“May I come in for a moment?”
“Come in, Dr. Park. You always work hard for the neurosurgery department. Have a seat.”
As Park Seok-hun sat down, Hospital Director Kim Jin asked.
“Is there something going on?”
“I came because I have something important to discuss with you.”
“Feel free to speak.”
“I would like to bring in one doctor.”
“Mm.”
Director Kim leaned back in his chair, clasped his hands, and brought them to his mouth.
Park Seok-hun held his breath, wondering what words would come out of his mouth.
Another hospital director might say this.
—Neurosurgery isn’t even a department that makes much money, and you want to hire one more? With what money?
From the director’s standpoint, it is natural. Of course, a hospital is an institution whose main purpose is to treat people, but it is impossible to operate while continuing to run a deficit.
From the salaries of doctors, nurses, and staff to facility maintenance costs, consumable costs, and so on.
However, the reaction of Daon General Hospital’s director, Kim Jin, was different from an ordinary director.
“Is work very hard these days? Are you short on hands?”
He has a human side to the extent that he checks the doctors’ situation before the financial situation.
That is why, five years ago, when Park Seok-hun stormed out of Hankook University Hospital.
Director Kim Jin was the only one who overcame the opposition around him and even hired him.
The reason was, ‘He looks sincere as a person.’
That was the reason Kim Jin chose Park Seok-hun.
Of course, since he was not a physiognomist, he did not hire him based solely on his face.
It happened that the former neurosurgeon had stormed out, saying, ‘I can’t take it anymore, I’ll open a practice in cosmetic surgery,’ so someone was absolutely needed.
In any case, Park Seok-hun’s attempt to recruit Choi Moo-gyeol was to place a faint hope in the director’s human personality.
“Work is bearable. I also know well that you always care, Director. Until now, Dr. Yeom Dong-gu and I have somehow been managing well together, but a very difficult patient has come in this time.”
“What kind of patient is it?”
“It’s a patient with cerebral vascular malformation, and even after embolization, the problem has not been resolved. So additional procedure or surgery must be done quickly, but with our neurosurgery facilities…….”
“If it is difficult at our hospital, we should transfer the patient.”
“Even so, I inquired at about ten hospitals, and the earliest possible is three months later. If the blood vessel bursts in the meantime, this patient could lose her life.”
“Are you suggesting we hire one more doctor to save one person? It is indeed very like you, Dr. Park Seok-hun, to be so tenderhearted…….”
“Considering Korea’s medical reality, it will not end with one patient. There will be more patients like this in the future.”
“Alright, suppose we hire him. Even if we can pay the doctor’s salary somehow, expanding facilities is difficult. Our hospital isn’t only neurosurgery, is it? In this environment, what would we do by hiring one doctor?”
“I know one doctor who performs surgeries like this smoothly without relying on equipment. That doctor would surely do well even with limited facilities.”
“If he is such a skilled doctor, other hospitals should be scouting him; would he come to our small hospital?”
“If we present acceptable conditions, he will definitely come. That friend is currently without affiliation.”
“Such a capable doctor has no affiliation? Who on earth is it?”
“Do you perhaps know someone named Choi Moo-gyeol?”
“Choi Moo-gyeol? The name isn’t unfamiliar. Wait a moment.”
Tap tap tap—.
Kim Jin searched the name Choi Moo-gyeol on the director’s office computer.
Several articles popped up.
“A doctor whose future was promising was sued due to a medical accident and left Hankook University Hospital…… I thought I’d heard the name somewhere, and it was exactly that person.”
“Yes, he is my classmate.”
“You want to bring in someone who had an accident?”
Kim Jin’s complexion changed.
“……Just because Daon is a small hospital doesn’t mean we accept just anyone.”
“I know, Director.”
“And yet you say you’ll bring him?”
Park Seok-hun hesitated for a moment.
The story of that day’s surgery, the full story of the brainstem glioma removal surgery, which was shared strictly only among insiders.
Whether he could tell that truth.
But he could not leave Choi Moo-gyeol to continue being wrongly misunderstood.
Finally, he opened his mouth heavily.
“Because the person who caused the accident was not Choi Moo-gyeol.”
Kim Jin’s eyes narrowed.
“What do you mean? Is there something not in the articles?”
“It’s difficult to tell you the details, but…… Choi Moo-gyeol was the person who took responsibility, not the person who did wrong.”
“The person who took responsibility, not the person who did wrong. That’s a meaningful statement. But Choi Moo-gyeol bore the responsibility for the accident?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Park Seok-hun smiled bitterly.
“You’ve been at the hospital a long time, Director. I think you know the reason without me saying it.”
Then a rough picture was drawn in Director Kim Jin’s mind.
Professor Yoo Seong-ho, who was the surgeon in charge.
The day of the VIP patient’s surgery.
The first assistant’s medical accident and resignation.
What might have happened in the operating room. Park Seok-hun had conveyed it without saying everything.
“I see. So Choi Moo-gyeol went abroad.”
Park Seok-hun roughly explained Choi Moo-gyeol’s overseas career.
He went around medically underserved areas in the Middle East where doctors were scarce, and local general hospitals.
