If there is a problem in the brain and spinal cord, which are the main treatment areas of neurosurgery, there is a high probability the patient is critical, and critical patients’ conditions change rapidly, falling into critical condition several times a day.
Then that is the neurosurgery department’s responsibility.
Not only that, whenever an emergency patient occurs, they are called more often than doctors of any other department.
Because emergency patients often come to the hospital with injuries to life-threatening areas such as the brain or spinal cord.
The intensity of the work is one thing, but the fact that it is a scene where a patient’s life hangs on a doctor’s small judgment is also an enormously burdensome thing.
When an ordinary resident enters neurosurgery, it is common for their blood to run dry from the tremendous tension that accompanies them from the beginning.
But our extraordinary psychopath resident, Choi Moo-gyeol.
His greatest strength is that he does not become tense no matter what situation comes.
Whether an emergency patient, a critical patient, or a general patient, Resident Choi Moo-gyeol always treats them with composure.
The fact that he had no tension from the start rather gave wings to his abilities.
Not even a few months after starting his first year of residency.
His classmate Park Seok-hun, seeing Choi Moo-gyeol like that, said this.
“You’re a monster. How do you never once show yourself struggling?”
“What are you talking about? I’m tired too because I lack sleep. The minimum amount of sleep a person needs per day is more than seven hours, but we residents only get three or four hours a day……”
“No, I don’t mean physically hard. Every time a call comes from the emergency room or intensive care unit, my hair stands on end. Afraid that someone’s life might be extinguished again.”
Choi Moo-gyeol stared intently at Park Seok-hun and asked.
“By the way, I’m asking only now, but why did you come to neurosurgery? You even had a hard time dissecting a frog.”
“I did agonize between psychiatry and surgery, but I decided that going where I am more needed is the right thing.”
If he went to psychiatry, he could live without seeing blood.
Rather than seeing the internal tissues of the human body pouring with blood and pus, wouldn’t it be better to live seeing people with mental pain?
He had thought that.
But psychiatry is a place overflowing with applicants, and surgery is always a place short on manpower.
Since he had taken the Hippocratic Oath, choosing the more noble path was right.
It was a decision just like Park Seok-hun.
And among surgical fields, he thought it was right to apply to the more difficult one, so he chose neurosurgery.
Park Seok-hun muttered with a bitter smile.
“But I didn’t know it would be this hard.”
“Already saying that.”
“I’m asking because I’m curious too, but you, Moo-gyeol, weren’t going to a popular department anyway, so why did you get such good grades?”
Competition among medical students, where only the most gifted gather.
Even Park Seok-hun, who had fought for first and second place in the entire school during high school, could not easily get good grades at Hankook University Medical School.
Choi Moo-gyeol said indifferently.
“I didn’t know the neurosurgery cutoff would be this low. There was no need to study.”
“Ah…… I wish Professor Yoo had heard that just now.”
Park Seok-hun giggled and muttered.
“I don’t know about you, Moo-gyeol, but I’m glad to work with you. Having one more classmate in the same department really makes me feel secure.”
* * *
Ten years had passed since the two began their residency lives.
Four years of residency, three years and two months as a military doctor, and one day during the third year of fellowship.
The two were assigned as first assistant and second assistant, respectively, to a VIP patient’s brainstem glioma removal surgery.
And a massive incident erupted.
* * *
Just before the surgery, Professor Yoo Seong-ho emphasized to Choi Moo-gyeol and Park Seok-hun several times.
“Today’s surgery is for a VIP of our hospital, so there must be absolutely no mistakes. It is a difficult and important surgery, so everyone stay sharp.”
“Understood.”
“I will do my best, Professor.”
“Let’s go in.”
The surgery began.
The surgical team proceeded with the brainstem glioma removal surgery smoothly, without mistakes.
The patient’s head was fixed to the bed in the prone position (face-down posture).
Part of the skull at the back of the patient’s head had been incised, and the brain was exposed.
The reason brainstem glioma removal surgery is difficult is because the brainstem, located in the center of the brain, is so directly connected to life.
The brainstem, composed of three parts—the midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata—governs breathing, heartbeat, and blood pressure regulation, and is the area where the neural network spreading throughout the body gathers like a bottleneck.
A tumor had formed exactly there.
In brain surgery, the risk changes completely depending on the location of the tumor, and a tumor attached to the brainstem is like a time bomb in the human body.
Leaving it alone is dangerous because of the tumor, and trying to remove it is also dangerous because if the brainstem is touched incorrectly or important tissue is removed, it can be dangerous.
It can cause dysphagia, making the patient unable to swallow not only food but even saliva, or it can cause quadriplegia.
It was an extremely dangerous surgery, but Professor Yoo Seong-ho, the influential figure in neurosurgery, had considerable experience performing this surgery.
On top of that, reliable assistants named Choi Moo-gyeol and Park Seok-hun were supporting him.
Professor Yoo Seong-ho continued to perform the surgery amid the tension of operating on a VIP patient.
He was currently dissecting the patient’s blood vessels.
‘Let’s do it like usual, like usual.’
