his senses. Then, looking at the director, he paused.

"…?"

Sensing a presence, Lee Jae-yoon half-turned around.

"?"

Mes of the God's pupils trembled.

"You..."

Mes of the God started to open his mouth but closed it.

'Oh, right. They seemed to have met before.'

Since I guessed that the surgery the director had shown me last time belonged to Mes of the God, if that surgery really was his, there was a high probability they already knew each other.

But Mes of the God quickly regained his composure, as if deciding that wasn't what mattered right now.

Director Lee Jae-yoon stared intently into my eyes and asked, "Dr. Han. So, do you have a specific approach in mind for this surgery?"

It was a test. A test to see if a mere resident from another department actually knew anything about the heart.

"Uh... yes. Rather than a median sternotomy, I think it would be better to perform a left anterolateral thoracotomy."

Lee Jae-yoon kept walking as he asked, "The reason? The former offers a much better field of view. Is it because of time?"

"Yes."

My voice came out calm and grounded.

"In the first place, for an emergency trauma patient like this, it's better not even to consider a sternotomy."

"Right. That's the correct answer."

He nodded, looking satisfied.

"And immediately upon opening the chest, it seems best to manually cross-clamp the descending aorta or clamp it to block descending blood flow."

"…Fine. Do that."

Every single motion of lathering and scrubbing from fingertips to elbows was fast.

'The surgical hand-washing procedure is...'

The standard textbook method for surgical hand-washing, which was a hazy memory for me, was being executed flawlessly.

Tap.

Shaking off the excess water, we pushed open the operating room door with our hands held up at chest level.

"Entering."

The patient was already anesthetized and draped.

"Let's do a time-out," the anesthesiologist announced, holding the chart. "Patient registration number 28ER110027, Mr. Han Seung-ho. 32-year-old male. Diagnosis: traumatic hemopericardium. Procedure: emergency thoracotomy. Lead surgeon Lee Jae-yoon, assistant Han Hyeonjae. Is this correct?"

"Correct."

"Correct."

"No markings since it's an emergency surgery."

The sound of the heart rate monitor beeped precariously.

Then, Lee Jae-yoon opened his mouth.

"Scalpel. Number 10."

As soon as Lee Jae-yoon's short command dropped, the nurse handed over the instrument.

The mes split the skin between the patient's left ribs.

Slice—

Lee Jae-yoon drew a line across the skin along the patient's left fifth intercostal space in one swift motion. A red line formed, and blood immediately began to seep out.

"Bovie."

Sizzle—

Smoke rose along with the smell of burning flesh.

…

"Retractor."

Mes of the God was already holding the retractor on standby. The instrument to widen the gap between the ribs went in, and with a mechanical clicking sound, the rib cage was forcibly pried open.

Crack.

The sound of rib cartilage breaking echoed, but...

'That's not the problem right now.'

As soon as the field of view was secured, dark red blood could be seen surging and pooling up.

"Suction."

"On it."

Even before Lee Jae-yoon could speak, the suction tip accurately found the pool of blood and began drawing it in.

Schluck—

Chuaaaak—

As the blood was sucked away, the field of view cleared instantly. Not missing that fleeting moment, Lee Jae-yoon's hand moved.

'…Wow.'

Lee Jae-yoon swallowed his admiration inwardly.

Securing the field of view was pure art. The exact moment he thought about wanting to see a certain spot, the space was already opened up right there.

'You're telling me this isn't the hand of a surgeon?'

It was a perfect assist, moving like his own extra set of limbs. The flow of the surgery didn't break at all. No, rather, it felt like Lee Jae-yoon was being pulled into the resident's tempo.

Usually, if an assistant is clumsy, the lead surgeon is bound to yell. Especially in an emergency surgery like this. Yet, this operating room was eerily quiet. Even if the lead surgeon just slightly tilted his head, the assistant voluntarily adjusted the angle of the retractor to create a clear view. It felt as if he was looking one step ahead of the lead surgeon to clear the path.

Lee Jae-yoon had worried his hands might be stiff since it had been a while since he last operated, but there was absolutely no friction. The assistant knew exactly where Lee Jae-yoon was trying to cut and what he was trying to see.

Working that way, Lee Jae-yoon and Mes of the God had successfully located and clamped the descending aorta. It was a measure to block the path of blood going from the heart to the lower body, maximizing the blood flow to the brain and heart. It was a crucial vital-preservation technique.

"Professor."

"What is it, Dr. Han?" Lee Jae-yoon answered without taking his eyes off the surgical site. He didn't even notice the mistake of the emergency medicine resident calling him 'Professor' instead of 'Director.'

"After incising the pericardium, instead of using a finger to control the bleeding, I will insert a Foley catheter and inflate the balloon to block it. I already asked the surgical team for the equipment earlier."

Mes of the God proposed the next step.

