Chapter 270

Episode 270: Drowning (1)

It was my final day in Neurosurgery.

"Thank you all for your hard work over these past few weeks."

As I bent my waist in a formal 90-degree bow, a round of applause erupted in the room.

"You really went through a lot, man~"

Han Seong-yun, a 4th-year Neurosurgery resident, grabbed my hand for a brief, firm handshake.

"You're the one who did all the heavy lifting, Senior."

"Come on, what's a temporary rotation compared to that?"

At my words, Han Seong-yun’s face turned thoroughly serious. "No, really. Helping the younger residents with their research papers..."

"Ah."

The very reason I had earned the nickname 'Paper-making Machine.'

With the assistance of the spirits, I had been churning out academic resources like a man possessed. It seemed my frantic productivity had been an immense relief to the senior residents.

"Well, in any case... I should gradually get going."

With a look of deep satisfaction, I turned toward Professor Park Seung-woo, who was watching me from the corner of the room, and bowed respectfully once more.

Professor Park simply waved his hand, making a gesture that told me to get moving.

"Thank you for everything, Teacher!"

The two junior residents I had safely managed to guide with the spirits' help, along with the 3rd-year resident Hwang Seong-hoon, all bowed their heads to me one last time.

"You really did an incredible job."

Clack—

As I stepped through the door of the conference room, a familiar figure came into view.

It was Professor Oh Man-seok, looking as though he had deliberately been waiting for me right outside.

The moment I saw him, I gave a brief, polite nod.

Ever since his apology that day, Oh Man-seok had stopped keeping his distance. I had aggressively absorbed his teachings in return, spending a deeply peaceful final week on my rotation.

"Are you leaving now?"

"Yes, sir. I am."

At my reply, Oh Man-seok smacked his lips with a trace of lingering regret. "Right, well... it was only a short-term rotation from the start."

"Are you sad to see me go?"

Unleashing my inner crazy bastard instincts to the fullest, I asked the burning question without holding back.

Perhaps liking my audacious question, the corners of Oh Man-seok's mouth curled upward as he replied.

"Of course I am. You're the first genuine genius I've ever seen. How could I not be sad to let you go like this?"

"Even so, I'll still be seeing a lot of Neurosurgery consultations."

"A consult is a consult."

Oh Man-seok fell into deep thought for a brief moment, then finally pressed something into my hand.

"Take it."

"Yes?"

When I opened my hand to check what it was, I found a business card.

Out of nowhere? A business card?

‘Why?’

Did he want me to save his contact information?

"It means that if you ever submit a consult or an admission request and those punks reject it, you can call me directly at any time."

‘...Wow.’

This man truly, genuinely liked me.

In most cases, when a back-up department rejects an admission request, they usually have a valid reason for doing so. Despite that, he was telling me that if I judged an admission to be necessary, I could call the Department Chair's personal number whenever I wanted.

In other words...

‘He respects my judgment that an admission is necessary more than the judgment of his own Neurosurgery staff.’

He was essentially handing me a VIP free pass to Neurosurgery admission.

"I mean... ha... sir, is it really alright for you to give me something like this?"

At my question, Oh Man-seok let out a hearty laugh.

"I'm just an old man who's retiring soon anyway, who cares? Think of it as a temporary safety net that won't last forever."

Filled with gratitude, I bowed deeply to show my respect.

"Thank you so much."

"Don't mention it."

"Senior, you're here?"

The moment I opened the door to my familiar officetel and stepped inside, Baek Eun-seo—who had been squatting in my apartment for days—greeted me.

"Are you ever going home...?"

"This is basically my home now, you know."

Baek Eun-seo confidently shrugged her shoulders with a look that asked what the big deal was.

"Sigh... whatever. Never mind."

I let myself collapse onto the bed, completely exhausted.

Beep—

[The door is opening.]

The door swung open as I tagged my employee ID against the familiar card reader.

Familiar scenery, familiar people.

"Oh, Dr. Han is back!"

"Good morning."

"Yes, good morning. Oh, Dr. Baek arrived with you?"

I walked straight toward the Doctor's office.

"Ah... haha, yes. Good morning."

Baek Eun-seo also raised her hand, giving an awkward greeting. It must be because this was our first time arriving at work together.

...

At the Section Chief's summons, I quietly stepped into the Emergency Medical Center Director's office.

Creak—

"Sit."

At Park Woong's command, I quietly took a seat on the chair placed opposite his desk.

[Regional Emergency Medical Center Director / Emergency Medicine Section Chief: Park Woong]

‘The atmosphere here is a whole different world...’

It was the exact same Emergency Medical Center building, so how could the vibe be so drastically different?

It was right at that moment, while I was drowning in those idle thoughts.

"How was the rotation?"

"Yes, sir. It went well."

"Didn't you say you were going to keep your head down?"

"...."

That's right.

Before the rotation, I had confidently declared that I would lay low as much as possible this time around. Yet, despite that promise, I had gone to Neurosurgery and completely turned the place upside down. I had even held a press conference that drew a massive wave of nationwide attention.

My promise to the Section Chief had been completely thrown out the window.

"...Haha, well..."

Park Woong scratched the back of his head as if he was completely dumbfounded.

"Hyunjae."

"Yes, Section Chief."

"Have you lost your mind?"

"Uh... I suppose I must have."

At my response, Park Woong burst into a boisterous laugh.

