Chapter 40

Episode 40 Aftermath (1) (3)‌

Meanwhile, in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit).

Trauma Surgery Professor Kang Hyun-joon was standing next to the patient's bed, checking the post-operative CT image.

“Joon-hyuk.”

He called over Fellow Joon-hyuk, who was standing beside him.

“Yes, Professor.”

“That packing done in the Emergency Room. The position is pure art. It precisely blocked only the blood flow going to the splenic blood vessel while minimizing damage to the surrounding organs. Thanks to that, it was much easier for us to go in and perform the surgery. It probably saved us at least 30 minutes.”

Joon-hyuk could only offer an awkward smile at Professor Kang Hyun-joon’s compliment.

“But you know,” Professor Kang said, putting down the tablet and rubbing his jaw. “Was there such a young professor in Emergency Medicine? It’s a face I’ve never seen before. His skills were easily the best among all the EM doctors I’ve ever seen. Though he did seem to lack some manners.”

He recalled the mysterious doctor he had encountered in the Emergency Room. He looked far too young to be a professor, and he was unimaginably rude for a fellow. However, his hand technique and judgment were superior to any Emergency Medicine doctor he knew.

“Pardon?” Joon-hyuk asked back. “Ah... That packing...”

“Yeah. The doctor who pulled off that crazy stunt in the ER. Who on earth is he?”

Joon-hyuk hesitated for a moment before speaking very cautiously. “Well... I asked the nurses...”

“You asked them, and what?”

“They said he’s an EM R1.”

“What?” Professor Kang's eyes widened to a size they had never reached in his entire life. “What did you say? An R-what?”

“A 1st-year resident. Emergency Medicine.”

“What? Hey. Say something that makes sense, man.” Professor Kang Hyun-joon let out a hollow laugh. It seemed like Joon-hyuk’s pranks had been getting a bit out of hand lately.

“I doubted my own ears too, so I asked them three more times. Han Hyeonjae. They confirmed he is indeed a 1st-year who joined this year.”

“....”

Professor Kang Hyun-joon was lost for words. A 1st-year. A year where someone had just finished their internship and was barely taking their first steps as a doctor. And a guy like that performed this complex damage control surgery? What's more, in a chaotic Emergency Room Resusc?

“...Is he a crazy bastard?” Pure shock spilled from his mouth. “A 1st-year performed the surgery? And in the Resusc, at that? Ah, realistically speaking, this makes no sense. What were the senior doctors doing there? I heard there was a fellow and a 4th-year too! Were they just standing around watching?”

“That is...” Joon-hyuk continued with a troubled expression. “They said there wasn't even time to stop him.”

“...Ha, wow.” Professor Kang Hyun-joon looked up at the ceiling as if completely dumbfounded. This was a story that wouldn't even make it into a medical drama. “If that’s true, I don’t even know what to do with this.”

Professor Kang pressed his temple firmly, his mind a tangled mess. A single crazy genius had ignored all rules and procedures to save a patient. Was this something to praise, or was it something to punish severely as an example to restore discipline across the entire hospital?

After a long silence, Professor Kang asked the most realistic question. “Then, by any chance, is that fellow getting disciplinary action?”

The East Wing, 14th-floor Training Committee conference room.

Several people were sitting across the table. The most prominent figures were Neurosurgery Professor Oh Man-seok, the head of the Training Committee in the center; Gastroenterology Professor Lee Chul-young on his right, seemingly attending as the representative for Internal Medicine; and on his left, our department's Section Chief, Park Woong, who kept his head deeply bowed, unable to even look in my direction.

My palms were drenched in cold sweat. Held in the committee members' hands was the statement of explanation that I had barely managed to complete with the help—if you could call it that—of the Mes of the God.

Would that bullshit about superhuman concentration and image training actually work?

Professor Oh Man-seok adjusted his thick glasses, took his eyes off the documents, and looked at me.

“Well then, we will now convene the 34th Training Committee.” His voice split the heavy air of the conference room. “The agenda is the disciplinary case against 1st-year Emergency Medicine resident Han Hyeonjae for performing an emergency laparotomy in the Emergency Room. Han Hyeonjae, the person subject to disciplinary action, are you present?”

“...Yes.” A cracked voice squeezed out of my dry throat.

“Oh, come now, don't be so nervous,” Professor Oh suddenly flashed a gentle smile. “This isn't an official Disciplinary Committee. It's just an advisory body to discuss and deliver opinions on whether Dr. Han's actions can be tolerated as part of the resident training process. If this is deemed a matter for heavy disciplinary action, only then will it be handed over to the Disciplinary Committee; we don't decide anything directly here. So don't be too scared, and just tell us everything as it is. Just the facts.”

Professor Oh tapped my statement of explanation with his finger.

“I read the statement thoroughly. It was written very detailedly and logically. However, there are things that cannot be known through paperwork alone. That is why we arranged this meeting today.” He leaned forward. “Dr. Han Hyeonjae. I will ask you bluntly. Why did you make an arbitrary decision to incise the patient's abdomen in the ER Resusc without any consultation or direction from a senior doctor? Did you not know what kind of consequences your actions could bring?”

Every gaze in the room locked onto me. I began to deliver the response I had simulated dozens of times with the Mes of the God. If I break down here, it's over.

“Before I answer, I would first like to state that it is an undeniable fact that I violated the hospital's regulations and procedures, and I have absolutely no excuse for that.” I bowed my head first. Boomers love this kind of stuff. “However, I would be grateful if you could give me the opportunity to explain the situation at the time regarding why I had no choice but to make that decision.”

Professor Oh nodded. It was a signal to continue.

