Chapter 239
Episode 239 Gunshot Wound (4)
‘Hm, should I release the possession or not?’
I was caught in a serious internal conflict.
‘…Let’s just watch.’
Yeah, surely not. He’s a legendary Trauma Surgery doctor who dominated an era, after all. Surely he wouldn’t do something crazy like strip off his pants in front of rolling cameras and packed reporters. This is a live nationwide news broadcast; he must have at least that much social intelligence. The time he lay down in front of the Minister of Health and Welfare wasn’t during a live broadcast, right?
‘Besides, I haven’t even given him a proper tour of modern life, so since I already burned the points, I might as well just let him get some fresh air.’
It was the exact moment I finished that very complacent yet dangerous justification.
Whirrrr—
The moment the main entrance of the Emergency Medical Center opened, dozens of blinding lights poured in.
“Oh, fuck.”
A very savory curse came out of the mouth of Lee Minjae (Male), who was walking out in front.
Flash-flash-flash-flash—!
Click!
Click!
“You can’t block this area, this is the entrance, the entrance!”
“We’re standing on the sidewalk right now, though?”
“No, you shouldn’t block that sidewalk either! Please step back a bit!”
The public relations team and the administrative staff from the admissions office were raising their voices and setting up barricades, but it was not enough to block the massive push of the reporters blinded by a scoop with their bare bodies.
The Mes of the God (Male), who had taken over my body, barged right into the center of that chaos without any hesitation.
“All right, all right!”
Clap—!
The Mes of the God (Male) held his two hands high and clapped toward the void.
“Reporters!!!!!”
“…?”
In an instant, the movements of the reporters who were thrusting their microphones forward came to a sudden halt.
“You can’t do this here, no way! If you block the front of the Emergency Room, it means all the emergency patients will die! So, let’s move over that way a little bit? Yes?”
“Pardon? Oh, are you giving a briefing?”
“Don’t do it here, let’s go to that wall over there and do it, over there! The angle will turn out much better there anyway! Come on, move!”
Like a veteran teacher leading kindergarteners, the Mes of the God (Male) corralled the pack of over a dozen reporters toward a quiet outer wall with very natural hand gestures and charisma. The cameramen, as if possessed, began to realign their formation toward the wall in a crowd, following his gestures.
“What is the patient's condition right now?!”
“Is the patient currently undergoing surgery?”
“When was he transferred? Was the emergency treatment by the unit appropriate?!”
As soon as the photo line was formed, pent-up questions poured out.
“Don’t ask questions right now! Follow control for now!”
“Yes, yes, we will tell you later during the official briefing at the hospital level! For now, please lower your cameras…!”
Lee Minjae (Male) and the staff, who chased after them late, shouted while holding people back to somehow clean up the situation, but the Mes of the God (Male) very lightly ignored those urgent voices. And then, in front of the Emergency Room's outer wall—that is, right in the center of the spotlight where dozens of broadcasting station cameras and lights precisely crossed—the Mes of the God (Male) stood very majestically.
“Ah, yes. Emergency Medicine…”
The Mes of the God (Male) stopped mid-greeting. Then, very nonchalantly, he glanced down at my employee ID hanging from his neck.
‘This bastard forgot my name. No, did I not tell him?’
“Han.. Hyeonjae. Okay. It was Han Hyeonjae (Male). Han Hyeonjae (Male). Yes.”
“Is this a briefing?”
The reporter standing in the very front row thrust a microphone forward, his eyes flashing.
“Yes, it’s a temporary briefing.”
The moment the Mes of the God (Male) nodded, Lee Minjae (Male), who was standing next to him, urgently whispered in his ear.
“Hyunjae, you can’t handle this. A resident briefing a military shooting accident?”
Then, the Mes of the God (Male) slowly turned his head to look at Lee Minjae (Male). And then, he sent a thumbs-up that did not suit this urgent situation at all.
“I will handle it.”
“…What?”
“Hello. I am Han Hyeonjae (Male) from the Cheongjin University Hospital Emergency Medical Center. I will brief you on the initial emergency resuscitation results of the gunshot wound patient who was admitted today.”
Lee Minjae (Male) looked at me with a horrified face, but soon, as if he read the madness dwelling in my face, he slowly nodded.
‘Right. If it's the top psycho of our Emergency Room, even if he causes an accident, it should be on this scale.’
