Anatomy practice is not a class that ends with one or two sessions.
It differs by school, but at Hankook University Medical School, it is conducted over a long period of 16 weeks.
So you can think of it as a class that continues for almost an entire semester.
The classmates who at first were flustered and could not easily even hold a scalpel.
Gradually, as time passed, they became insensitive to the cadavers.
Choi Moo-gyeol found their change interesting.
‘It’s the same cadaver as at first and now, so why are the reactions different?’
On a certain practice day, when the students’ sense that what they were dissecting was the corpse of a human who had once been alive gradually dulled, and they came to treat it comfortably like an object.
Professor Oh Jeong-ho, who had been walking between the tables and watching the practice, threw out a question.
“Everyone. Do you see the faint trace remaining on the lower abdomen above the groin?”
It was Choi Moo-gyeol’s table. One student answered.
“Yes, I see it.”
“Do you know what kind of trace it is?”
“Th-that much……”
“Anyone who knows?”
Choi Moo-gyeol, feeling that Oh Jeong-ho’s gaze was somehow looking toward him, answered.
“Judging by how it is more firmly fibrotic than the surrounding skin, it looks like a surgical scar.”
“Yes. Can you tell me what kind of surgery it was?”
“If it’s this area, there’s a high probability it’s a hernia surgery.”
“That’s right. You observed well.”
“Oh.”
Classmates quietly exclaiming in admiration around them.
Oh Jeong-ho asked again.
“Then can you guess what this person did for a living, their occupation?”
“The separation of the fascia and muscle fibers is clear, and judging by the degree of development of the muscle thickness, he seems to have been an athlete.”
“Can you judge that he was an athlete based only on muscle?”
“If you look closely, there are also surgical marks on the knee here. Judging by the location, it appears he had surgery for a cruciate ligament tear.”
‘Ho, look at this guy?’
Oh Jeong-ho’s test continued.
“Even if not sports, a cruciate ligament tear can happen. Like if there was an accident.”
And Choi Moo-gyeol’s side had no intention of backing down either.
“If it were the posterior cruciate ligament, that could be the case, but if the anterior cruciate ligament is torn, the possibility of injury from sudden weight shift or excessive exercise is high. The trace of hernia surgery, the developed muscle density, even the trace of anterior knee surgery. He was clearly an athlete.”
“If you’re that confident, shall we see? Now, today’s class is the dissection of the knee! For this group, Choi Moo-gyeol, you start by dissecting the knee. If you’re right, there will be surgical traces on the anterior cruciate ligament.”
Choi Moo-gyeol, without a bit of hesitation, supported the block below the knee joint of the cadaver.
“Mm.”
‘He knows the details accurately.’
Professor Oh Jeong-ho quietly nodded at the sight of Choi Moo-gyeol supporting the knee before opening it.
When dissecting the knee, the leg must be kept in a slightly bent position. Because that makes dissection easier.
‘He memorized it properly during theory class. He has properly mastered the theory of dissection.’
Choi Moo-gyeol’s extraordinary memorization ability obtained from brain surgery shone at times like this.
Next step.
Swish—.
Choi Moo-gyeol picked up the scalpel and began a long vertical incision up and down at the exact center of the patella.
Then he carefully flapped (flap = skin flap) the skin and subcutaneous fat layer to both sides.
Then the anterior structure of the knee joint was completely exposed.
Oh Jeong-ho said to the entire class.
“Now, do you see the two tendons covering the kneecap? The patellar tendon and the quadriceps tendon are exactly those.”
“Oh oh.”
While the students nodded as they grasped the internal structure of the knee.
Swoosh—. Swish—.
Choi Moo-gyeol, without hesitation, incised the knee joint capsule in an H-shape.
“The ACL should be around here, but……”
Crack.
After lifting the kneecap upward, Choi Moo-gyeol looked inside the joint.
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) were crossing.
And he confirmed that a graft tendon (a ligament taken from elsewhere and attached) was sutured to the anterior cruciate ligament.
“You saw it, right?”
“You’re right. At this level, there’s no way to see it other than that he was an athlete.”
To protect the dignity of the deceased, the personal information of cadavers is thoroughly kept secret. Though it cannot be confirmed, Professor Oh Jeong-ho had no choice but to agree that with this much data, it was correct that he was an athlete.
“Is there no reward?”
At Choi Moo-gyeol’s audacious demand, Oh Jeong-ho laughed inwardly.
He thought he was only good with his hands, but his senses are good and his theory is good too.
And on top of that, openly shameless.
A very formidable guy has entered.
“Alright, I’ll give an additional plus to your attitude score.”
“Thank you.”
The grade for anatomy practice is received by combining the written exam, the practical exam, and the attitude score.
And this grade will be helpful later when applying for the desired department. A plus in the attitude score is never a small benefit.
Oh Jeong-ho, having thus given a small reward to Choi Moo-gyeol, said to all the students.
“Now, everyone. Do you understand why I asked about the cadaver’s original identity? Was it just to give a quiz?”
“…….”
“No. It is because I hope you will not forget that the cadaver was once a person while you conduct the remaining anatomy practice classes from now on.”
