Chapter 198

Episode 198 Everyone's Han Hyeonjae (1)

"Huh?"

At the dumb response that popped out of my mouth, Park Woong fluttered the A4 paper he was holding.

Flutter.

"With the President's backing, it’s practically absolute power within the hospital. So of course, I checked all the schedules for each section chief and submitted them. But it hit a snag."

"No, didn't that matter already get fully approved by the Medical Center President? Where at all did they catch a snag...?"

I asked, still unable to understand.

I mean, the Medical Center President is the king of the hospital, so who would dare disobey a royal decree? The Training Committee? The Planning and Coordination Office? Don't tell me, the school foundation...? Did the Chairman block it?

Reading my expression, Section Chief Park Woong let out a hollow laugh and asked.

"Hyeonjae. Do you know what has to be done for a resident to go on a dispatch shift to another department?"

"Well, according to hospital regulations, you submit a dispatch plan to the Training Committee, get approval from the respective section chiefs, and then get the President's approval..."

"No."

Section Chief Park Woong cut my words off firmly.

"For our Emergency Medicine residents to rotate through other departments, there is one more absolute procedure they must go through. They have to submit an application for dispatch training approval to the Academic Conference."

"Ah... Yes, Section Chief."

Only then did it hit me.

Right.

The place that oversees the resident training process and later grants the qualification to take the specialist certification exam is not the hospital, but the Academic Conference. No matter how high and mighty the hospital president is, if the Academic Conference says, 'We can't recognize this training! Do it again!' then that time is not counted toward the training period.

"So, well... Originally, Emergency Medicine requires rotations through other departments during training, and usually, even the 1st year kids go out on dispatch for 4 months at a time, so I thought the paperwork would pass smoothly this time too... Ugh..."

Park Woong scratched the back of his head with a troubled expression.

"Yes..."

"It seems like a comment came up during the process of getting the dispatch training approved by the Academic Conference Training Committee."

The document Park Woong was holding was not an internal hospital approval form, but a rejection official notice sent from the Academic Conference. He tapped the document and conveyed the Academic Conference's reaction.

"To the old gentlemen at the Academic Conference, it must have looked absurd. It’s not a 1st year or a 2nd year, but a 3rd year resident who should be firmly playing the role of the backbone in the Emergency Room, suddenly going to GS, CS, NS, and even OS. They said, does it make common sense to rotate through so many departments in a row on dispatch like that? For a 3rd year."

Certainly, looking at it from a third party's perspective, it was a crazy schedule. It could have looked like a trick by a malicious hospital trying to exploit an Emergency Medicine resident like a slave in other departments' operating rooms, or it could have looked like a clever abuse of the training regulations.

"So, before long, under consultation with the President and the head of the training department, this crazy 4-month-long, all-in dispatch will either be split in half across the 3rd and 4th years, or... the dispatch itself might just become a thing that never happened. It's still undecided."

"Ah, I see."

'Hmm...'

To be honest, rather than feeling despair upon hearing this news, I was feeling a strange sense of relief. Although I was forcibly dragged along under the President's grand big picture, in truth, that murderous dispatch schedule had been a tremendous burden deep down.

I quietly swallowed a sigh of relief and nodded. Just as my tension was about to completely unwind at the thought that I wouldn’t be thrown into the lions' den starting the day after tomorrow—

"And Hyeonjae."

"...Yes, Section Chief."

Park Woong, who was about to wrap up the talk about the dispatch, suddenly crossed his arms and looked down at me intently.

"What happened after your commute home from the past weekly shift?"

"Yes?"

I gasped in that moment.

"What did you do? After leaving work on your last shift."

"Uh..."

I hesitated to answer. An alarm sound started ringing inside my head.

After leaving work on my last shift? Is he talking about running back to the hospital after walking side-by-side and chatting with Baek Eunseo on the commute home?

'What is it?'

Don't tell me he's the head of the anti-in-house romance campaign or something? Controlling even the residents' romance business to maintain discipline within the Emergency Medicine department?

'But it's not a romance?'

'No, what am I saying. It must be about that thing with Pediatrics yesterday.'

