Chapter 200

Episode 200 Everyone's Han Hyeonjae (3)

Screeech.

I carefully reopened the door I had closed just a second ago. Through the crack, I caught that same murderous gaze from before.

"Thinking about it again, it seems I did find the right place..."

"Sit."

"Yes, sir."

You have to listen to your elders. Without another word, I stepped inside the conference room. Shuffling awkwardly, I perched my buttocks on the edge of the furthest possible chair at the very end of the table.

A straight-line distance of about eight meters.

Securing an escape route for emergencies: complete.

He crossed his arms, his eyebrows twitching.

"Are you comfortable way over there?"

"..."

Ah. This social distancing was a failure. The COVID-19 days were better.

"No, sir. I'll sit a bit closer."

This time, I moved to a reasonably close seat. He stroked his beard and opened his mouth.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Ah... that is..."

I rolled my eyes, scanning him. His face was entirely unfamiliar. If I had encountered a person with that kind of impression in the hospital before, there was absolutely no way I would have forgotten it.

Who is he again?

The Section Chief of Patient Affairs who used to be a gangster? Or a newly recruited security team leader?

My gaze shifted down to his chest. The clean embroidery stamped neatly on the white gown over his shirt caught my eye.

[Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Cho Kyeong-woon]

Thoracic Surgery. The place that stops a human heart only to make it beat again.

"Are you Professor Cho from Thoracic Surgery?"

He was a famous surgeon, and though unconfirmed, the rumored protagonist of throwing scalpels in the operating room. Looking at his face, it seemed entirely possible. I immediately corrected my posture, sitting up much straighter.

"Yes. That's right," Professor Cho Kyeong-woon nodded. "At the same time, I am also currently the Chief of Education and Training."

"..."

Uh. Chief of Education and Training? From what I clearly knew...

When did Professor Oh Man-seok from Neurosurgery step down from the training chief spot?

Wrestling with patients and fooling around with the gallery spirits lately had caught up to me; not properly checking the hospital's internal personnel transfer notices had proved fatal. I hurriedly bowed my waist.

"Ah, yes! Professor. I failed to recognize you."

"Teacher Han Hyeonjae. Is that right? A 3rd-year resident in Emergency Medicine."

"Yes, that is correct."

"...Tsk."

He smacked his lips.

Thump!

Professor Cho Kyeong-woon put down the thick bundle of papers he was holding in his hand onto the table.

"I understand you are scheduled to go on dispatch starting this summer."

"Yes. That is what I understand. By the Director's orders..."

"Then you must also know that the schedule has hit a snag."

"Yes, Professor. I just heard about it from my Section Chief a moment ago. Due to an approval issue on the academic conference side..."

"Right." He uncrossed his arms and tapped the papers. "So for now, the 3rd-year rotation will be reduced to two weeks in Thoracic Surgery and two weeks in General Surgery."

"...Is that so?"

"Which means they are currently compressing a four-week curriculum into two weeks."

I swallowed dry saliva. Does that mean squeezing what should be learned over four weeks into just two?

...Save me.

Slide.

Professor Cho Kyeong-woon pushed a single sheet of paper from the very top of the document bundle toward me.

"Read it."

I carefully picked up the paper.

[Main Hospital On-Call System & Clinical Department Reorganization Plan]

Under the red letters stamped Confidential, a complex organizational chart was drawn.

Chronic Care Center - Geriatric Internal Medicine, Rehabilitation Medicine, ...

Acute Care Center Chief (Concurrently held by the Director of Aorta Hospital) - Aortic Thoracic Surgery, Aortic Vascular Medicine, Acute Care Medicine (Tentative), General Surgery, Critical Care Medicine

My eyes locked onto the title Director of Aorta Hospital.

The framework is finally coming together...

It was right to consider the initial draft as practically non-existent.

And it looks like I won't even be the head of it.

