Chapter 226

Episode 226 3rd Year Finish (3) - Part 1 Complete

An intersection right in front of the cafe.

A black passenger car with its front crushed to the point of being unrecognizable, and a small truck that had crashed into a roadside tree and was spewing smoke, were visible. On the floor, broken window shards and unidentified fluids were flooding out. I kicked open the cafe door and instinctively turned on the blue window in the void.

Right now, I don't have a single stethoscope, a single blood pressure cuff, or even a common penlight. Literally bare-handed. In this raw battlefield situation, I absolutely need the intuitive advice of the ghosts who possess experience along with the knowledge in my mind.

[Dead Medic Gallery]

Need field medicine help.

Author: Korean Slave 1

No equipment. A somewhat large TA. I'm at the scene. If you're going to give advice, give it.

Since the situation was what it was, I cut everything out before and after and threw only the main point. In that short moment as I ran, the ghosts also seemed to recognize the seriousness of the situation, as the comment section began to fill up rapidly.

[Comments]

Mes of the God: Check ABC (* Airway, Breathing, Circulation) unconditionally. For street medical care, if you don't have equipment, your hands and feet are your weapons. Don't pull the patient out carelessly.

ㄴ Operating Room Ghost 3: If you see a bleeding area, tear open your padding jacket, stuff it in, and pressure it, go go.

ㄴ Mes of the God: Essential to check if the chest hit the steering wheel! If tension comes, you don't even have a needle to prick.

Thoracic Surgery Living Corpse: Let's check if the leg is stuck in the crushed car body. If crush syndrome comes, cardiac arrest will hit when pulling them out!

Hippocrates' Descendant: The first rule of the field is to secure the safety of the scene! O living doctor! I hope you take care not to get caught up in a secondary accident!

I turned off the window in the void and called Baek Eunseo, who was running closely behind me.

"Eunseo!"

"Yes, Teacher!"

"Until road safety is secured, you only look at that truck! I'll look at the black car! Don't pull the patient out hastily, just check the vitals!"

"Ah, yes, Teacher!"

Baek Eunseo and I scattered left and right. While Baek Eunseo ran toward the small truck, I dashed into the middle of the intersection.

"Did you call 119?!" I shouted and asked a pedestrian holding a phone around the accident scene.

"Ah, yes... I just called...!"

"Understood!"

For now, 119 has been called.

A rapid geographical calculation ran through my head. The place where the accident happened was right in the middle of Minam Intersection, which is notorious for traffic jams even in Busan. Right now, it is late afternoon, just when rush hour is starting to overlap. Even if an ambulance and a rescue squad dispatch from a nearby fire station, it will take quite a bit more distance than usual to break through the packed roads. Until then, we have to endure entirely on our own.

Screeech—!

In a hurry on one side of the intersection, several traffic police officers were seen moving police cars to try and control the road. Recalling the advice of Grandpa Hippo to prevent a secondary accident, I ran with all my strength toward them.

"Excuse me!"

"Ah, yes? It's dangerous, so step back!"

The police officer tried to stop me hurriedly. My appearance bundled up in a black long padding jacket must have looked like just a bystander to him. I put my hand into the padding pocket, pulled out my employee ID, and thrust it before his eyes.

"I am an emergency room doctor from Cheongjin University Hospital. Could you please secure safety on the second lane so I can see the patient right now?"

The police officer's eyes locked onto the part that read 'Department of Emergency Medicine, Han Hyeonjae' on the employee ID, and his expression soon brightened up instantly.

"Ah, yes, Teacher! Follow me! You can follow me this way!"

The police officer urgently controlled traffic and opened the way. Following behind him, I quickly added my demands.

"By any chance, is there an emergency kit or something inside the police car? I don't expect anything grand, but just gauze or bandages would be fine."

"Ah, ah, yes! There is a first-aid kit in the trunk."

"Please bring the whole thing. I might have to catch bleeding."

"Yes, yes. Don't worry. I will bring it right away."

"Thank you."

The moment I finished coordinating the scene control with the police. Baek Eunseo, who was clinging to the smoky driver's seat of the truck, shouted urgently toward me.

"Senior!"

"Why? How is the patient's state!"

"There's nothing to fix the cervical spine! There's no neck collar, so I couldn't fix it with a device... For now, no trauma is visible on the outside! I fixed it with my hands!"

Seen from afar, Baek Eunseo had half her upper body stuffed into the gap of the truck's broken window, holding the driver's head and neck firmly with both hands so they wouldn't shake. A perfect manual stabilization to prevent spinal cord damage before the ambulance crew arrives. Since there was no equipment, it was an excellent judgment worthy of a prospective 3rd-year resident of Emergency Medicine to fill in with her body.

"Got it! Don't ever let go of your hands and endure until the ambulance crew comes!"

After giving her a short instruction, I headed toward the black passenger car whose front part was crushed and had lost its shape.

Pshhhhhhh—

A pungent burning smell pricked my nose.