"Ah, yes, that... I met a friend... for a bit..."

As I stammered, Park Woong smirked as if it was absurd and cut me off.

"What words came up first today is..."

The Medical Center President's office.

Gathered there was a combination of people who usually had almost no reason to cross paths.

Professor Park Saengju, the chief of the Pediatric Rheumatology division, was sitting on the edge of the sofa, pouring out words in a highly agitated voice about something. And that, too, right in front of Lee Jaeyun.

Beside him, Jeong Yujin from Pediatric Hematology-Oncology sat with crossed arms and a serious expression, nodding continuously.

And that scene was being carefully observed through the windowpane by Emergency Medicine Section Chief Park Woong, who had rushed over after being called by the President.

Seeing the two core division professors of Pediatrics, who didn't look pleased at all, sitting side by side in front of the President, Park Woong intuitively guessed that something had gone terribly wrong.

'Is there a patient that EM messed up on when sending them up to the ward? Did a misdiagnosis occur among the pediatric emergency patients?'

As the Emergency Medicine Section Chief, it was the moment that made his blood run coldest. Because when professors from other departments, especially Pediatrics, which was rumored to be sensitive, gathered in the President's office, there was a high probability that a medical accident or a complaint had blown up.

'Whatever it is, I'm going to get chewed out big time again.'

Park Woong sighed deeply inside and carefully pushed open the door to the consultation room inside the Medical Center President's office.

"Ah, Section Chief Park. You're here? Have a seat. Professor Park Saengju, please organize and explain what you were talking about from the beginning again."

President Lee Jaeyun offered a seat with a leisurely gesture.

"Ah, yes. Section Chief Park. And Medical Center President."

Professor Park Saengju cleared his throat and adjusted his posture.

"Yes."

Park Woong swallowed dry saliva, completely tense.

"What at all is this guy named Han Hyeonjae? This."

The first words out of Professor Park Saengju's mouth were not a reproach about a patient's condition or a misdiagnosis, but Han Hyeonjae's name out of nowhere.

"President, we really must use this guy. We shouldn't let him rot only in the Emergency Room. My words are... Ah."

Jeong Yujin realized her slip of the tongue in that moment and hurriedly tried to smooth things over toward Park Woong.

"No. Section Chief Park. I don't mean that keeping him in Emergency Medicine is letting him rot... It just means it's a waste for him to be in only one place."

Park Woong laughed hollowly with a dumbfounded expression.

"Haha. It's fine. Well, because I understand what kind of meaning it has."

However, Park Woong's inner thoughts were not peaceful at all.

'What on earth did this bastard Han Hyeonjae do this time...?'

Instead of causing trouble, did he charm the Pediatrics professors this time? Park Woong suppressed his anxiety and asked carefully.

"So, why Hyeonjae... Did he cause some problem?"

Then, Professor Park Saengju pushed a bundle of documents swwish across the table.

"Section Chief Park. Would you look at this for a moment?"

Park Woong picked up the documents and checked the first page.

"...Hmm, it's a multicenter study. Since it's on the rheumatology side, it's a bit hard to understand the details, but isn't it a paper? DADA2?"

"Yes. Based on prevalence, it is assumed that there are about 30,000 potential patients combined domestically and abroad, but the patients officially reported to the medical community until now..."

Professor Park Saengju pushed up his glasses and said in a heavy voice.

"It's about 600 people worldwide."

Park Woong's eyes widened.

"Then, don't tell me the reason Hyeonjae's name is coming up here is..."

"Yes. Dr. Han diagnosed this. It wasn't just at a level of suspicion; he even rattled off the paper numbers right out of his mouth. No, really. Ha. Really... It's so absurd. Ha... Ha ha. Really. Seriously."

Professor Park Saengju let out a helpless laugh as if it was mind-boggling and placed a hand on his forehead.

"Even though I became a professor and kept digging into pediatric immune diseases, I couldn't think of it at once... Yet he rattled off the pathophysiological mechanism and even the high-dose Anakinra injection treatment. It's surprising enough that he even knows the treatment for DADA2, but he even knew the treatment when it's accompanied by MAS. What kind of crazy bastard is he, at all? No, it's just absurd."