Originally, I thought I would parachute in as something like a Center Chief, but looking at the structure, it seemed I was destined to roll around under the Director of the Aorta Hospital. And who would that director be? It was obvious. There was a 99.9% probability it was the bearded gentleman sitting right in front of me, a domestic authority on aortic surgery. He wouldn't have called me here for nothing.

"May I ask why you are showing me this?" I asked, putting down the document.

Professor Cho Kyeong-woon brushed his hair back roughly.

"Do you think I don't know? That Medical Center Director is doing all this just to plug you in."

"What do you mean by that...?"

"Anyway, that Director Lee, I've known he's a good person since way back, but... he has no regard for boundaries. Putting in a mere Emergency Medicine resident..."

As a thoracic surgeon, his pride was wounded by the fact that he had to accept a resident from another department into his operating room just because they had the Director's backing.

"Huuu..."

However, he soon let out a deep sigh, calming his emotions.

"Anyway, Teacher Han's dispatch matter falls under the jurisdiction of the Training Chief. Setting aside my personal feelings, I came here to notify you."

He tapped his finger against the table.

"For two weeks starting August 1st, you are in Thoracic Surgery."

I wondered if this was how a cow felt being dragged to a slaughterhouse. But if it was an unavoidable fate, I couldn't enjoy it... but I had to endure it. I bowed respectfully.

"Yes, sir."

I answered briefly while feeling out the mood. He still seemed displeased, rubbing his beard roughly as he grumbled, half to himself and half to me.

"If they're going to camp out in the emergency room while calling it Acute Care Medicine, then why on earth does Emergency Medicine even exist? Their duty is to do the initial diagnosis in the ER, classify them, and scatter them to each department, so why build something like this? This isn't some corner grocery store..."

He was openly denying the very reason for the existence of the department I was going to right in front of my face, but I had no choice but to listen silently.

Because he's not wrong.

Modern medicine is a history of thorough division of labor. Because a single doctor cannot do everything, each dives deep into their own specialized field. The Director's vision for the Acute Care Center directly opposed that trend.

Watching Professor Cho grumble earnestly, I stood there awkwardly.

"Do you happen to have any questions?"

Pulled out of my thoughts by the sudden question, I snapped to attention.

"That... if the four-week curriculum shrinks to a two-week curriculum..."

The part I feared most.

"What happens to the curriculum? Do we only learn half the content?"

"Didn't I tell you? You will learn exactly what you would have learned in a four-week course during the two-week period."

"..."

"It's simple math."

"Yes..."

A chill ran down my spine. A future where I was confined to the Thoracic Surgery doctor's office and operating rooms for two weeks flashed before my eyes like a panorama.

"Since the Director said you're a genius, if I teach you one thing, you'll know ten. Then there won't be any problem with the progress."

Even if you teach me ten, I'll barely know one...

My inner mind was crying, but on the outside, I nodded with a solemn expression. Even if I get grinded down by the spirits, I have to hold out.

Since I decided to stay at the university and become a professor...

I had resolved that if I was going to do it, I might as well become a crazy bastard who is incredibly amazing.

Professor Cho Kyeong-woon crossed his arms and stared at me intently.

"I did look through your records a bit... tsk."

"Yes, Professor."

"There's a paper-thin difference between being commendably brave and being reckless. You will come to feel that difference acutely in our department. A knife can save a person, but if an clumsy swordsman holds it, it becomes more dangerous than any weapon."

A heavy warning. Yet, a strange sense of anticipation was mixed within it.

"That's enough. Go on. You'll be contacted separately the day before August 1st."

"Yes! Understood!"

I bent my waist 90 degrees to greet him, then carefully took backward steps to close the door.

Screeech.

Click.

As soon as I stepped out into the hallway, the strength drained from my legs.

"Haa..."

They say it's one mountain after another. Just when I thought things had wrapped up warmly in Pediatrics, this time a final boss-level Thoracic Surgery professor was waiting for me.

Conference Room 2

After Han Hyeonjae left, Professor Cho Kyeong-woon stared at the closed door for a long time before picking up the papers on the table again.

