Golden Time

Chapter 67

Suhyuk was moving one of his shoulders in a circular motion. He had the shoulder struck by a motorcycle. He did not feel pain there anymore and the bruising in his biceps was going down, and new cells were replacing the damaged ones. His bones were not injured, and he did not need any treatment because it was just a bruise. Over time his body will heal itself anyway, he thought.

It was now lunch time, and Suhyuk went to see Dongsu. He was packing his stuff to leaving having finished with the discharge procedure. Noticing Suhyuk, he grinned.

“Thanks to you, I’ve caught one criminal,” he said.

 

He was talking about the guy who committed serial rape.

Suhyuk could not help but smile. He just took the guy to the emergency room because he was involved in a traffic accident without knowing who he was. Then he turned out to in fact be a criminal on the loose.

Sitting on the bed, Suhyuk said with a worried voice, “What about the guy who stabbed you? Was he caught?”

Dongsu kitted his brows, saying, “He was last seen in Yongsan, but escaped nimbly like a mouse.”

“How bold he is… How can he stab a prosecutor?”

“Well, thugs these days don’t fear anybody. They just wield their tools at anyone.”

At his words Suhyuk shook his head. He told him several times to understand what his profession was, and make a distinction between a detective and a prosecutor. He would not listen.

While packing his stuff, Dongsu squatted on the bed, saying, “You said you have something to say.”

“I was involved in a hit-and-run.”

Dongsu looked at him here and there at his words.

“Hit-and-run? Where? How come you are okay then?”

With a gentle smile, Suhyuk told him about the traffic accident involving the serial rapist.

While listening to him quietly, Dongsu had a dubious expression on his face, and said, “It happened near Hana’s Rice & Soup store…”

“Yes, and she was. .h.i.t by a motorcycle at the same place before.”

“The suspect wearing a helmet?”

Suhyuk nodded his head.

The two were silent for a moment. While they were thinking, Dongsu spoke first

“Just trust in me.”

Suhyuk spoke to him while rising from the seat, “Sorry to bother you. I should have taken this to the police directly.”

Dongsu grinned, saying, “No, you don’t have to say sorry. It’s my duty to get rid of the evil people like this.”

After tapping him on the shoulder several times, Dongsu headed for the entrance of the room. When Suhyuk was about to escort him out, Dongsu turned back and said,

“Don’t bother to escort me. Thanks for waking me up.”

“I didn’t do anything. I just watched on the side.”

Dongsu shook his head as if that was not true.

He remembered Suhyuk approaching him who was lying in bed nervously. When he saw Suhyuk’s eyes, he felt comfortable. He relaxed him, with silent words: ‘Just trust me.’

With anesthesia, he could go to sleep comfortably, and when he woke up, he could see him as expected.

“I’m leaving now.”

Detectives approached Dongsu who waved his hands without turning back, and soon they disappeared into the elevator.

***

He still had more or less 20 minutes of lunch time left.

Suhyuk went up to the Sky Park on the rooftop of the hospital.

He had only one reason for doing that. He wanted to see the faces of his intern friends who gathered there during their break time. Sitting on the benches, they were letting out a big sigh.

Suhyuk approached them with a smile. They waved their hands at him.

“Hey, is this the Prince of Blood Collection and the CT Genius?”

With an awkward smile, he sat on the bench.

“Are you guys doing alright?”

The faces of his friends who welcomed him with bright smiles turned grim.

“Don’t ask that. I got given a scolding from the professor because I checked the patient’s vital signs incorrectly. It’s only a minute difference. I was ordered to be on call day and night.”

Splitting his hair, the intern a.s.signed to the internal medicine department said,

“I should have memorized all types of medicine until in the morning because I mentioned a possible surgery instead of medication.”

“How about you, Suhyuk?”

At a woman intern’s asking, he just made a gentle smile, saying, “Just so-so.”

It’s already been two months since they started the interns.h.i.+p period.

So far they have had no major incidents, but it could happen anytime.

An incident was supposed to happen due to misjudgment. It’s already too late when they find out it’s misjudgement. That was not an exception, even to Suhyuk.

Suhyuk made a resolve once again not to lower his guard.

At that moment an intern rose from the bench, saying, “I have to go. If I’m late, I may have to stay up through the night.”

Other interns began to stand up one by one, and so did Suhyuk to wrap up his a.s.signment.

“Did you have a delicious lunch?” asked resident Im Gyongsu, turning over the chart.

Other interns a.s.signed to the surgery department were busy with other stuff.

Only Suhyuk was left alone as he had already completed his a.s.signment.

“I hear the professor allowed you into the operation room.”

“Yes, looks like he allowed me in because my friend was getting surgery.”

“I hear you also had a chance to use some surgery equipments, and secured the view for operation.”

When he nodded his head, Im shook his head slightly.