It was an expression as if he had accepted everything. A gaze that was even sparkling.
‘What are you nodding for? Stop him, this person!’
However, by this point, I also gradually started to feel a strange curiosity about what on earth that old man would blabber about in front of the camera. In the end, I decided to watch quietly without doing a Possession Release.
Click!
Click!
The mouth of the Mes of the God (Male) opened.
“Due to an accident within the military unit today, the patient suffered a close-range penetrating wound to the right anterior chest and was urgently transferred to our Trauma Center.”
The reporters holding microphones began to scribble with their pens in their notebooks as if possessed.
“It is estimated that the bullet entered through the fifth intercostal space, and it is estimated that the largest metal fragment among the fragmented bullet pieces headed toward the upper thoracic cavity and struck the right clavicle. Not stopping there, the fragment that shattered the clavicle and bounced off penetrated the right temporal bone, and it is estimated to have entered the inside of the skull.”
The Mes of the God (Male) was perfectly back-calculating and explaining that complex ballistic trajectory, which even the medical staff on-site could not clearly know because they couldn't even take a CT, with just a single visual observation and surgical palpation. A briefing of a true genius.
“What is the patient’s condition?!”
The most important question about life or death came out.
“At the time of arrival, the patient was in a state of hemorrhagic shock where it was difficult to even measure blood pressure due to severe massive intra-thoracic hemorrhage. His consciousness was also below a Glasgow Coma Scale of 8, a situation where cardiac arrest was imminent.”
The reporters were staring intently only at the mouth of the Mes of the God (Male)—that is, my mouth.
“What was even more critical was that signs of brain herniation were observed simultaneously during the examination. We judged that not even a single minute of time to move the patient to the operating room could guarantee the patient’s life.”
The camera lenses zoomed in on my gown.
“Accordingly, our trauma team decided on an immediate simultaneous emergency surgery within the Emergency Room Resusc area.”
“In the Resusc room, you mean?”
A reporter asked back in shock. The Mes of the God (Male) nodded.
“That’s right. Under the execution of the Thoracic Surgery staff, we performed a resuscitative anterolateral thoracotomy to open the chest, and at the same time, we forced a trephination, a neurosurgical emergency procedure, simultaneously on the Resusc bed to drain the hematoma that was pressing down on the brainstem.”
The process. And.
“As a result, fortunately, we were able to block the progression of massive hemorrhage in the lung hilum and fatal systemic air embolism on-site, and the brain pressure also dropped dramatically, restoring the light reflex that had been lost.”
The result.
A small sigh of relief broke out among the reporters. Even Lee Minjae (Male) was listening to my briefing, completely lost in thought.
“Is the patient currently undergoing surgery?”
“Vitals and oxygen saturation have barely been restored to the physiological limit line where he can withstand surgery. Currently, the primary problems of urgent massive hemorrhage and increased intracranial pressure have been resolved, and the patient's transfer to the emergency Operating Room was completed a moment ago.”
Click—
Click—
‘Wow.’
From my position stuck in the spectator's seat, a hollow laugh along with pure admiration burst out. He said he stood in front of the microphone countless times, and that wasn't a bluff. The provocative keywords the media wants. The narrative of the dedicated medical staff. And even the perfect pathophysiological facts. This gentleman. He's pretty good at briefings?
“I will start taking questions in earnest.”
Even in front of dozens of cameras and lights, the voice of the Mes of the God (Male) occupying my body did not have a single tremor.
“Is the patient's life out of danger?”
The reporter standing in the front row urgently thrust a microphone forward and threw a question.
“He is still in a very critical state where life cannot be guaranteed. At the time of arrival at the Emergency Room, he was already in a state of hemorrhagic shock just before cardiac arrest. Currently, he has gone up to the operating room after finishing the primary resuscitation treatment, but we have to wait and see if he can make it through tonight safely.”
A delivery of facts without exaggeration or reduction. While assuming the worst-case situation, it was a textbook answer that implicitly implied that the medical staff's treatment was successful.
“It's a military accident, so why did he come to a civilian university hospital Emergency Room instead of a military hospital?”
Another reporter shot a question as if trying to catch a flaw. It was the media's typical digging to see if there was a problem with the military's response process.
