Doctor Choi Daeho, Chapter 50
At the same time.
Daeho walked right up in front of Yoo Gwang-gu.
Step.
“You...”
The moment Daeho spoke his first word.
The arrogant look on Yoo Gwang-gu’s face suddenly became tense.
“No, seriously, did I really do something that wrong just because I lectured a junior?”
“That can happen. You’re the Chief, so sometimes you need to show a strict side too.”
Daeho spoke in a surprisingly gentle tone.
His reaction made Yoo Gwang-gu stare at him in even greater shock.
“Richard. What’s wrong with you?”
“You must be under a lot of stress too.”
“What the hell are you doing? Just act like you normally do!”
“Still, we should open our hearts a little more and watch over them warmly.”
Daeho gently tried to persuade him.
Behind them, the residents reacted without saying a word.
“......”
Node, nod.
Everyone nodded together, agreeing with Daeho.
This was also an aftereffect of reciting the Hippocratic Oath together.
However, Yoo Gwang-gu was the only one who could not adjust to this atmosphere.
“What the hell is wrong with you guys today?”
“Chief. We’re all one family working in the same place.”
“Have you all completely lost your minds? What kind of freaks are you people?!”
Yoo Gwang-gu shouted and staggered out of the doctors’ office.
Click.
The moment the door closed.
Seo Juran and the junior residents burst into laughter.
“Wahaha! It’s my first time seeing the Chief run away like that.”
“Our Chief was flustered, huh? Hehehe.”
“Our first-years are little sprouts. Please raise them with love, hoho.”
While everyone was laughing.
Thump!
Daeho lightly stomped the floor, making everyone focus on him.
“But the Chief wasn’t completely wrong either.”
“What?”
“You need to focus when you’re working. Especially if I catch you sleeping during the night shift, you’re dead.”
Whoosh.
At Daeho’s cold words, the atmosphere in the doctors’ office instantly froze.
The residents stiffened and hurriedly answered.
“Y, yes, understood.”
“That will absolutely never happen with us.”
“We promise.”
Everyone rushed to make their promises.
Daeho walked past them with a fairly satisfied expression and opened the office door.
Bang.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”
“We’re coming. Let’s go to work!”
The residents shouted together and rushed out of the doctors’ office.
Rumble.
Park Jin-gyu, who had been watching the whole thing, looked at Daeho in disbelief.
“You really know how to control them however you want, huh?”
“I shall practice medicine with conscience and dignity.”
Slide.
Daeho walked past him while murmuring a line from the Hippocratic Oath, as though reviewing it.
Park Jin-gyu quickly moved closer to Daeho and said,
“What happened to the part about rising above differences in social status?”
“That applies to patients.”
“Hey, aren’t you just twisting the words however it suits you?”
“All right. Let’s work.”
Daeho casually brushed him off and strode quickly toward work.
Before he knew it, Park Jin-gyu was smiling.
He’s ridiculous. But he’s charming.
That was his sincere evaluation after watching Daeho until now.
Meanwhile, Jang Se-jin lingered in Daeho’s mind.
He looked pretty... no, extremely exhausted.
His face and expression.
There were other symptoms bothering Daeho as well.
There was one diagnosis that all those signs pointed toward.
It was overstrain, exhaustion from overwork.
Because Daeho had noticed it, he had deliberately stepped in to stop him earlier.
If he gets a good sleep tonight, he should feel much better.
Since rest was better than any medicine for this condition, Daeho hoped to see a much brighter face tomorrow.
A little later.
Today’s work began.
Outside, evening had passed, and night was approaching.
It was the time when most people finished work and returned home, or ended their day with a casual drink with friends or coworkers.
But for the emergency room, the day was only beginning now.
That expression was no exaggeration.
Slide. Slide.
The emergency room doors opened and closed countless times.
Each time, different people entered, complaining of different kinds of pain.
“Ugh... Over here...”
“Aagh, it hurts!”
“Excuse me! Someone is dying over here!”
The desperate cries of patients and guardians continued without pause.
The arrival of patients naturally made the medical staff busier.
The nurses’ station, especially because it was close to the entrance, was like the frontline base receiving emergency patients.
Senior Nurse Lee Soo-yeon skillfully directed the other nurses.
“Nurse Na, that patient!”
“I’m going!”
Rattle!
“Nurse Oh. That patient is bleeding. Take them to Zone 1!”
“Understood. Patient, please come this way!”
Tap, tap, tap!
The nurses hurried over, received the patients, and guided them toward the beds.
Today as well, Daeho was beginning his real work from his position as the Night ER Chief.
Daeho’s gaze turned toward the entrance of the emergency room.
It felt like there were more patients coming in today than usual.
No.
It had always been like this.
There was never a quiet day in the emergency room, which was always filled with cries of pain.
Until now, Daeho had always remained seated at his position while carefully watching the incoming patients.
But today was different.
Should I jump into the action properly today?
He murmured quietly to himself.
Just then, someone passed in front of Daeho.
Whoosh.
“......”
Daeho, who had been sitting there moments ago, vanished without a trace, leaving only an empty desk behind.
At the same time.
Senior Nurse Lee Soo-yeon, who was commanding things from the front, did not look happy.
That was because Daeho’s orders, which she normally heard from behind her, were strangely absent today.
“Nurse Na, take that patient to Zone 2!”
“Yes!”
Tap, tap, tap.
Nurse Na Seon-ju urgently changed the direction of the stretcher and headed toward Zone 2.
