“Five, six, seven.”
All the blood clots were removed.
As the things that had been pressing down on Park Sang-mi’s brain along with the blood disappeared, the pressure applied to the brain weakened.
And when the pooled blood was completely sucked away, the pale cortex was revealed from within.
The mysterious brain had fully revealed its form.
A collection of biological signals, soft and pliable, winding and wrinkled.
A mysterious organ (臟器) that perceives the world, interprets it, and even draws out action.
Choi Moo-gyeol was always fascinated by the sight of that brain.
Think about it.
The brain is 80% water, and the rest is merely a single organ composed of 10% lipids, 8% proteins, 2% carbohydrates, and so on.
But how does it receive such complex and countless pieces of information and transmit them to every part of the body?
Not only does it compute like a CPU, it also remembers things from ten or twenty years ago like a memory or SSD.
Is that not truly amazing?
Many neuroscientists have worked for decades to map the human brain, but the rate of progress is still only at the 50–60% level.
No one can even guess how many mysteries it holds among its 80 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses.
‘If someday I can fully grasp the map of the brain. Will I be able to fully understand the reason for the change that happened to me?’
The brain is the organ connected to the biggest event in Choi Moo-gyeol’s life, and also the organ that made him a neurosurgeon.
He could not help but be fascinated.
‘Now is not the time to be lost in other thoughts.’
Choi Moo-gyeol brought his consciousness, which had briefly sunk into thought, back to reality.
Because before his eyes, the patient Park Sang-mi, who had to be saved quickly, was waiting.
“Now, shall we go fight the last enemy?”
Another problem that exists besides the blood that burst out and the coagulated blood clots.
That was the bleeding points, namely the parts where blood vessels had torn.
If those are not properly sealed, the problem repeats.
“Where do you think the bleeding point is?”
“Probably the bridging veins?”
“Why?”
“I learned that traumatic subdural hemorrhage generally occurs in the bridging veins.”
“……You remember well. Smarter than I thought?”
The only person who would say ‘smarter than I thought’ to a Hankook University resident would be Choi Moo-gyeol. As if a genius were speaking to a gifted student.
Bridging veins.
Veins that connect from the brain surface to the venous sinuses.
Choi Moo-gyeol’s thought was the same as the resident’s.
‘The bleeding point is a bridging vein.’
The problem was finding which part of the bridging veins had torn.
“Here.”
Choi Moo-gyeol pointed to the bridging veins passing near the superior sagittal sinus.
‘Accurate……!’
The resident and the medical staff could not help but be surprised at the ruptured appearance of the superior sagittal sinus displayed on the screen.
Microscopic vascular ruptures occurring in veins only 1.5 mm or less in diameter.
‘How does he find that immediately?’
‘No matter how often I see it, I can’t get used to it.’
In intracerebral hemorrhage situations, the surgeon generally uses a surgical microscope to directly catch the bleeding point.
But Choi Moo-gyeol finds the bleeding point first, even before using a microscope.
‘Could he perhaps have some kind of superpower?’
The medical staff who had worked with Choi Moo-gyeol occasionally had such suspicions.
Choi Moo-gyeol quietly asked for an instrument.
“Bipolar.”
“Ah, yes!”
Choi Moo-gyeol, having received the bipolar, the bipolar coagulator (bipolar coagulator: a medical device that uses high-frequency current to stop bleeding at the surgical site and cut tissue), began locating the bleeding points and cauterizing them.
Sizzle—.
He was sealing the torn parts.
Sizzle—. Sizzle—.
Along with the sound, the smell of burning protein filled the operating room.
The blood for the first assistant to suction was gradually decreasing.
In other words, it meant the bleeding was being controlled.
Choi Moo-gyeol’s hands hurried further toward the final stage.
* * *
After Park Sang-mi’s surgery was finished, Choi Moo-gyeol came out of the operating room.
A few seconds later, he encountered Park Seok-hun, who was also coming out of the next operating room after finishing surgery.
“Seeing that you’re not making a grimace, the surgery must have gone well.”
Usually, Park Seok-hun is the type whose surgical results show plainly on his face.
If the surgery did not go well, the corners of his mouth droop like a dog on the dog days, and if it went well, he has a calm expression like now.
A very easy face to read.
Even Choi Moo-gyeol, who is insensitive to emotions, could easily tell what state Park Seok-hun was in.
“Right. It ended well without any incident.”
“Your surgical results really do show exactly on your face.”
“How about you?”
“I also did very well, as usual.”
“Aren’t you something.”
“But your surgical speed today is much faster than usual?”
“Not exactly much. I just hurried a little because I think I’ll be put into another surgery after this one.”
Park Seok-hun answered while wiping the sweat from his face.
“Seeing you soaked with sweat, you did work hard.”
“Moo-gyeol, you of all people—it was a traumatic subdural hemorrhage surgery, and it only took two hours? How on earth did you do it?”
“What’s so surprising. Me finishing surgery quickly isn’t just a one- or two-day thing.”
“You’re in a state with a bandage wrapped around your head after the accident. I naturally thought your condition would be bad…….”
“This much isn’t a factor that affects the outcome.”
“Yeah, you’re really amazing.”
As the two—Park Seok-hun, relieved of tension, and Choi Moo-gyeol, indifferent—came out side by side beyond the controlled area, Park Sang-mi’s parents, who had been waiting, approached.
It seemed they had waited here throughout the entire surgery.
“I-is our daughter okay?”
“Did the surgery go well?”
Having heard it was a surgery with only a 40% success rate, they could not help but be anxious.
Choi Moo-gyeol answered.
“The surgery was successful.”
“Ah…….”