While astonished inside, Park Woong struggled to maintain his dignity as the Emergency Medicine Section Chief on the outside.

"Our boy usually... does study quite hard, but..."

"I heard the explanation from the President. That you plan to have Dr. Han Hyeonjae do rotating shifts centered around the surgical departments soon."

Professor Park Saengju made a strong appeal while looking at President Lee Jaeyun.

"No, that's..."

The moment Park Woong tried to speak in embarrassment, Jeong Yujin shouted.

"I think a dispatch to Pediatrics to prepare for pediatric emergency patients is also essential."

"...."

Park Woong opened his mouth blankly.

Leaving aside that the surgical professors were coveting him, now even Pediatrics was making a fuss to hand over their department's resident. Except for the time the Cardiology division chief jokingly told him to hand over Lee Minjae, it was a day that happened for the first time in his hospital life.

"Well, after that heated discussion continued, the Medical Center President roughly informed them that the dispatch approval fell through at the Academic Conference, and it ended in a regretful atmosphere—that's what I'm saying."

Park Woong finished his story and looked at me intently.

"...."

Having heard all of Park Woong's story, I froze just like a stone statue.

"Hmm."

I carefully swallowed my saliva.

'I feel like my name has been firmly engraved even on the Pediatrics professors.'

Following the President's big picture, now even the prominent pediatric division professors recognized me and started to covet me.

'It's a relief that it's not negative.'

Rather than getting on their bad side and having them throw a snag at every single thing, receiving love calls while being treated like a crazy genius that way was a hundred times, a thousand times more advantageous for my future hospital life.

'Is it actually better?'

Deep down, I felt relieved and answered Section Chief Park Woong.

"The dispatch schedule changing due to the Academic Conference issue is a bit of a variable. And here I was, making mental preparations."

Park Woong smirked and tapped my shoulder.

"Don't worry too much. Even if the schedule is redrawn later, Pediatrics won't be added. It will probably just stick to the surgical departments as originally planned."

"That's a relief."

It was an answer coming straight from the heart.

'Phew.'

I swept a hand over my chest.

Surgical departments. It would be hard. While hearing crazy words from the ghosts in advance and rolling around crazily just like during my 1st year, it would get resolved somehow. Of course, it was also a fact that the probability of me failing like a dog all by myself was high.

But they wouldn't make me do assists. It meant that while they might make me help with a diagnosis or simple procedures, they would show me the surgery scenes and educate me.

However, unless it's a department that directly pierces things like Cardiology, the internal medicine side...

'I'll end up seeing an incredibly large number of patients.'

Then what happens?

'I feel like there will be too many things to cheat on.'

I couldn't exactly close my eyes in front of a patient every time, log into the Gallery, fight with the ghosts in the comments, and write down the diagnosis name, could I?

'Should I check the conditions to upgrade the possession soon?'

When my expression turned out to be calmer than expected, Park Woong folded the documents, stuffed them into his pocket, and clapped his hands together with a clap.

"That's the end of the announcements! Return to the Emergency Room!"

"Return!"

I answered shortly and left the Section Chief's office.

The hallway walking toward the Station. My head was spinning busily, entirely occupied with revising my future plans. I fell deep into thought as I walked.

'The dispatch was rejected...'

In fact, from the day I found out about the dispatch, my mind had been on emergency alert. That's why, in order to survive somehow, I had been seriously contemplating whether to blow my saved LP to upgrade skills, or whether I should receive tutoring for hand techniques at dawn while taking insults from the ghosts.

Because fine surgical techniques and the sensation of the hands aren't things that happen just by looking with your eyes. I was looking for a trick to cram their software into my body's hardware in a short period of time, somehow.

Since I already had so many worries regarding the dispatch, this sudden delay felt like a kind of grace period to me.

'Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.'

But the President is not a gentleman who would give up easily like this. If so, in the end, it was only a matter of time.

'Even so, for now, there's nothing bad about preparing in advance.'