Chapter 44

Chapter 044: A Path Different from One's Intentions (3)

The paramedic felt Hee-soo's face looked strangely familiar and checked once more.

"Understood. But... are you really a doctor?"

The paramedic prepared the IV while looking at Hee-soo suspiciously.

Hee-soo was using expressions that ordinary doctors did not often use.

Hee-soo did not answer.

He put on sterile gloves.

The moment the IV was ready, he skillfully connected the line and needle.

Then he found the child's thin, barely visible vein in one attempt and inserted it.

The paramedic's eyes widened.

"Are you an intern somewhere?"

"No, with that skill, you look more like a pediatric resident."

He guessed based on Hee-soo's young appearance.

Hee-soo's concentration was at its peak.

He did not respond and watched only the child's condition.

To cool the IV fluid more quickly, Hee-soo held ice packs against both sides of the fluid bag and shook it.

Escorted by the police car, the ambulance quickly cut through Mokpo.

Drivers moved aside without blocking the police car and ambulance.

Thanks to that, a route that would normally take ten minutes through the city took only three.

Hee-soo and the paramedics worked hard, but the child's temperature did not fall easily.

When the ambulance doors opened, the paramedics' eyes widened again.

Medical staff were already waiting.

At the same time, Hee-soo's phone began ringing like crazy.

What is it?

The child was immediately transferred to a hospital bed.

They practically flew into the hospital, but it was not the emergency room.

A paramedic asked a hospital employee,

"Where are we going?"

"The child is going directly to a VIP room."

"What? A VIP room? Who is that child?"

The hospital employee shrugged.

"No idea. We don't know either."

The Mokpo Fire Station paramedic felt as if his brain had stopped working from the mystery of the situation.

Once inside the hospital, Hee-soo's phone kept ringing loudly.

He checked it and felt chills.

The screen was filled with victim markers.

Hee-soo tried to follow the child while looking at his phone, but the hospital director came out to greet him.

"Are you Director Choi Hee-soo?"

"Yes."

Hee-soo quickly put away the phone and faced him.

"I received the call. I'm Jeong Seong-ho, the director of this hospital."

"The child will go into a VIP room."

"Medical staff are already waiting there."

"Understood. I only need you to handle him temporarily."

"Yes. I heard about that too."

"You're sending a medical helicopter?"

"Yes."

"It departed from Mokpo Fire Station, so it should arrive within ten minutes."

"How long will it take to Seoul?"

"Well, I'm not sure about that..."

Chief Jang answered for him.

"About an hour and a half."

Hee-soo asked the hospital director with concern,

"Is there any medical staff here who can accompany the child to Seoul?"

"I'm sorry."

"We currently have a flood of emergency patients from the shipyard accident."

"That's why we couldn't even put that child in the ER and had to send him to a VIP room."

Hee-soo was troubled.

Seeing his expression, the hospital director spoke carefully.

"If it's only about maintaining the child's condition, what about sending one of our interns?"

"That's dangerous."

"They'll be flying for an hour and a half."

"Wouldn't that be too harsh for an inexperienced intern?"

"We'll complete all emergency treatment here first."

"Once his condition stabilizes, we'll transfer him."

"And if the emergency department settles down by then, perhaps one of our emergency medicine doctors can accompany him."

"No."

"I'll accompany him in the helicopter."

"W-what do you mean?"

"I can't legally practice medicine here, but I hold a medical license in the United States."

"And right now, I also work in a 119 rescue team."

Hee-soo did not trust the medical staff here.

Before transferring the child to Suseong Medical Center, he wanted to handle everything himself.

When the hospital director looked uncomfortable, Chief Jang stopped Hee-soo.

"Hee-soo. Let's trust the people here."

"They know who you are."

"Do you think they'd let something happen to the child?"

Hee-soo looked sharply at the hospital director.

The director answered with a gentle smile.

"He's right."

"We have excellent medical staff too."

"Please trust us."

"We will transfer the child safely to Suseong Medical Center."

"You must keep that promise."

"Of course."

When they reached the VIP room, at least one doctor who looked like a department chief, two who looked like interns, and three nurses were waiting.

Hee-soo asked the director,

"You said emergency medicine is overwhelmed. Which department are these doctors from?"

"Internal medicine is handling him for now."

"The doctor is an endocrinology resident."

"Will that be enough?"

"Let's trust them for now."

"If necessary, neurosurgery will come, and the hepatobiliary and pancreatic team is also expected to join."

Hee-soo felt frustrated.

Of all times, this hospital is in an emergency too.

Contrary to Hee-soo's worries, the doctor immediately began handling the situation skillfully.

The child was placed on a cooling bed and covered with cooling pads.

Once the monitoring devices were connected, Hee-soo sighed.

Every vital sign looked terrible.

"Haah. He's barely alive."