"Groan—"

A painful groan leaked from inside the driver's seat.

'Ugh.'

As I stepped closer, a horrible scene entered my eyes. Look at the broken windows. The front windshield was smashed like a spider web, and the side window was completely shattered to pieces, with shards scattered inside and outside the car. The airbag had deployed, but the impact was so great that the patient's body was bent deeply toward the steering wheel.

I carefully thrust my upper body past the broken window.

"Patient, are you conscious?"

Doing exactly the same as what Baek Eunseo did, I stretched out both hands and firmly grabbed the patient's head and neck. The top priority action to prevent the spinal nerves from snapping. In that state, I checked the patient's level of consciousness and the pattern of breathing. Whether the chest was moving up and down, whether the sound of the breath was mixed with metallic sounds or phlegm boiling sounds.

"Groan... This is..."

Fortunately, the airway was open. The patient opened his eyes halfway and reacted to my touch.

'The chest... For now, there are no noticeable shards embedded or open wounds.'

Maintaining strength in my left hand which was fixing the neck, I hurriedly stretched out my right hand and caught the patient's wrist. Palpating the radial artery. The fastest and most intuitive method to check if blood is circulating properly or if they have fallen into shock. I concentrated all my nerves on my fingertips.

'...It beats.'

A fine vibration.

'It's weak, but it beats.'

The pulse was felt at my fingertips. The fact that a pulse can be felt at the radial artery of the wrist means that no matter how much blood they are shedding and falling into a shock state, the systolic blood pressure is at least over 80.

'For now, it's not to the point where the heart will stop immediately.'

Letting out a short sigh of relief, I put my mouth to the patient's ear and asked in a loud voice.

"Patient, can you come to your senses a little? Can you hear my voice? Where is this place?"

Starting with checking orientation. I have to grasp whether he is talking nonsense because damage went to the brain, or if he is recognizing the situation.

"It hurts..." The patient squeezed out a groaning sound with a distorted face.

"I know it hurts. The firefighters will come soon. An ambulance is also coming, so let's bear it just a little bit until then. I am a doctor. You can endure, right?"

I built a psychological safety line by revealing the fact that I am a doctor to reassure the patient. If a patient panics and flails at the scene, even nerves that were perfectly fine will snap.

"...Yes. I'll try to endure... Save, please save me..." While shedding blood from his forehead, the patient panted and replied. His orientation was being maintained to some extent.

"Good. Is breathing very suffocating? By any chance, is there an uncomfortable sensation or pain in your chest, stomach, or leg area like it's bleeding or piercing?" I asked while tightly holding the neck. Since there is no equipment, for now, I have to trust the history taking coming out of the patient's mouth.

"Do you have sensation in your legs?! Can you move your toes?"

At my shout, the patient crumpled in the driver's seat caught his breath and replied.

"Sensation, not really... seems like there is none. My leg... was it cut off...?"

Maintaining the hand tightly fixing the patient's cervical spine, I lowered my gaze down. The driver's seat space had pushed in like a sheet of paper, completely swallowing the patient's lower body. Because it was dark, the exact state was not visible, but it was clearly seen that a dark red fluid was rapidly spreading over the thick pants.

If the femur is broken, 1 to 1.5 liters of blood will pour out into the inner thigh space alone, trapping it as internal bleeding. A fatal fracture that can kill from shock even if not a single drop of blood shows on the outside. Furthermore, if the legs are tightly jammed under the dashboard like now, it is the worst situation where crush injury from muscles being squeezed and destroyed overlaps.

'Did the dashboard push in and snap the patient's femur?'

It was then.

"Here it is!"

The police officer who was directing the road control ran over hurriedly holding a white first-aid kit taken out from the patrol car's trunk and set it down on the floor.

"Ah, thank you."

However, both my hands are holding the patient's neck, so I cannot wrap a bandage at all. The moment I take my hands off, the spinal cord could go out. Just as my mind was burning with anxiety.

"Senior!" Baek Eunseo stepped up to my side before I knew it.

"Uh, what about your truck patient? I told you that you shouldn't take your hands off!" As I asked in fright, Baek Eunseo brushed back her messy hair and quickly reported the situation.

"On the street, I met Dr. Lee Minjae and Dr. Shin Yeeun from Dermatology! That Minjae-ssam's wife... The two of them happened to be passing by this way, saw the accident, and ran over!"

"Ah, ah, so you asked them to fix the cervical spine instead?"

"Yes, Senior! Minjae-ssam said he will look at the truck, so he told me to go to Senior!"

A terrible coincidence. Or the patient's heavenly luck. For an emergency medicine fellow who was off-duty to be on a date with his wife, and then join this hellscape. It had been a long time since Lee Minjae felt this reliable.

"If so, pull out this bandage."

"Ah, yes!"

Baek Eunseo immediately opened the first-aid kit and pulled out a thick pressure bandage and a bundle of gauze.