“At the time of admission, the patient was already in a Class IV shock state according to ATLS criteria. The systolic blood pressure dropped to the 50s, and the pulse rate was measured at over 140 beats per minute. This meant the body was on the verge of shock where it could no longer tolerate the loss of blood volume.”

I began to list only the medical facts, excluding as much emotion as possible.

“We exhausted all possible means to raise the blood pressure. However, the patient's condition did not improve. The findings clearly indicated massive intra-abdominal bleeding, and the situation was like pouring water into a bottomless pit. The patient was losing blood faster than the speed at which he was receiving IV fluid and blood.”

The air in the conference room shifted subtly.

“By my judgment, the remaining time for the patient was barely 5 minutes. Metabolic acidosis, hypothermia, and coagulopathy were already setting in. It was obvious that if things continued this way, the patient would fall into cardiac arrest, unresponsive to any treatment.” I took a brief breath. “Whether to follow the regulations and wait for the patient's certain death, or to risk everything on the patient's faint chance of survival even if it meant violating regulations. I chose the latter.”

“So you picked up the scalpel?” Professor Lee Chul-young, who was sitting next to him, cut in. “Why did you judge that particular procedure to be the only means? Dr. Han is not a surgeon. On what grounds did a 1st-year Emergency Medicine resident make such a tremendous decision?”

I recalled the details the Mes of the God had told me.

“I judged it to be an emergency treatment under the concept of damage control, not a formal surgery. It was not a surgery with the concept of treating and curing the patient, but the only means to prolong the patient's life for even just a few minutes until they could go up to the operating room.” I recited the concept exactly as the Mes of the God had explained it to me last night. “I did not attempt to remove the spleen or anastomose the blood vessels. I merely compressed the area around the ruptured spleen to temporarily block the massive bleeding, buying the minimum amount of time for the patient to be moved to the operating room.”

As I finished speaking, a heavy silence flowed through the conference room.

“It was reported that your hand technique far surpassed the level of a 1st-year. They said you executed the entire process perfectly without a moment's hesitation. How do you explain that?” Professor Oh's criticism.

It had finally come. I decided to pull out the most shameless and absurd excuse that I had prepared with the Mes of the God last night.

“With the single desperate thought that I had to save the patient, and based on the image training and in-hospital simulation training that I had repeated countless times only in my mind, I think I displayed a sort of superhuman concentration that even I wasn't aware of.”

At my answer, a look that said 'Is this bastard messing with us right now?' flashed across the faces of both Professor Oh and Professor Lee at the same time. However, they couldn't offer any rebuttal. Because there was no other way to explain it.

“My actions were clearly an overstepping of my authority, and it was something that a resident in training should absolutely never do. However, even if I were to return to that moment, I would make the same choice. Because I learned that no regulation takes priority over a patient's life.” I finished speaking and bowed deeply from the waist. “I will take full responsibility for all the consequences that follow.”

Only the ticking sound of the clock echoed awkwardly in the conference room. Professor Oh Man-seok's gaze shifted to my face.

“Ha... Dr. Han, you know how nonsensical this is, right? Where on earth did you even practice that procedure... Haa... Forget it. It's not like you practiced it illegally somewhere anyway.” Professor Oh let out a sigh. “...For now, go out and wait until we reach a conclusion.”

“Yes, sir.”

I bowed my head like a criminal and stood up from the creaking chair. As I opened the door and stepped into the hallway, the heavy door closed behind my back. I slumped right down against the wall of the empty hallway. The strength had drained from my legs.

It was finished. Everything I could do was finished. Now, all that was left was waiting for the judgment to be handed down by the boomers beyond that door.

I opened the blue window in my mind. I needed to vent this shitty feeling somewhere.

Title: I came to the Training Committee and it feels like I'm fucked haha...

Author: Korean Slave 1 (Male)

As soon as my self-deprecating post went up, comments were posted as if they had been waiting.

Mes of the God (Male): Did you answer well just as we prepared?

Korean Slave 1 (Male): Yeah, thanks to you. I just went in there and proved exactly how much of a crazy bastard I am in a perfectly logical manner. Of course, you should be the one taking responsibility for this.

At my sarcasm, the next comment from the Mes of the God was surprisingly meek.

Mes of the God (Male): Anyway, I'm sorry. Since I'm sorry, please let me possess you in the future too... I even uploaded a picture of me doing a grand bow yesterday, didn't I?

I chuckled looking at that comment. It seemed the extreme measure I took yesterday in the gallery—stating 'No possession if you display behavior that shatters social skills'—was quite effective. Just thinking about that time still made me laugh.

After finishing the statement of explanation, I had issued a stern proclamation to the gallery.

『If my doctor's life gets fucked because of today's incident, that's the end of you guys watching the living world too. So if you want to borrow my body in the future, at least equip some basic social skills. If you do that crazy shit again where you speak informally to my seniors or professors, the possession skill will be permanently sealed from that day on. Got it?』

Threatened by me, the incredibly arrogant Mes of the God threw away his pride. He had desperately apologized by posting a crude stick-figure meme he'd found somewhere, performing a grand bow under the caption: 'I will never do anything lacking social skills again, so please, just let me do surgery...'

His burning desire to hold a scalpel even in death had broken a pride that would otherwise never bend.

Yeah, it would have been nice if you'd acted like this from the start. Now, the other ghosts started crawling out one by one to ask how I was doing.

Latte is Mine: So how was the atmosphere? Were the boomers' expressions totally rotten?

ㅇㅇ (118.235): Just don't get fired. If you get fired, we'll literally die of boredom all over again.

Bone Nerd 88 (Male): A beautiful!! Bone marrow slide collection!!

Yeah, we were in the same boat now. If I sink here, your only source of entertainment goes down with me.