Among the various blood vessels passing around the brainstem, the tumor was attached and growing near the basilar artery, which supplies blood to the entire brain.
To remove it, the surrounding blood vessels connected to the tumor had to first be dissected, and then the tumor and blood vessels had to be sharply cut out together.
‘Is it because of tension? I’m sweating more than usual.’
Yoo Seong-ho, manipulating the micro scissors.
A single drop of sweat happened to seep into his eye.
‘Ah, damn.’
A short moment of only one second, no, 0.5 seconds.
Yoo Seong-ho blinked.
At that moment, the scissor blade mistakenly touched the base of the cerebral aneurysm.
Splash—!
In an instant, bleeding burst out, blood streaks covered Yoo Seong-ho’s vision, and the patient’s blood pressure began to fluctuate.
“Aagh—!”
Yoo Seong-ho’s vision went dizzy in an instant.
Even a veteran doctor like him can make a mistake. Because if there are 100 patients, they have 100 subtly different cerebral blood vessel shapes.
The large structures of the human body’s organs and blood vessels are similar, but the detailed forms are vastly different, and the forms of microvessels are even more diverse.
So no matter how veteran one is, if they lose focus even for a moment, an accident can occur at any time.
“I-I can’t see the torn blood vessel site because of the bleeding…….”
Gush— gurgle—!
Because the basilar artery at the base of the brain receives the blood pressure pumped from the heart as it is, when it ruptures, an enormous amount of blood pours out.
Even now, Professor Yoo Seong-ho’s vision was completely obscured, making additional hemostasis or blood vessel suturing extremely difficult.
Yoo Seong-ho was almost about to panic.
“Of all things…… of all things, on a day like this!”
The aftermath of a single drop of sweat was too great.
At that moment.
‘Cognitive focusing.’
Choi Moo-gyeol concentrated his vision to the maximum.
His ability, used since elementary school, was activated.
Choi Moo-gyeol’s vision narrowed, and beyond the bleeding, things began to become slightly visible.
As if透视—like透视.
Only Choi Moo-gyeol could see the exact location of the torn blood vessel.
This blood vessel must not be compressed, nor can it be conveniently cauterized with an electrocautery.
“Clip! Quickly!!”
What could be used at a time like this was an aneurysm clip (Aneurysm Clips).
“Ah, yes, here—!”
The nurse hurriedly handed the clip to Choi Moo-gyeol, and as soon as Choi Moo-gyeol received the clip, he clamped above and below the severed part of the blood vessel.
Glug.
For now, the bleeding was controlled.
“Frazier!”
“H-here it is!”
The Frazier suction tube. A thin, long metal tube, a tool suitable for suctioning narrow spaces like the brain.
Choi Moo-gyeol operated the Frazier and sucked up the blood.
“Professor, I’ve blocked the bleeding point.”
“…….”
“Professor?”
“Uh, uh! Y-yes! Prepare the suture thread.”
Right now, Professor Yoo Seong-ho’s mind was completely occupied by the thought, ‘It’s ruined.’
Of all things, it was a VIP’s surgery.
It was a surgery where mistakes absolutely must not be made……!
Only when Choi Moo-gyeol called him twice did Yoo Seong-ho barely regain his senses.
He sutured the torn blood vessel using an ultra-fine needle and 11-0 nylon thread.
And afterward, he cleanly removed the tumor as well, and the surgery was concluded.
However, the patient did not regain consciousness after surgery.
The patient had become a vegetative state.
If Choi Moo-gyeol had not quickly salvaged the situation, the patient might have died.
Although it could be said the worst situation was avoided, can a life lived on life support without consciousness truly be called living?
* * *
“How could something like this happen…….”
“We trusted you and left the patient to you, and you turned them into a vegetative state?”
The VIP patient’s family filed a medical lawsuit.
Hankook University Hospital Neurosurgery Department Head’s office.
Yoo Seong-ho was sitting alone at his desk.
Upon hearing that a lawsuit had been filed with a large law firm involved, Professor Yoo Seong-ho’s worries deepened.
“Should I take off my gown……?”
President of the Korean Neurosurgical Society and Head of Neurosurgery at Hankook University Hospital.
He himself had even been selected as a top doctor on a terrestrial TV medical celebrity program.
He did not want to lose the position he had worked so hard to protect.
His eyes turned to the surgical records and documents on the desk.
There must be a loophole somewhere for him to escape through.
No, there had to be.
“Wait.”
Yoo Seong-ho suddenly stopped his hand, which had been rifling through the documents.
A single method to save himself came to mind.
“Phew…….”
He finished his resolve.
He would not be the one to bear responsibility for the surgical failure.
After instructing his secretary on a few things and making calls to various places.
After all preparations were complete, Yoo Seong-ho called Choi Moo-gyeol to the department head’s office.
“You called for me?”
“Regarding this case, I’m sorry, but someone has to take responsibility and step down, don’t you think?”
“Who do you mean?”
“You.”
“Why me and not you, Professor?”
There was neither anger nor a sense of being wronged in Choi Moo-gyeol’s question.
It was a calm voice facing incomprehensible logic.