When it is difficult to stitch a ruptured heart right away, this temporary technique involves inserting a Foley catheter into the hole and inflating the balloon to plug the leak from the inside. It was a textbook method in trauma surgery, but he knew it wasn't commonly used in standard, routine thoracic surgeries.

Lee Jae-yoon nodded without hesitation.

"…Do that."

He accepted it without any argument because it was the most efficient method.

Meanwhile, Professor Seong Chan-hyeong of the Anesthesiology Department, who was managing the vitals, felt like he was losing his mind. He looked back and forth between the monitor and the operating table, unable to close his mouth.

'Isn't he an emergency medicine resident? Why is he in the operating room?!'

This defied all common sense. Furthermore...

'But why is he so good?!'

Seong Chan-hyeong, a clinical assistant professor of anesthesiology at Cheongjin University Geoje Hospital. Professor Seong had frequently entered the operating room back when Director Lee Jae-yoon was serving as a thoracic surgery professor at the main hospital, and he had witnessed many people getting their souls crushed.

What kind of man was Lee Jae-yoon? He was the tyrant of the operating room. The director was notorious for having an incredibly fierce and sensitive temperament during surgery. Yet, he was so docile right now. No, beyond being docile, he actually looked comfortable.

When he first heard that an emergency medicine resident was coming in as an assistant, Seong Chan-hyeong had doubted his own ears.

'No matter how crazy that man is, hasn't he crossed the line this time? Is he planning to kill the patient?'

He had arrived trembling with those exact thoughts. But what on earth was this?

Right now, only one thought flashed through Professor Seong's mind.

'Was he originally from thoracic surgery? Did he get his board certification and then do an emergency medicine residency?'

Lee Jae-yoon lifted the mes and sliced straight through the pericardium.

Gush!

The pooled dark blood and blood clots erupted outward.

"Suction!"

Mes of the God was already applying the tip before the director could even say it.

Puchuaaaa—

A tremendous amount of blood was sucked into the canister. Once the field of view was properly secured, a finger-sized hole became visible. Blood was spurting and pumping out from that spot.

"Give me the Foley!" Mes of the God shouted.

Snatching the Foley catheter handed over by the nurse, he pushed the tube in without hesitation.

"Inflat- I will perform ballooning. 10cc."

Swoosh.

Saline was injected, and the balloon at the tip of the catheter inflated. As Mes of the God gently pulled back on the catheter, the balloon fit snugly against the inner wall of the heart, and like magic, the bleeding stopped.

"Bleeding is controlled."

"…Ha."

Lee Jae-yoon let out a short exclamation of admiration.

Meanwhile, watching this scene unfold, I couldn't help but be completely horrified.

'Blood clots and blood are pouring out, so how are you so calm?!'

His fingertips were as steady as a machine. There wasn't even a microscopic tremor. It sent chills down my spine even though it was my own body.

The man in front of me, Lee Jae-yoon, also seemed like a madman.

'What is up with that guy?'

Even if he had been in the field until recently, he wouldn't have been doing emergency surgeries, so why hasn't his scalpel skill rusted at all?

'Did he disguise himself as a back-alley doctor and moonlight doing emergency surgeries every night?'

The spirits belonged to another class entirely so that made sense, but the director was a modern human being.

I checked the timer in the corner of my vision.

'The possession time is 30 minutes... there's still plenty left.'

Since the hole was plugged with the Foley catheter, the vitals would stabilize. Now, all that was left was to stitch it up formally.

'Will Mes of the God handle it until the finish?'

At that moment.

Zzzing—

The automatic door of the operating room slid open, and someone rushed in panting.

"I'm sorry! I'm late!"

A young man drenched in sweat. He was a thoracic surgery resident.

"Who are you?" the director asked without raising his head.

"I am Hong Seon-ho, 4th-year thoracic surgery resident! The professor on duty is on his way right now!"

"…."

Lee Jae-yoon looked at Hong Seon-ho without a word. Then, he lowered his gaze again to look at Mes of the God, who was holding the patient's heart covered in blood.

"Did you scrub?" Lee Jae-yoon said briefly.

"Of course."

As the resident hesitantly approached the operating table while donning a sterile gown, Lee Jae-yoon spoke.

"Hand over your position, and you can leave the operating room. Good work."

This was it. My role—no, the spirit's role—ended here.

With a slightly disappointed expression, Mes of the God handed over the equipment he was holding to Hong Seon-ho.

"Hold here. Be careful not to let the balloon slip out."

"Ah, yes. Thank you."

Hong Seon-ho took over the position in a daze.

Taking off his bloody gloves, Mes of the God looked up at the clock hanging on the operating room wall.

[12 minutes elapsed in surgery]

[17 minutes elapsed in possession]

I also looked at the clock in the void.

Just as my body was about to leave the operating room.

"Dr. Han."

Holding the needle holder to stitch the patient's heart, Director Lee Jae-yoon spoke without even looking at me.

"Of all the pairs I've ever worked with, that was the second-best set of hands I've encountered."