“Kyaaaaaagh!”
Even as the patient was taken farther away, their scream echoed throughout the nurses’ station.
But?
“......”
Daeho was still silent.
Finally unable to endure it anymore, Lee Soo-yeon hurriedly turned around.
“Dr. Richard, huh?”
“......”
Daeho was nowhere to be seen.
Only his completely empty desk remained.
The moment Lee Soo-yeon confirmed it, flames seemed to burn in her eyes.
Orders would soon start pouring in.
They had not even finished the initial sorting of the incoming patients yet.
Her head felt like it was about to explode.
And now Daeho, who always helped her from behind, had disappeared.
Anger surged inside her.
“That little punk! I treated him nicely, and now he’s gone out for a nighttime stroll?!”
At that moment, Lee Soo-yeon’s temper completely exploded.
Who cared how she addressed him now?
They said people even cursed the king when he was not around.
With her anger boiling over, Lee Soo-yeon no longer cared about anything.
It was right then.
A medical cart suddenly shot out of the preparation room and raced past.
Rattle!
Lee Soo-yeon looked toward Nurse Hwang Semi, who was pushing the cart, and shouted.
“Nurse Semi, what’s that? Where are you going?!”
“The bleeding patient in Zone 1!”
“Who’s in charge?!”
“Richa...”
Rattle.
Because Hwang Semi was already rushing farther away, her answer faded like an echo.
However, Lee Soo-yeon’s deeply frowning expression suddenly brightened.
“Oh my, it’s Dr. Richard? When did he already get over there?”
Her voice had become so gentle that it was hard to believe she had just called him “that little punk.”
It was a complete transformation, as though a demon had suddenly turned into an angel.
Meanwhile.
Bed Number 2 in Zone 1.
The bleeding patient who had arrived a short while ago was lying on the bed.
“Ugh, hiss!”
Bright red blood flowed down his left arm, which he was gripping with his right hand, dripping onto the floor.
The area where the bleeding had started had a fairly deep tear in the skin.
Daeho examined the wound and spoke with a concerned expression.
“How did you manage to hurt yourself this badly...”
“Ah, I said it hurts!”
“The medical cart will be here soon. For now, try making a fist.”
At Daeho’s calm request, the patient glared fiercely at him.
“Ughhh. I’m telling you it hurts like hell. What are you talking about?!”
“I’m checking whether the nerves were damaged. If you can’t make a fist, you’re going straight to the operating room.”
“Hup!”
Flinch.
The male patient, who looked to be in his mid-twenties, forgot about the pain for a moment and stared at him in shock.
Beside him stood a friend of around the same age, acting as his guardian and looking worried.
“Doctor, d, does he need surgery?”
“That’s exactly what I’m trying to find out, which is why I asked him to make a fist.”
When Daeho repeated himself, the friend hurriedly pressured the patient.
“Hey, Woosung. Hurry up and make a fist. Quick!”
“Ah... It hurts, asshole!”
“Can’t you move it? Does that mean you need surgery?”
“Fuck, just shut up for a second. Ughhh.”
Tremble, tremble.
Even while snapping at his friend, the patient put strength into his arm.
His fingertips began moving slightly, and eventually his hand formed a complete fist.
Seeing that, Daeho gave a small nod.
“Hmm. The nerves seem to be fine. Just stay like this for a moment...”
Touch.
Daeho lightly touched around the wound.
With just that small touch, the patient nearly jumped out of the bed and screamed.
“Kyaaaaaaagh!”
“Hey, hey! Doctor, what are you doing?!”
The friend shouted angrily.
However, Daeho’s expression was filled with satisfaction.
“Fortunately, it seems the injury only reached the muscle.”
“What?”
“The major blood vessels and the bone seem fine, so we can dress the wound, suture it, and monitor you while you take antibiotics.”
Just as Daeho finished speaking.
Rattle.
Nurse Hwang Semi came charging over with the medical cart like a tank.
“Dr. Richard!”
“We’ll begin with a local anesthetic, then saline lavage, saline wound irrigation, and finally emergency suturing.”
“Yes, here’s the syringe!”
Click.
Hwang Semi immediately handed him the syringe she had prepared in advance.
Daeho smoothly took it and injected the anesthetic widely around the injured area of the patient’s arm.
Prick, prick, prick.
“Good, good. Very good.”
“Kgh, agh, ugh, what the hell is good about this... Ugh.”
The patient shuddered whenever he felt the needle sting.
“Hey, hey... Ugh. Ugh!”
The friend flinched repeatedly before finally turning his head away, unable to watch anymore.
Daeho, meanwhile, continued the emergency treatment without the slightest change in expression.
Shaaaa.
He washed the wound.
Tap, tap.
Then disinfected it.
The entire process flowed naturally, like running water.
At the same time, Daeho asked the patient,
“By the way, how did you get injured?”
“What? Ugh, agh, seriously, you’re asking that now...”
“I’m curious. I doubt you met a robber carrying a knife, and there definitely couldn’t have been a gunfight.”
Daeho was being fairly serious.
But even while grimacing from the pain, the patient looked dumbfounded.
“Agh, what are you talking about? Ugh. What kind of neighborhood has people swinging knives and firing guns?”
“My neighborhood.”
“What? Aaaaaagh!”
The patient froze for a moment before screaming and thrashing again.
Even so, he desperately avoided pulling his arm away or refusing treatment.
