Chapter 54
The outcome of this surgery is bad anyway.
While washing his hands, Kang Taehun moved on to his next concern.
What should he write in the chart?
Third-degree tear.
External anal sphincter injury only.
End-to-end repair.
That would be enough.
It was not exactly a lie.
He had performed an end-to-end repair.
There was no need to add a sentence saying that he could not find the right sphincter end and had substituted nearby fascia instead.
If he wrote that, his uncle would see it.
Then came questions.
Why couldn't you find it?
Why didn't you keep looking?
Then there would be a conference.
Not writing it doesn't make it disappear.
Kang Taehun immediately pushed the thought away.
It was not that it would disappear.
It simply was not a real problem in the first place.
He had come down alone at four in the morning and repaired a third-degree tear.
That was already enough.
A fourth-year resident could not even touch the case.
He had handled it himself.
Other fellows sometimes never came down at all and gave instructions over the phone.
Taehun opened the chart and began writing the operative note.
If it had been Gain...
The thought came to him, and his expression hardened.
If it had been her, she would have stubbornly kept searching even if it took another thirty minutes.
She would have found the right side.
She would not have left until she did.
That's why she couldn't adapt to hospital life and left.
That explanation made him feel better.
People who stubbornly clung to every case without knowing when to stop did not last long anywhere.
A hospital could not run that way.
If you spent all night on one patient, who would take care of the other ten?
Taehun told himself that.
He finished the record.
"Done."
He pointed at the clueless fourth-year resident.
"Hey. Seriously, don't call me unless you absolutely have to."
"I need some sleep."
Kang Taehun returned to the duty room.
He turned off the lights and collapsed onto the bed.
He did not even have the energy to remove his coat.
The moment he closed his eyes, his pager went off.
Delivery room.
Again.
Taehun clenched his jaw and sat up.
As he reached for the phone, he thought bitterly,
Gain must be living easy right about now.
***
That same dawn, Gain woke early.
When she went downstairs to the clinic, she was surprised to find Lee Seyoung there an hour before her usual start time.
"Why are you here so early?"
"I'm making next month's duty roster."
Seyoung smiled.
"I can concentrate better if I do it at the clinic."
Now that overnight duty had begun, she had to be more careful with scheduling.
The clinic was quiet in the early morning.
Gain flipped through her notes, then remembered something and spoke to Seyoung.
"Ms. Seyoung, I think we need one more nameplate."
"Sure. What should it say?"
Seyoung had also ordered the nameplates for Examination Rooms Two and Three, for Kim Saetbyeol and Pyo Jinwoo.
Gain answered,
"Hanguk University Second Campus Adjunct Clinical Professor, Im Gain."
Lee Seyoung stopped highlighting the schedule and put down her yellow marker.
Then she smiled.
Having worked at a university hospital, she understood exactly what the title meant.
"Oh."
"Does that mean we'll get medical students doing rotations here?"
"Not immediately."
Gain smiled.
"Next semester at the earliest. Maybe next year."
Seyoung thought for a moment.
"Should we take nursing students too?"
"My old school is looking for hospitals where they can send students."
"How many come at once?"
"There are about two hundred students per year, but they don't all go to one hospital."
"A group of six usually comes for two weeks and rotates through different shifts."
"Really?"
Gain laughed.
"That might be a little cramped."
Lee Seyoung flipped the desk calendar.
"Who decides when they come?"
"It depends on the number of deliveries."
"We won't know until we actually start delivering babies."
"I wish I could be here then."
Gain looked at her.
Seyoung's belly was already round.
September was the month she was due to give birth.
"Who should act as head nurse while you're away?"
"Ms. Eunjae?"
Seyoung removed her hand from the calendar.
"Eunjae's aunt is about to have surgery."
"Ms. Hong Inyoung has only just gotten comfortable with outpatient work, and she'll be moving up to the inpatient ward."
Seyoung did not say the rest aloud.
Jo Eunjae was probably too strict and inflexible to be ideal as a manager.
"If we start taking students, the hospital itself will change a little."
Gain looked curious.
"How?"
"When I worked at Hanguk University, wards that took students were different from wards that didn't."
"In what way?"
"Say someone is giving an injection and a student is standing behind them watching."
Seyoung smiled faintly.
"People who normally skipped proper prep suddenly wipe with alcohol one extra time."
Gain nodded.
It was the well-known observer effect in psychology.
"...I see."
"And when students ask why we do something, we have to study enough to explain it."
Seyoung said only that, then returned to preparing the schedule.
Gain remained silent for a moment.
The students would come to learn.
But from Seyoung's perspective, the staff would also learn from the students.
***
During the third appointment that morning, Gain saw a familiar name on the chart.
At the same time, Namgung Ju opened the examination-room door halfway while holding it.
"Director, she says she's here for vaccinations."
"It's not maternal care, so I wasn't sure how to register it."
"You did it correctly."
"Send her in."
A woman soon entered wearing a baby carrier.
A diaper bag hung from her left shoulder.
She held a thermos in her right hand.
When she turned to close the door, the bag slid down her arm.
"Not again."
The motion of pulling it back up was clearly habitual.
Gain greeted Jeong Yeseo.
"Welcome."
Yeseo had tied her hair back, but damp bangs clung to her forehead.
Her face was swollen.
She looked as though she had not slept properly.
There were gray shadows beneath her eyes.
The center of her lower lip was cracked.
A white stain that looked like formula covered the right shoulder of her T-shirt.
"Doctor."
Jeong Yeseo smiled.
The smile only made her look more exhausted.
"I told you I'd come."
"You came all the way from Seoul by yourself?"
"My husband had a trial."
She adjusted the baby carrier.
"I had to transfer buses twice, but luckily the baby didn't cry."
Gain stood and looked at the baby.
"She's grown so much!"
The baby was sleeping.
She had thick hair, except for a short rubbed patch around the crown from lying on a pillow.
Her cheeks were so round they almost covered her jawline.
Her eyes were closed, but her eyelids were thin enough that Gain could see her eyes moving underneath.
Her hands were clenched into fists, both thumbs sticking out.
The white tips of her fingernails had grown.
The tiny white spots that used to be on her nose were gone.
"She's 6.3 kilograms now."
Yeseo laughed.
"My arms shake when I hold her these days."
"Let me see the vaccination card."
Jeong Yeseo took a booklet from the front pocket of her bag.
Its corners were worn.
