Chapter 8
Clear fluid suddenly rushed out.
The atmosphere in the operating room changed.
For a moment, everyone seemed to stop breathing.
Im Gain slid her hands inside and pulled the baby's shoulders free.
"No forceps. I'm delivering directly. Baby coming out!"
A limp baby was pulled from the mother's abdomen.
The baby's lips were blue.
Exactly as expected.
If the mother had no spontaneous circulation for four to five minutes after cardiac arrest, the fetus would also lose oxygen during that period.
The baby's oxygen came through the placenta.
I only need to focus on the mother.
The limp baby.
Blue lips.
A tiny body born without a heartbeat.
The neonatal team will handle the baby.
Even as she told herself that, Gain's heart hurt.
The baby's condition was terrible.
The likely outcome was obvious.
This child needed a miracle too.
But Gain's spring of divine power was exactly as she'd discovered in the market.
Dry.
There was nothing left to give.
She missed her divine power.
I'm sorry.
What I can give you right now is...
Then it happened.
At the same time, on the seventh-floor OB-GYN ward of Hanguk University Hospital.
Grandma Malseon, who sold mugwort at the market, was lying in bed listening to the guardian beside her chatter nonstop like a radio.
"I heard a full-term pregnant woman came into the ER with her heart stopped. Apparently some young, pretty lady doctor had been doing chest compressions since the market and rode in with her."
"A young lady doctor?"
Grandma Malseon suddenly sat upright.
A young female doctor from the market?
Could it be the woman who had saved her?
She remembered the warm hand that had held hers on the day her seasoned mugwort spilled onto the floor.
That's my doctor.
It had to be.
That doctor was exactly the kind of person who would do something like that.
The grandmother clasped both hands together.
She had practiced Buddhism for forty years.
All she'd ever prayed for was that her dead husband would reach paradise and that her children would remain safe.
For the first time, she prayed for a complete stranger.
Buddha, God, anyone will do. Please hold my doctor's hand. Those beautiful hands save people. She even saved an old woman like me...
Her gratitude became a prayer.
In the operating room.
Gain's fingertips suddenly became hot.
?!
From the dry bottom of that little spring...
Water appeared.
One drop.
Then another.
Warmth rose from somewhere she couldn't identify.
It gathered near her heart, traveled down her arm, and reached her fingertips.
No halo.
No angels.
No voice of the Goddess.
It simply...
Came.
What is this?
Why now...?
Was it because she had prayed?
No.
She had been praying constantly before this.
There was no time to investigate.
A blessing of unknown origin was still a blessing.
Gain took that tiny amount of power and directed it into the baby.
She calculated everything.
The path of blood circulation.
The direction of the nerves.
The thalamus.
The hippocampus.
She wasted nothing.
Live.
The pediatric nurse immediately took the baby and began chest compressions.
The pediatrician secured the airway.
If the baby is delivered within five minutes of the mother's cardiac arrest, recovery after CPR is possible.
But after five to ten minutes, the baby can be born in cardiac arrest...
And after fifteen minutes, like this baby, recovery can become impossible, or severe brain damage becomes highly likely.
Now Gain needed to return her attention to the mother.
She forced her slightly trembling hands to become steady again and checked the patient.
"Prepare a uterotonic. Continue compressions!"
The mother's treatment wasn't over.
It was only beginning.
"Giving it now!"
Once the baby was delivered, the uterus emptied and blood vessels opened.
Bleeding rapidly increased.
They had to hurry.
The uterus had to be sutured.
Then the fascia.
The abdominal muscles.
The skin.
There was no time to waste.
"Oxytocin, ten units IV. Start uterine massage!"
Yuk Jaecheol immediately placed his hand on the uterus and began massaging it to stimulate contraction.
Blood surged, then slowly began to lessen.
"Add methylergometrine, zero-point-two milligrams IM."
Hypothermia reduced the strength of heart contractions.
It also weakened the body's response to medication.
Gain gave another order.
"Blankets. Warm the IV fluids too."
"Body temperature is thirty-five degrees. Applying warm blankets now."
The circulating nurse hurriedly wrapped the patient's legs.
The operating room was noisy.
In one corner, pediatrician Yoon Jihu was working desperately on the baby.
"Baby's heart rate is forty... Continue chest compressions!"
Gain, Jaeheon, and Jaecheol focused completely on the mother.
"Oxygen saturation dropping to sixty-eight."
Kim Jaeheon called out quickly.
"Epinephrine, one milligram IV."
The sound of an ampule breaking was followed by the medication being injected.
"Administered. Starting a three-minute count."
Im Gain gave a short answer.
"Thank you. Continue CPR."
The mother had only about a five-percent chance of surviving without severe neurological damage.
But during the entire ambulance ride, Gain had continuously repeated prayers to the Goddess.
Even though she knew the Goddess wasn't here, she couldn't stop herself.
She had never prayed so desperately before.