He performed countless surgeries on trauma patients and cerebral hemorrhage patients.
He endured for several years even with insufficient equipment and recently returned to Korea.
“Would you like to see this?”
“What is it?”
Park Seok-hun handed a USB to Director Kim Jin, who was still half-doubting.
“This is footage that was so perfect it was used as a textbook for Hankook University Hospital neurosurgery for a while. After the lawsuit, the face was mosaicked, though. It is a surgery that Choi Moo-gyeol personally performed.”
Kim Jin played the video on the USB. After watching the surgical process for a moment, he nodded.
“He is certainly outstanding.”
“He was famous for making no mistakes at the time. And if you look at this,”
Park Seok-hun opened a file.
It was a record of surgeries Choi Moo-gyeol participated in while at Hankook University Hospital.
Cerebral hemorrhage, head trauma, brain tumor, spinal injury, emergency decompression, aneurysm…….
“He did all of this?”
“Yes. If you look at the next file, statistics appear.”
Patients’ complication rates, mortality rates, reoperation rates.
“These are very excellent numbers.”
Park Seok-hun had personally kept the records from Hankook University Hospital in case they might someday be used to prove Choi Moo-gyeol’s innocence.
Though he hadn’t known they would be used for employment like this.
“But why did he return to Korea?”
“His parents are in Korea, and it seems he had no intention of living abroad forever.”
“And there are no hospitals he applied to after returning?”
“He said he was rejected everywhere.”
“They make a fuss about how hard it is to find neurosurgery specialists, and yet the reality is they don’t accept someone like this.”
Kim Jin smiled bitterly.
“So how about bringing him to our hospital? Choi Moo-gyeol is like a severely undervalued blue-chip stock right now.”
“A severely undervalued blue-chip stock.”
Park Seok-hun said with shining eyes.
“If it weren’t for this situation, would Choi Moo-gyeol even have given our Daon a second glance?”
“No……. That’s a bit much.”
At Park Seok-hun’s uncharacteristically provocative words, Kim Jin’s forehead twitched, but Park Seok-hun paid no heed and said.
“We bring this tremendous blue-chip into Daon and use him to raise the hospital together.”
“Raise the hospital together.”
“Yes, to a higher level.”
“Is his skill really that good?”
“I saw him up close, so wouldn’t I know well?”
“Then let me ask just one thing.”
After a brief pause, Kim Jin asked.
“How is he as a person?”
Park Seok-hun laughed.
“He’s odd.”
“?”
“And his personality is nasty.”
“Is that so?”
“He can’t even speak kindly to patients. He has no tact either.”
“Are you sure you’re saying we should bring him in?”
“Still, when it comes to a doctor’s duty, he is thorough. He’s a lunatic about surgery and treatment.”
“A lunatic about surgery and treatment.”
“A lunatic in a very good way.”
Kim Jin looked out the window without a word for a moment.
Daon General Hospital.
There was once ambition.
The ambition to make this hospital the best in the region.
He wanted to establish centers in various fields and bring in good doctors.
However, he attempted a large expansion once and failed.
How much debt was incurred then.
After that, Kim Jin changed his goal.
The top priority rule was to keep the hospital from going under.
But after seeing Choi Moo-gyeol’s file.
That thrill he felt when young arose again a little.
Make the lunatic whose skill is certain, Choi Moo-gyeol, into a star doctor and expand Daon General Hospital.
Whether he could dream that old dream once again.
“By the way, Dr. Park Seok-hun. Have you discussed this matter with Dr. Choi Moo-gyeol?”
“Not yet.”
“Pardon?”
“I came to get your permission first, Director.”
Kim Jin let out a hollow laugh.
“You talked to me about this for a long while without the person himself even knowing?”
“I thought your permission came first, Director.”
Park Seok-hun’s expression was filled with motivation like never before. It was a passion rarely seen at Daon Hospital.
Kim Jin had seen different expressions on Park Seok-hun’s face several times in just one day.
‘If his belief is that strong. Would it be alright for me to bet on it once too?’
After agonizing, Kim Jin said.
“However, it cannot be a formal hire.”
“Director!”
“First, let’s entrust him for one month. Together with that patient you mentioned. And if we become convinced, we’ll make a long-term contract.”
Park Seok-hun soon nodded.
“Understood.”
Once Director Kim Jin sees Choi Moo-gyeol’s skill, his mind will change.
If he sees him smoothly treating high-difficulty patients even with our hospital’s backward facilities, Director Kim Jin will surely want to hire Choi Moo-gyeol, just like me.
Because a talent like Choi Moo-gyeol rotting away is a loss for all of Korean neurosurgery.
Park Seok-hun had watched Choi Moo-gyeol right beside him, so he knew well.
Kim Jin reached a conclusion.
“Since it’s a one-month temporary hire, we’ll somehow tighten our belts and solve the budget problem.”
“I feel like I threw a bit of a tantrum, but thank you for willingly accepting.”
“I merely judged that it would help the hospital.”
Park Seok-hun thought as he left the director’s office.
‘Now I just need to persuade Choi Moo-gyeol.’