Hee-soo immediately checked his phone.

The child was still not counted as successfully rescued.

His blood pressure was extremely low, and tachycardia and rapid breathing continued.

They'll probably need medication.

The physician handling the endocrine and circulatory response skillfully began treatment to stabilize the child.

Hee-soo felt slightly more relieved.

That doctor's judgment is good.

The hospital director saw Hee-soo's expression change.

"Do you think you can trust us now?"

"I'd like that doctor to accompany the child to Seoul."

"Understood."

"Then that doctor will escort the child to Seoul."

"Thank you."

"And I'll cover all hospital expenses."

"I'll also pay for the parents' round-trip travel costs and living expenses."

"Please arrange that."

"Understood."

"Ah, and could I enter the emergency room for a moment?"

"The emergency room is currently like a battlefield..."

It was a refusal.

Hee-soo understood that much.

Even if I went there, there would be nothing I could do.

They wouldn't count as people I personally saved anyway.

Hee-soo obediently answered,

"Understood."

"Then please take good care of the child."

"I have other business, so I'll be going."

When he came out through the hospital's main entrance, the medical helicopter was landing on the hospital roof.

Everything had happened within only twenty minutes.

Hee-soo looked at his watch.

Chief Jang saw him and said,

"We need to return to the Chamber of Commerce now."

"If we don't, we'll be late."

"Can we stop by the accident scene for just a moment?"

"You also need to think about the people waiting at the Chamber."

"And the local fire department will handle the accident."

"You don't need to worry this much."

"You're right, aren't you?"

Even while saying that, Hee-soo's gaze remained directed toward the accident scene somewhere in the distance.

When they returned to the conference room, the company presidents were gathered there.

However, the mayor of Mokpo and the city council chairman were gone.

"Did the mayor go to the accident site?"

Hee-soo looked around and noticed that several business owners who had been there in the morning were also missing.

A city official sitting nearby stood up.

"Yes. He left urgently."

"It was a major accident."

"I see."

"Some of the other people are gone too."

"Yes. Some were connected to the incident."

"Then today's meeting will be difficult to continue."

"Probably."

Chief Jang quickly stepped in.

"Understood."

"Then we'll speak separately with the companies responsible for the face masks and helmets before returning to Seoul."

"Would you like to do that?"

"Yes."

"If a major accident has occurred, of course they should attend to that first."

"Understood. Then we'll also..."

As if waiting for Hee-soo's answer, the Mokpo city officials hurriedly left.

The others also realized the meeting could no longer continue and departed.

Hee-soo held a separate meeting with the company that had made his face mask.

"You're President Oh Tae-il of Tails Electronics, correct?"

The man appeared to be in his forties.

He had an easygoing expression and looked every bit like an engineer.

President Oh quickly stood and shook Hee-soo's hand.

"It's unfortunate that such an accident happened while you came all this way."

"But what can we do?"

"It's a real disaster."

"Why did you specifically ask to meet with us separately?"

"I heard your company played the leading role in producing the helmet."

"Yes."

"We recruited all the company presidents involved and handled the final assembly too."

"That's why I wanted to discuss an upgrade."

"Ah. I see."

"For us, an upgrade and making a new one are practically the same."

"Whenever you give us the specifications, we can proceed."

"This time, I'd like us to give you only the ROC, the Required Operational Capability, and receive your proposal."

President Oh looked uncomfortable.

"Ah. That... may be difficult."

"What do you mean, difficult?"

"We can make something exactly as you request."

"But we don't have time to conduct the research and development ourselves."

"Why not?"

"Our own research facilities aren't very large."

"And I'm basically the only researcher."

"Don't you receive foreign orders?"

"Wouldn't R&D be necessary for those too?"

"Usually, foreign customers don't ask us for something entirely new."

"They simply purchase our existing products."

"Don't you have your own research institute?"

"I thought most companies here had one."

"There are tax reasons, so we tried operating one."

"But it only cost money, and we didn't get proper research results."

"It was the same even when we hired PhDs from Seoul National University or POSTECH."

"I found it better to just do it myself."

Hee-soo understood what President Oh meant.

President Oh himself had graduated from a technical college before starting his current company.

He had worked in the R&D division of a large corporation, then left with a product he developed using his own ability and succeeded with it.

However, his only experience had been working as a researcher when he was young.

He understood the need for a research institute, but seemed to know little about actually operating one.

He had probably assumed that hiring people with better academic backgrounds would automatically produce better products.

It seemed difficult for him to accept that reality did not work that way.

Hee-soo was troubled.

"That's a problem."

"The product I'm using now is only for my personal use, so it isn't a huge issue."

"But if we're going to expand its functions or respond to overseas markets, R&D is essential."

"Couldn't we just do it the same way we did this product?"

The product Hee-soo currently used had been created through repeated deaths.