He thought Suhyuk was only good at a.n.a.lyzing CT, but was stunned when he heard from residents who went into the operation room with him what he had done. He secured the operation view for the professor perfectly! It was really unbelievable, but everybody in the room said the same thing. Did he learn it from books too? Even though he learned it from books and videos, actual clinical practice was different from that.

Im could not help but think he was a born genius.

“Follow me!” said Im, and turned around with his white gown fluttering away.

He continued talking while walking, “Didn’t you do disinfection and simple sutures a lot?”

“Yes,” said Suhyuk shortly.

“We’re going to do abdominal puncture and drainage now. Though you don’t have anything to do there right now, you will have to do it many, many times when you’re a.s.signed to the surgery department. Got it?”

When Suhyuk nodded his head, he went into the adjacent patient’s room.

Two nurses were preparing things for abdominal puncture while checking the ultrasound device.

Looking at Suhyuk, one of the nurses made a shy dimple on her face, which was invisible to him.

Approaching the patient, Im smiled and said, “It stings a bit when you get given anesthesia.”

It was a man in his late 30s. He grinned and nodded.

Before applying the abdominal puncture, Im checked his belly with the ultrasound device. He was checking the exact location because other organs might be touched during the operation if not careful.

Looking at the image on the ultrasound device quietly, he began to disinfect the man’s belly, and the he marked X on the area 5 cm below the navel with a permanent marker. That was the location where he would inject the needle. He put a sterilized sheet with a hole on the patient’s belly, and made sure the X mark was visible through the open hole.

“You will now be given anesthesia.”

Suhyuk was watching Im’s procedures quitely.

Suhyuk nodded at the process of anesthetizing the fascia in order, subcutaneously, perpendicularly to the abdominal wall. It was a neat procedure.

However, it looked like the patient did not feel the same way.

His face was frowned at the sting of the needle.

Im  also added enough anesthetic to the peritoneum for the last time. It was an injection for drainage, so he applied anesthesia well into the peritoneum. He waited until the patient’s belly was fully under the anaesthetic. Soon he began to move. He placed the needle for drainage right in the place marked X. Though it looked like he simply injected the needle, he did it without touching the muscle rectus. If the needle is pierced through it, there could be bleeding as a result of damaged arteries and veins, but Im avoided it exactly.

The patient frowned his face when he felt a needle was pierced into his belly, but soon went back to normal. The anesthesia worked well, as planned.

“It’s important to pay attention, starting from here.”

Suhyuk nodded at his words.

If the needle inside the belly touches other organs, it will cause an instant perforation. Accordingly it required a high degree of concentration and delicate technique.

Finally Im’s needle was placed into the patient’s abdominal cavity.

At that moment Suhyuk’s voice came into his ears.

“Sir!”

Frowning his face, Im looked at him with curious eyes.

He was holding his wrist.

He opened his mouth calmly, “I think you have placed the needle too deep.”

Im knitted his brows suddenly, and murmured to him, reading the patient’s countenance,

“What are you doing before the patient? Just let go of my wrist!”

Despite his icy words, Suhyuk would not move. He did not release his wrist at all.

“If you place it any deeper, it could cause a perforation.”

Suhyuk had no intention to release him it at all. It seemed that the needle, when placed a little deeper, could cause a perforation in the organs. Then the patient would need additional treatment.

If the complications became serious, he might need emergency surgery for peritonitis.

He could not let the patient go through that.

“What the h.e.l.l, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”

Im, with a blush, looked at the nurse.

“Put the ultrasound mouse on the belly.”

He wanted to show Suhyuk clearly where the needle was placed, so he could let go of his wrist.

A little later Im just blinked his eyes after confirming it through the ultrasound monitor, and was frozen in place, just like a stone statue.

To their suprise, the needle was stopped right before the intestine. It was dangerously close to it, so that even a little trembling of the hand could cause perforation.

Suhyuk’s hand holding Im’s wrist was lifted up a bit, so the needle became distanced from it.

When Im looked at him, Suhyuk had already let go of his arm.

After that, the two did not talk to each other at all. Suhyuk just looked on while Im was doing the procedure, and Im just focused on his work calmly.

To their embarra.s.sment, everybody was silent until they were done with the drainage and cleaned up.

Finis.h.i.+ng the procedure, Im smiled to the patient, saying, “The surgery was done well. Thanks for your patience.”

“Thanks so much for your hard work!”

Im exchanged a few more words with the patient, and went out of the surgery room.

So did Suhyuk, and followed him.

While walking down the hall, Im did not say anything. The suddenly he opened his mouth,

“Can you just keep it to yourself?”

Suhyuk made a curious expression, as if he did not understand what he was talking about.

“I mean what happened a moment ago.”

Suhyuk said gently, “Did anything happen a moment ago?”

Im grinned at his remarks suggesting he did not know anything about it.

“Let’s have a drink together someday.”

Im walked ahead of him even before he replied.

“Hi… sir.”

Suhyuk turned back his head at the sudden voice coming from behind him.