Park Sang-mi’s parents deeply relieved at the word successful.
“Really, thank y…….”
However, Choi Moo-gyeol cut off the thank-you greeting midway and said.
“It’s too early to be completely relieved. We need to watch her progress. For the time being, the skull will also have to be left open.”
The expressions of Park Sang-mi’s parents, who had been relieved, wavered.
Park Seok-hun, standing beside him, squeezed his eyes shut at Choi Moo-gyeol’s raw words.
The patient’s parents, who had briefly chewed over Choi Moo-gyeol’s words, were startled after a delay.
“W-wait a moment! Y-you leave the skull open?”
“……Is it okay to leave a living person’s skull open?! The skull isn’t some door, so you can’t just open and close it however you want, can you?”
‘If I were the patient’s parent, I’d probably foam at the mouth if someone said they’d left my daughter’s skull open…….’
While Park Seok-hun was thinking that as he looked at the flustered patient, there was not even a trace of movement in Choi Moo-gyeol’s expression.
He merely quietly opened his mouth and asked back like this.
“Right now, your daughter’s brain is swollen from the impact and is larger than normal. But what would happen if we closed the skull?”
“Pardon……?”
“The swollen brain would be heavily compressed. Then it would be crushed, and something would go wrong. That’s why I left it open—the skull.”
Park Seok-hun was a little relieved at that sight.
‘Still, since he explains in detail, the guardians will understand. Even if he can’t empathize with the patient, he’s certainly a guy who fulfills his duties as a doctor.’
“S-so that’s why you left it open.”
The patient’s mother, seeming to understand the situation, was slightly relieved.
“Then what happens from now on? What will you do with our daughter’s s-skull…….”
The patient’s father asked about the future treatment.
“First, your daughter will be moved to the intensive care unit and we will monitor her progress. The skull will be stored well in a preservative. After one or two weeks, when the brain swelling subsides and it returns to normal size, we will close the skull then.”
“There won’t be a problem if you close it then, right?”
“Don’t worry. Are you perhaps worried the skull might get lost? I’m not some skull collector. There’s no way I’d run off with your daughter’s skull, is there?”
“…….”
A moment of silence passed.
At Choi Moo-gyeol’s joke, the patient’s parents somehow could not easily answer.
‘He does look like he’d collect skulls and keep them somewhere secret…….’
‘A psychopath skull collector—somehow that fits that face perfectly.’
Even Park Seok-hun was thinking that much.
“……Rather than that, I’m worried whether there will be any problem with her brain even if it’s left open.”
“It is not dangerous even if the skull is open. Hankook University Hospital’s intensive care unit will provide the highest level of care.”
“Of course it will, but somehow I still can’t feel reassured.”
“I know well how important an organ the brain is. I will cover it well so it isn’t dangerous, so set your worries down.”
“Understood.”
“Then, I’ll be going, since the next patient is likely waiting.”
Choi Moo-gyeol left the place like that.
The patient’s parents watched for a long while the retreating back of the peculiar doctor with a bandage wrapped around his head as he busily disappeared, then suddenly muttered.
“He might be a better doctor than I thought?”
“Yeah, though his sense of humor and conversation skills are strange.”
“Come to think of it, we didn’t say thank you for performing the surgery well.”
“There will be another chance later…….”
* * *
After the emergency medicine, neurosurgery, orthopedics, and other departments of Hankook University Hospital fought a full-scale war because of the eight-vehicle pileup.
New patients entered the intensive care unit.
One of them, Park Sang-mi, had completed scalp suturing, but her skull was open.
Her skull was gaping open, with a piece approximately 12×10 cm wide and long removed.
Only the scalp had been sutured over it first, covering the empty space.
Because the important organ called the brain was exposed as it was beneath the thin scalp and needed caution, she was wearing a medical brain-protection helmet shaped like a bicycle helmet.
The fortunate thing was that Park Sang-mi’s consciousness had fully returned. She was chatting with her family.
“Oh, Doctor.”
“Ms. Park Sang-mi.”
“You’re here.”
The family greeted Choi Moo-gyeol with bright faces.
Choi Moo-gyeol asked.
“How is it? The feeling of having your skull open. It’s better than you thought, right? Safe and all.”
“Pardon?”
“Doctor.”
Nurse Joo Min-ji lightly poked Choi Moo-gyeol’s side with her finger. It was a signal to restrain himself.
Then Choi Moo-gyeol looked at Joo Min-ji and said.
“The guardians worried a lot when they heard your daughter’s skull was left open, so I checked it.”
“You were keeping it in your mind?”
“Conveying the exact condition to the patient is a doctor’s duty.”
“You could convey it more gently.”
“Gently how? What, ‘How does it feel to have no lid?’ Is this gentler?”
“Oh dear. I should just stop talking.”
Having thus won one round in the war of words with Joo Min-ji, Choi Moo-gyeol looked at the patient and said.
“How is your body condition?”
“I think I’m okay. The nausea has decreased too.”
“That’s a relief.”
Choi Moo-gyeol looked at the guardian confidently, as if saying, ‘See?’ and ‘Didn’t I tell you not to worry?’
Park Sang-mi’s parents, though only a few days had passed, were gradually getting used to this peculiar doctor.
“I came to tell you that Ms. Park Sang-mi’s swollen brain has gone down a lot.”
“Ah…….”
“In other words, we can now close the lid.”
“L-lid…….”
Joo Min-ji was flustered again, but the patient Park Sang-mi herself smiled and said.
“That’s a relief.”
The patient’s guardian also smiled broadly and said.
“I will trust that you will close it well.”
“Since I opened it, I have to take responsibility through closing it.”