“The closest military hospitals are in Changwon and Pohang. Since the patient's vitals were at a level that could not withstand that distance, it was a perfectly reasonable measure to transfer him to our hospital, which is the closest trauma center.”
It was a clean defense that cut down the controversy over the locus of responsibility that could potentially arise in one stroke. I admired internally in a small way.
‘He’s doing it so wonderfully well that I wonder if he’s really that crazy old man.’
“Where did you say the bullet penetrated? Where exactly is it? Was he hit in the heart?”
“It penetrated the right anterior chest at close range. Fortunately, it avoided the left side where the heart is located, but the right lung and surrounding large blood vessels were shattered, causing massive bleeding within the thoracic cavity.”
At the explanation of the Mes of the God (Male), a short sigh flowed among the reporters.
“Have you identified the type of firearm or the type of bullet?”
“We can only tell you that it was a penetrating wound where a massive kinetic energy acted, incomparable to general stab wounds or blunt trauma. The exact cause of the accident is a matter for the military police to investigate.”
“Are you saying you drilled the patient's head and split his chest on top of the Emergency Room bed?”
A reporter asked back, his eyes wide with disbelief.
“It is true. Shock due to massive intra-thoracic hemorrhage and signs of brain herniation appeared rapidly at the same time. Because there was no time to even move to a regular Operating Room, we performed an immediate thoracotomy and trephination simultaneously on-site in the Resusc room to temporarily extend the patient's life.”
Camera flashes burst out.
“He was shot in the chest, so why did you perform surgery on the head? Will there be permanent brain damage left?”
“It is estimated that the fragment that shattered the clavicle and bounced off entered the inside of the skull. We confirmed that the brain pressure was lowered and the light reflex returned due to the quick response of the medical staff, but whether he will regain consciousness after surgery or whether permanent brain damage will remain can only be known by watching the future progress.”
Questions that followed one after another. And the Mes of the God (Male) who deflected those questions very leisurely.
“Who is the lead surgeon who successfully performed such a dangerous surgery in the Emergency Room?”
“Medical staff from Trauma Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, and Emergency Medicine formed a team and treated simultaneously. Currently, the surgery is being jointly performed by Thoracic Surgery and Neurosurgery staff.”
“Then did Thoracic Surgery and Neurosurgery proceed respectively?”
The reporter's sharp follow-up question to clearly organize the timeline of the scene. To this question, the Mes of the God (Male) answered with very clear diction.
“Emergency procedures were performed respectively in Thoracic Surgery and Emergency Medicine.”
…
A moment of silence enveloped the area.
“About when will the surgery end?”
Then, when someone's question came out, it started to buzz again. Because the reporters would be busy estimating the scale of this crazy surgery while writing down the massive amount of information pouring out in their notebooks.
“It is an ultra-high-difficulty surgery where destroyed lung tissue must be resected and torn blood vessels must be found one by one and sutured. In addition, since brain surgery must be performed in parallel, we expect it to be an all-night surgery lasting at least 10 hours or more, extending until tomorrow morning at the longest.”
“There was also talk that cardiac arrest occurred during the surgery?”
“There were several crises just before cardiac arrest in the Resusc room. In particular, a fatal situation called systemic air embolism occurred where air spread throughout the body through the torn pulmonary blood vessels, but the Thoracic Surgery team blocked it with their treatment.”
“What kind of treatment was it?”
“Pulmonary hilum torsion. To put it easily, you can view it as blocking the bleeding by twisting the lung. Do you have any further questions?”
It was an atmosphere where no more sharp questions would come out. Lee Minjae (Male) was seen breathing a sigh of relief.
“I understand there are no further questions, so then the temporary briefing will…”
It was that very moment when the Mes of the God (Male) gave a light bow and was about to turn back.
“Just a moment, please!”
The reporter wearing glasses standing in the very back row raised his hand high and shouted.
“Yes.”
“Excuse me, is it correct that the subject who performed that trephination was an Emergency Medicine doctor?”
The pen tips of the reporters stopped all at once.
Thoracic Surgery and Emergency Medicine performed emergency procedures. If Thoracic Surgery opened the chest, then the remaining one—the one who drilled the patient's head with a drill—means it was not the Neurosurgery staff, but the Emergency Medicine doctor standing in front of that microphone right now.
The Mes of the God (Male) soon nodded his head.
“Yes. That’s right.”