Hua Tuo Becomes a Surgeon

Chapter 12

He can’t believe he’s applying for cardiothoracic surgery after what happened to him! He have the guts to do that even though he knows he’s on Professor Hwang’s, the head of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department, blacklist?

“Hmm! It’s quite something that he’s applying to our department, but Lee Minho hasn’t shown any interest in our department until now.”

“That’s right.”

Kwak Sang-do awkwardly scratched his head.

“He originally dreamed of becoming a surgeon. That’s why he practiced a lot. He was considering other departments but after hitting the wall of reality, he changed his mind recently.”

“I see! Hmm! Where is Lee Minho now?”

“He’s assisting Professor So Yong-cheol’s surgery.”

“Professor So’s surgery? I have some time after the rounds, so I should stop by the observation room.”

A while later, Professor Kim Joo-hyuk headed to the OR observation room after completing his rounds.

A few years ago, the medical law was revised to allow the recording of surgeries upon request from patients or their guardians. Therefore, all operating rooms now had cameras installed, and surgeries from each operating room could be viewed on monitors in the observation room.

When Professor Kim Joo-hyuk entered, the staff in the observation room quickly stood up and greeted him.

“Oh! Hello, Professor.”

“You must all be busy, just carry on with your work and don’t mind me.”

“Yes. But what brings you here today?”

Most of the staff took their seats again, while one approached Professor Kim Joo-hyuk.

“It’s been a while since I’ve observed a surgery. Which OR is Professor So using?”

“OR 2.”

Following the staff’s indication, Professor Kim walked over to the monitor displaying OR 2.

“Hmm! It seems like they’re doing a bullectomy. Looks like that’s the patient with bullous emphysema who was recently transferred from the Gangwon branch.”

[1] bullectomy – a surgical procedure that involves removing bullae, which are enlarged, damaged air sacs in the lungs.

[2] bullous emphysema – is a condition where damaged alveoli in the lungs stretch to form large air pockets called bullae.

“Yes. Fortunately, their condition doesn’t seem severe enough for a lung wedge resection [3].”

[3] lung wedge resection – removal of a small, wedge-shaped portion of lung tissue.

Despite not being doctors themselves, the observation room staff was a little knowledgeable about surgical procedures due to their long experience.

Professor Kim Joo-hyuk glanced at the three monitors that was showing the OR 2 briefly, before pointing at the one showing the entire operating room.

“Manager Song.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Can we zoom in a bit? I want a closer look.”

“Oh! You can’t see the surgery well?”

“No, not the surgery. Zoom in on that third assistant over there.”

“The third assistant? Ah, I see.”

Manager Song was confused for a moment when Professor Kim Joo-hyuk pointed at the doctor on the monitor, but soon adjusted the controls.

Shortly after, the screen enlarged, and Lee Minho’s face, who was assisting, appeared in the center of the screen.

“That’s good enough.”

“Yes.”

Professor Kim Joo-hyuk stared at Lee Minho’s face, who was focused on the surgery, for a moment before tilting his head inwardly.

‘I remember him being quite sluggish before, but his attitude definitely has changed!’

Just by looking at his eyes, you could tell how his mindset had changed.

After observing Lee Minho’s attitude for quite a while, Professor Kim Joo-hyuk pondered briefly. As the surgery was nearing its end, he pressed the intercom.

The OR nurse answered the phone.

― Yes, this is OR 2.

“This is Kim Joo-hyuk. Can you put me through to Professor So Yong-cheol, please?”

― Yes! Just a moment. Professor So Yong-cheol? It’s Professor Kim Joo-hyuk on the line.

― Professor Kim? What’s the matter? Put him on speaker.

― Yes.

― Professor Kim, it’s So Yong-cheol.

“I’m sorry for calling during surgery.”

― No problem at all. We’re almost done, and we’re at the final stage now, so it’s fine.

“I have something to confirm, can I ask you a favor?”

― Yes, please tell me.

“I want you to have Dr. Lee Minho finish up the closing.”

― Huh? Have the intern close?

“Yes, there’ something I want to check.”

―You want to check something by asking an intern to……

Professor So Yong-cheol trailed off and glanced at Lee Minho

Although he seemed focused on his surgery today, he was still the intern blacklisted by Professor Hwang.

“Dr. Oh Gook-hwan had Lee Minho finish up his surgeries. When I was making rounds checking the incisions, his suturing looked quite good.”

― Dr. Oh had Dr. Lee Minho finish up? Huh, I see. What… ahem, alright. If you say so, Professor. I’ll let him do it.

Professor So Yong-cheol nodded, not at all happy about it, but he couldn’t outright refuse his superior’s request.

“I’m sorry, Professor So. It’s your surgery.”

― No, it’s fine. I’m also curious since Dr. Oh had him do it.

After ending the call, Professor So Yong-cheol apologized to the resident assisting him before turning to Lee Minho.

“Dr. Lee Minho.”

“Yes, Professor.”

“I’m curious to see how well you close to have Professor Kim wanting to your skills. Go ahead and finish up.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Professor So Yong-cheol switched places with Lee Minho shortly after and started watching him closely.

From Professor’s point of view, he couldn’t outright refuse the request of his superior, Professor Kim, but if Lee Minho did a bad job, he would have a reason to refuse in the future.

Yet despite being just an intern, Lee Minho didn’t seem nervous at all.

‘Hoho! Look at that.’

Professor So Yong-cheol’s eyes lit up.

No matter how many times he’d been given the chance to finish, it would be natural for him to be nervous in a situation like this, yet he showed no signs of nerves at all.

There’s a saying that surgeons must have the heart of a lion. It means they must be brave enough, and in that aspect, he passed.

A moment later, when Lee Minho carefully examined the patient’s surgical site and received the surgical instruments from the nurse to begin closing, Professor So Yong-cheol’s eyes widened.