Han Hyeonjae's personnel record card and training evaluation form. He quietly handled the documents.

There are many people who want to become professors.

In the organization of a university hospital, a professor represents the pinnacle of power and honor. From the resident stage, many people write papers for this, line up, prepare things, or have backings like family backgrounds.

But an Emergency Medicine resident, Han Hyeonjae? Something was off right from the start. Choosing that department was strange enough, of course. Rather than political maneuvering or building specs to become a professor, this resident's path was lined with a sort of madness.

Crazy acts done to save people, procedures, and a genius diagnosis.

The DADA2 diagnosis case alone was proof. A diagnostic ability that left even the pediatrics professors sticking their tongues out in amazement. Professor Cho thought positively of the evaluation regarding the diagnostic aspect. In Emergency Medicine, it's originally important to quickly catch a suspected diagnosis and send them up. Finding a proper opinion in the ER makes things easier for the backing departments as well. The ability to quickly grasp what the problem is deserved recognition.

However.

His procedural ability is...

He tapped his finger against the records of the emergency laparotomy and REBOA left in the file. It was a relief it succeeded, but a resident who wasn't even a surgeon rummaged through an abdomen?

Because he is outstanding, he is more dangerous.

His gaze sank coldly. Why did the discipline of medicine divide its labor over hundreds of years? Naturally, it's because a single doctor cannot cover all fields. Unless one has God's Hand, there is a limit to human hand skills and knowledge.

Right now, even General Surgery and Internal Medicine alone are split into so many sub-specialties that it's impossible to count them all. General Surgery has recently become extremely specialized, dividing into trauma surgery, hepato-biliary-pancreatic, colorectal, and upper gastrointestinal. Thoracic Surgery is also divided into heart, lungs, and esophagus, and even within the heart, it's split into coronary arteries, valves, and the aorta.

In the midst of adding depth through repeated division of labor like this.

Acute Care Medicine.

The idea of creating a super doctor who encompasses all treatments. Professor Cho Kyeong-woon had usually highly evaluated Director Lee Jae-yoon's unconventional moves as innovation, but this time, he adjusted his thoughts a bit.

It is arrogance.

Giving too many swords to a single genius could become a disaster for the patient, and for that doctor himself. Professor Cho Kyeong-woon quietly closed the file.

I was trudging back to the emergency room. Walking down the hallway, I habitually snapped my fingers in the void, and a blue system window popped up before my eyes.

[Shop]

"Let's see here..."

[Remaining LP: 62,600]

"...Uh?"

I stopped walking.

Why is it so much?

I definitely thought I used quite a bit to upgrade last time. When did it surpass 60,000 again? I urgently checked the [LP Acquisition Log].

The record floating at the very top:

[Diagnosis Success: You have diagnosed Adenosine Deaminase 2 Deficiency disguised as Macrophage Activation Syndrome disguised as Refractory Kawasaki disguised as Atypical Kawasaki disguised as Cholecystitis!]

Reward: 10,000 LP

Penalty: Intervention in another doctor's patient (-50%)

Final Acquisition: 5,000 LP

"......"

Is this diagnosis length for real? It wasn't some Russian Matryoshka doll, but a continuous chain of disguises that kept coming out the more you peeled it. Respect to me and the spirits who matched this.

I pulled in 5,000 just recently.

I took a penalty because I didn't perform the treatment on another department's patient, but because it was such a rare disease, the reward seemed to have been heavy. It's a gain.

I closed the window with a satisfied mind. I should go home slowly and think about how to utilize it.

It was just as I was humming a tune, passing through the emergency room automatic doors to step inside.

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Kim Seo-ah, a 1st-year resident who was holding onto the handset at the station, slammed the phone down the moment she spotted me and rushed over urgently. Her eyes were shaking much more severely than usual.

"It's a trauma patient. ETA is 3 minutes!"

Ah.

My peaceful afternoon ends with this.

I tightly closed my eyes and opened them.

"Damn emergency room."