"Since there is a fair amount of bleeding... you have to apply pressure above the thigh. The leg is caught in the dashboard, so there won't be much space, but push it in and wrap it with the sensation of your fingertips."

I tried my best to pull my body back and only stretch out my hands to fix the patient's cervical spine past the car window frame, and Baek Eunseo thrust her hands in as if crumpling half her upper body into the narrow window gap I made.

"Tightly at the top! You have to wrap it tightly! It might be arterial bleeding, so tie it ignorantly until the blood stops flowing, with the feeling of putting on a tourniquet!"

"I know that much too, Senior!"

Baek Eunseo replied without losing ground, thrusting her hands into the lower space and beginning to bind the bandage tightly around the upper part of the patient's thigh. A bloody scent wafted up heavily.

"Groan... Aaaaargh!" As she strongly pressured the thigh, the patient let out a horrible scream.

"Endure it! If we don't tie this, all the blood will drain out and you'll die!" Unfazed by the patient's scream, Baek Eunseo clenched her teeth and twisted the knot.

Weeee-woooo—!

Around the time the hemostasis was wrapping up, several rescue squad vehicles and ambulance vehicles began entering the intersection making a loud siren sound, breaking through the packed road far away.

"Patient, how old are you?" I asked one last thing to check the handover information to pass to the arriving ambulance crew.

"Yes...? I'm thirty-three..."

"Yes, that's fine. You don't have to talk anymore now. Let's go alive."

Without loosening the force in the hand holding the patient's neck, I spoke toward the paramedic who was hurriedly approaching. Catching on quickly, Baek Eunseo pulled out her employee ID.

"Emergency room doctor from Cheongdae Hospital! He has been left for more than 10 minutes with his lower body caught in the dashboard. Since crush syndrome is suspected right now, trap a thick line on both arms right before the car is torn open and pressure is released, and hit it with saline full drop. And please give us bicarbonate. Do you happen to have it in the ambulance?"

"We don't have Bivon in our ambulance, only fluid preparations are set up!"

"Then please give us at least that!"

"Yes!"

While the paramedic quickly found the patient's arm and connected the IV fluid line, the rescue workers came holding hydraulic spreaders and began tearing open the door and dashboard of the crushed vehicle.

Creeeeak—

Thump!

With a roaring sound of metal tearing, a space opened up. Like that, after about 20 minutes of desperate struggle, the patient was able to safely escape from the crushed car and get onto the ambulance cart through the perfect collaboration of the rescue squad and ambulance crew. Fortunately, thanks to the bandage Baek Eunseo had tied tightly, fatal massive bleeding was prevented.

Right before the back door of the ambulance closed, I called the paramedic.

"Chief!"

"Yes, Teacher?"

"Would it be alright if I ride in the passenger seat? You're going to Cheongjindae, right?"

"Ah, yes! The passenger seat is empty anyway... Get in! If you go together to the hospital, for us..."

"Thank you!"

I closed the door of the ambulance and hurried into the front passenger seat. Like that, Baek Eunseo and I sat divided in the back seat where the patient was and the front passenger seat next to each other, accompanying them to the Cheongjin University Hospital emergency room with the siren blaring. From the back seat, the sound of Baek Eunseo squeezing the fluid pack along with the paramedic to monitor the patient's vitals was heard.

Rumble—!

The back door of the ambulance that arrived at the hospital opened, and the stretcher entered the emergency room lobby. The emergency room medical staff who were waiting poured out all at once.

"It's a TA! A 33-year-old male, BP is 90 over 60, pulse 115, and sat 94! Discovered with a right femur fracture and suspected crush syndrome, came while administering normal saline full drop after hemostasis at the scene! Arrest can come as the vehicle pressure is released, so please prepare bicarbonate right away!"

The doctors and nurses who handed over the patient opened the path.

"To Trauma Resusc Room 2!"

"Yes!"

Rumble—!

Slam.

Only after the patient entered inside the Resusc room where all sorts of medical equipment were set up and the heavy door closed.

"Haa..."

Baek Eunseo and I could slide down side by side, leaning against the hallway wall in front of the Resusc room. Inside the long padding jacket was already soaked with sweat, and my knees were trembling. As the adrenaline drained out, a tremendous fatigue rushed in.

Baek Eunseo, who was looking at the floor while panting, murmured very quietly in a hollow voice.

"Ha... The date..."

It was a lamentation about how a modest schedule to dress up after a long time and drink a cup of coffee had turned into an action movie where they were covered in blood and riding an ambulance. However, that choice of words was peculiar.

"Was that a date?"

"Yes? Ah, n-no, S-Senior, no, no, Dr. Han! It's not that, it's just that the promise to e-eat food broke, so the words slipped out meaning it's a shame...!"

I chuckled and shook my head.

"It's a joke. You worked hard."

"Ah, don't tease me, seriously..."

The clock in the hospital hallway moved slowly toward midnight. The 3rd year was coming to an end.

Part 1 Complete