He was already surprised by the complete lack of nervous demeanor, but the way he examined the site and handled the instruments was so natural, almost like that of an experienced professional.

‘Posture, gaze, the movement of the hand holding the instrument, even the breathing. Huh! What’s going on here? He may be blacklisted by Professor Hwang before, but even before that, I had dismissed him as just another intern with a poor attitude… but those hands don’t belong to an intern at all.’

Pierce, in, out, in, out……

After connecting the drainage tube and suturing the chest cavity, he meticulously located and connected the muscles that had been rolled up, before finally suturing the skin – his hands moved with a dexterity unimaginable for an intern.

Professor So Yong-cheol, who was ready to stop Lee Minho immediately if he made a mistake, could only watch speechlessly as Lee Minho continued until completing the subcuticular stitches.

‘Did this guy get his medical license, serve as a military doctor, and go through a war or something?’

***

After moving the patient who had finished surgery to the intensive care unit, Hwabu watched as the anesthesiologist checked the vital signs and then quietly looked at his own hand.

Over the past two days, unlike the other interns, he had closed up many surgeries.

Perhaps because of that, these hand no longer felt like someone else’s.

‘Not just the hands, this whole body doesn’t feel like someone else’s anymore.’

It was as if by pretending to be this body’s owner, he had truly become it. And now, even Lee Minho’s memories he had absorbed until now were becoming vivid as if they were his own, not someone else’s.

Memories tend to naturally fade with time.

In fact, many of the memories he had when he lived as Hwabu for over a hundred years had been forgotten. Yet Lee Minho’s memories, from the moment he began to perceive the world until his death, remained crystal clear.

Why was that?

‘Could it be…the possession isn’t being undone, and I’m meant to just live out his life?’

Somehow, he felt…

Hwabu realized that Lee Minho’s medical knowledge and his own experiences and knowledge of treating patients for over eighty years were merging and complementing each other.

‘I’ll have to wait a few more days to know for sure… but it would be really great if the possession doesn’t end.’

***

Coming out of the operating room, Professor So Yong-cheol smiled wryly at Professor Kim Joo-hyuk, who was holding a canned coffee.

“How did the conference go?”

“Just the same old talks, a waste of time as always.”

“You really know how to say things the Director and Professor Hwang would dislike.”

Professor So Yong-cheol was thirsty, so he opened the canned that Professor Kim Joo-hyuk had handed him and downed it in one go like water.

“The Director and Professor don’t like me anyway, so it doesn’t matter if they hear or not.”

“It makes things difficult for us underlings when you’re not on good terms with them, Professor.”

“For them to be amenable, I’d have to overtreat patients and burden them unnecessarily. I’d rather have a poor relationship than do that.”

“Sigh, if you could just compromise a little……”

“Forget that nonsense. You’re watching from the side, what did you think of that intern’s hands?”

“Didn’t you also see it on the monitor?”

“I did, but I wanted to ask someone who saw it firsthand since I could hardly believe it myself.”

“Among the interns I’ve seen so far, he had the best hands.”

“Is that all?”

“What else could there be?”

“In my opinion, his hands are better than most residents.”

“You’re right. His dexterity was at a level that can’t be attained without practicing diligently for a long time.”

Professor So Yong-cheol shook his head repeatedly as he remembered Lee Minho’s hand movements.

He was so surprised that he even thought about asking if he became a military doctor and had gone through a war.

“You said he’s applying to our department – maybe this drought will bear fruit after all.”

“Make sure the other departments don’t snatch him up.”

“I asked the residents in the OR, and they said they are already on it.”

“I suppose they share our perspective on him.”

***

After finishing the handing over to the next cardiothoracic surgery interns in the morning, Hwabu went to the Emergency Medicine Department after lunch.

Among the colleagues whom he had trained together in thoracics, Go Bong-gil went to the Radiology Department, while Kim Hyungsun and Ahn Jisoo joined emergency medicine with him.

As the three of them and Byeon Hee-ung, who had trained in orthopedic surgery, entered the emergency room, the emergency medicine interns who were waiting for them for the handover looked surprised.

“Gasp! What happened in CS that your faces look like that? I can understand Minho after being on that insane shift, but shouldn’t the rest of you at least look human?”

“You’ll see once you rotate to CS.”

“Seok-geun is doing CS next month. The rest of us will be in NR and radi.” ((tl: just a short term for radiology.))

For a moment, the three looked at Joo Seok-geun with pity. Then he shrugged and spoke.

“I don’t know why you’re all looking at me like that, but becoming a CS surgeon was my goal from the start. That’s why I deliberately scheduled it as my last rotation.”

“Huh? So you chose the same treacherous path as Min-ho?”

” Minho is also aiming to be a CS surgeon?”

Joo Seok-geun looked slightly surprised, so Hwabu shrugged.

“Yeah, I didn’t know you were aiming for that too.”

“Haha, glad to know. I thought I was the only one who wanted to be a CS, but there was one. Let’s do well from now on.”

“Yes. By the way, who’s in charge of the residents in EM?”

“It’s Shim Sang-in, but he’s not that violent.”

“That’s a relief.”

“But there’s one more person you should be careful of than Dr. Shim Sang-in.”

“Someone we should be careful of?”

“Yeah.”

“Who?”

“Professor Jang Tae-joo.”

“Professor Jang Tae-joo?”

“Yeah, he’s not a bad person, but he’s a bit overbearing.”

When Hwabu seemed puzzled as he couldn’t recall who Professor Jang Tae-joo was, Kim Hyungsun, who was next to him, chimed in.

“Didn’t he join not too long ago?”

“Ah! The one the Chairman recruited to establish the MT Center (major trauma center)?”