Oh Jeong-ho said with a serious expression befitting an anatomy professor.
“To that extent, you, as prospective doctors, must always have a grateful heart toward the cadavers and move the scalpel with concentration. I hope you will not forget that each and every one of those movements is a precious learning experience.”
As the professor reminded them of that fact, the students steeled their minds that were about to become lax.
Seeing the students treating the cadavers’ bodies seriously, removing any playfulness, Oh Jeong-ho smiled to himself.
After the practice class ended.
‘That guy is doing that again.’
Choi Moo-gyeol was watching Park Seok-hun.
Every time practice ended, Park Seok-hun stayed in the lab until the very end, observed a moment of silence toward the cadaver, and then came out.
As quietly as possible, without being noticed.
‘He’s definitely a strange guy.’
Choi Moo-gyeol thought that while looking at Park Seok-hun.
‘An unusually emotional medical student? Of course, there could be. But that guy Park Seok-hun feels a bit excessive.’
Choi Moo-gyeol, whose curiosity was piqued, lightly tapped Park Seok-hun’s shoulder as he was coming out the lab door.
Park Seok-hun turned around.
“Hm? Why?”
“You observe a moment of silence every time anatomy practice ends.”
“Ah. You saw? You really have great observational skills, Moo-gyeol. I thought I did it without anyone knowing, but how did you see?”
“Because I habitually observe people.”
“Saying it like that is a little scary.”
“Why? Are you afraid I’ll commit a crime?”
“…….”
“You’re not saying it’s not. Have you ever seen a criminal as handsome as me?”
“Wow, you say that with your own mouth?”
Honestly, Choi Moo-gyeol was handsome, but it was a handsome that looked somewhat dangerous.
Choi Moo-gyeol turned the topic back to the moment of silence.
“Anyway, observing a moment of silence separately every time after class. Is there some personal reason?”
“Just…… all cadavers were people when they were alive. I’m trying not to forget that and to remember it.”
“Why?”
“Because only then will I be careful even if I hold a scalpel in the next class.”
“Hm.”
Had Park Seok-hun already been being that careful on his own before Professor Oh Jeong-ho metaphorically told them?
Park Seok-hun said.
“I wish medical art would be humane art. When medical art does not stop at merely a professional duty but becomes a humane art (仁術) of benevolent giving, I think that is true medical art.”
“A humane art of benevolent giving……”
Choi Moo-gyeol read sincerity in Park Seok-hun’s expression.
“Well, the difference between humane art and medical art, I don’t really know.”
“Really?”
“I think perfect medical art is the medical art that truly saves people. Your words about benevolent giving sound a bit abstract to me.”
He might have felt offended by Choi Moo-gyeol refuting his words, but Park Seok-hun instead asked with interest in Choi Moo-gyeol’s words.
“Do you think perfect medical art can exist?”
“I think it’s possible.”
“That’s great confidence.”
“In reality, medical art is developing and becoming more perfect than ten years ago, than twenty years ago. A doctor must endlessly refine and strive to perfect their skills. Even if reaching one hundred percent is difficult, up to ninety-nine percent.”
“Ninety-nine percent…… Haha. It sounds like an absurd number, but somehow I feel like you could do it. Fighting.”
Park Seok-hun burst into a pleasant laugh at Choi Moo-gyeol’s bold declaration.
Until before, he had thought of him as a classmate who was outstanding in skill but whose thoughts he could not understand, but as they talked little by little, he became certain.
‘Choi Moo-gyeol is a lunatic. But a nicely crazy lunatic.’
‘In other words, he seems like a lunatic in a good direction.’
‘Even if the paths we pursue are different, both he and I want to become proper doctors.’
Park Seok-hun, thinking that, felt an inexplicable liking for Choi Moo-gyeol for the first time. Just as much as Choi Moo-gyeol felt curiosity looking at Park Seok-hun.
The two people, like opposite sides of a mirror.
Which path is more right, the results will tell later.
* * *
Some time later, during physiology practice.
Park Seok-hun was standing as if paralyzed, holding a scalpel.
‘What is this again…….’
On the stainless steel tray he was looking down at, a single anesthetized frog was placed with its belly facing up.
Its limbs were fixed with pins, and its white belly was exposed.
Park Seok-hun’s gaze was fixed there, and he could not move at all while holding the scalpel.
‘I crossed the mountain called cadaver, and now I have to dissect a living frog too……?’
The life of a medical student is truly rough.
The time Park Seok-hun had hoped would never come.
It was exactly frog dissection time.
Now it is a trend gradually disappearing due to strengthened animal testing ethics, but in the days when Choi Moo-gyeol and Park Seok-hun were medical students, it was a required course that no one could avoid.
The cadaver was at least dead, but this frog is alive.
It had been anesthetized with ether, so there was no movement at all, but it was definitely alive.
Park Seok-hun felt he could never draw a scalpel across the skin of that small green creature.
“Ugh.”
Park Seok-hun turned his eyes from the frog’s belly and looked at Choi Moo-gyeol beside him.
That appearance, calm without even a bit of wavering, unlike himself.