"Bwahahaha! In all my years, I have never seen a crazy bastard quite like you. Unbelievable. You volunteered to take live questions at a press conference? Whose bright idea was that anyway?"

‘The Hospital President's...’

"You came up with it, didn't you, Hyunjae? Man, seriously..."

‘I'm telling you, it was the President...’

"How many people could actually come up with such a brilliant, psycho-like idea? Haha!"

After that, the Section Chief and I shared a few more casual remarks.

We talked about the diagnosis of the A1 variant, the press conference, and even Professor Oh Man-seok. After safely delivering my rotation report, I headed down to my true home turf: the Emergency Room Station.

"Well, well, look who it is! If it isn't our genius Teacher, Han Hyeonjae, who just came back from conquering Neurosurgery?!"

Jo Soo-yeon greeted me with her usual obnoxious banter right from the start of my shift.

Following my usual routine, I promptly flipped her off.

Seeing this, Lee Minjae, who was sitting on the other side of the Station, carefully rolled his chair over and tapped Jo Soo-yeon on the shoulder.

"Soo-yeon."

"Yes... ah, yes! Professor."

Lee Minjae nodded solemnly. "Hyeonjae is definitely that kind of guy. I was absolutely amazed to see him capture the hearts of the Neurosurgery faculty and then go on to harvest the souls of the press!"

Lee Minjae then shifted his focus from Jo Soo-yeon to me, shaking my shoulders violently.

"I!!! BELIEVED!!! IN YOU!!! THE!!! SHAMAN!!! OF OUR!!! EMERGENCY ROOM!!!"

"Please let me go, Professor..."

Only after enduring all of Lee Minjae's dramatic nonsense was I finally able to receive a proper sign-off.

"For now... we have 14 boarding patients. 5 are waiting for admission. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"Nothing?"

"Actually, there is."

Jo Soo-yeon looked at me with a mischievous grin.

"Watch it, you."

Jo Soo-yeon clicked the mouse a few times and officially started the sign-off.

"Bed A-1. 72-year-old female."

"She's elderly."

At my comment, Jo Soo-yeon gave a short nod. "Yeah. She came in via 119 from a nursing home due to altered mental status and a BP of 70 over 40."

"Septic shock?"

This is why elderly patients coming from nursing homes are terrifying. It's always that damn aspiration pneumonia or septic shock...

"We've already intubated her, placed a C-line, and she's currently on norpinephrine and vasopressin... we're barely maintaining a target MAP of 65. Pan-cultures are pending, and she's started on Tazocin as an empirical antibiotic."

Because the patient couldn't breathe on her own, they had performed an endotracheal intubation. Her blood pressure had plummeted so severely that they were using two vasopressors just to barely keep her at a life-sustaining level...

"She's definitely in rough shape."

"Yeah, the MICU told me they'll call as soon as a bed opens up. You can probably transfer her up then."

"Okay. Got it."

Jo Soo-yeon clicked her mouse to pull up the next chart.

"Bed B-11, an intoxicated patient who took a tumble down the stairs. Brain CT showed no acute findings. There was a 3-centimeter laceration on the scalp, so we sutured it under local anesthesia."

"Once he sobers up, we can redo the dressing, give him antibiotics and NSAIDs, and discharge him."

The most common archetype in the Emergency Room.

Usually, they are individuals who drank heavily and rolled around just as heavily. Most of them just end up with a torn forehead, so we wrap things up with a few sutures in the ER.

Ah, just another peaceful day in the Emergency Room.

"Well, good luck. I'm taking off."

"Get lost, quickly."

At my words, Jo Soo-yeon countered with a vicious middle finger.

‘Take a double middle finger right back.’

I flashed both of my middle fingers at her, sat down in my chair, and started working.

...

"Yes, yes. The elderly patient's current vitals are BP 85 over 50, heart rate 115, saturation 96%. We are running norpinephrine... but her MAP has dropped slightly compared to earlier, so we are running an additional 500cc of fluids."

— Lines are secured, right?

"The C-line is in place, and we have one more peripheral line. 18-gauge. A Foley catheter has also been inserted."

— Ah, yes, yes... go ahead and send her up for now.

"Understood."

Click—

Clack, clack, clack—

Clack, clack—

I immediately confirmed the admission order and transferred the patient over to Internal Medicine.

"Nurse Jeong!"

At my call, Nurse Jeong—a veteran nurse sitting on the opposite side of the Station—poked her head out to look at me.

"The admission decision for the grandmother in Bed A-1 went through."

"Ah, okay. I got it."

"Yes, thank you. Please take care of it."

It was right at that moment, while I was sitting there feeling a bit uneasy about sending the septic shock patient upstairs.

Ringggggggg—

The telephone rang out, and a nearby nurse answered it.

"Yes, Cheongjin University Hospital Emergency Room."

A brief silence followed.

"Yes... yes. Yes. Understood. What's the ETA again? Yes."

The nurse slammed the phone down heavily.

"Dr. Han."

"Yeah?"

"We have a drowning patient coming in. They had a PEA arrest but achieved ROSC. Current BP is 90 over 60, heart rate is 55 showing sinus bradycardia, and they are in a state of severe hypothermia."

This sounded bad.

"Mental status?"

"Deep coma."

I stood up from my chair.

"Let's set up the Resusc room."

"Yes!"

Time to work.

Work.