Obeid Hospital (3)
“Is there anyone on the staff who has the same blood type as the patient?”
“I’ll check.”
“Please save me as quickly as possible. “There is no time to delay, so we will start the surgery first.”
“all right.”
After Abna left, an anesthesiologist who arrived late gave local anesthesia to the wrist, and Ki-Seok Choi and Seol-Hwa Jeong looked at the wrist X-ray in front of the monitor.
The patient had two gunshot wounds.
One of them was a penetrating wound on the outside of the wrist, and the other had a bullet lodged in an area slightly off the center of the wrist.
“….”
“….”
The silence deepens.
Jeong Seol-hwa, who was watching the video, said nothing and just watched Choi Ki-seok.
The patient’s condition was not easy.
Even if Choi Ki-seok is a triple board thoracic surgeon, the site of the gunshot wound is his wrist.
It is not his heart, his battlefield.
Moreover, with a gunshot wound of this level, even if an orthopedic surgeon and a plastic surgeon performed the surgery at the same time, it would have been difficult.
Insufficient staff and poor surgical environment.
To what extent will Choi Ki-seok be able to demonstrate his abilities?
I was filled with anticipation and anxiety at the same time.
“The anesthesia is over.”
“It’s a snowflake. Let’s begin.”
“huh.”
When Jeong Seol-hwa removed the bandage covering the patient’s wrist, the contrast between the thin arm and the abnormally swollen wrist was reminiscent of a camel’s hump.
“Meth.”
Choi Ki-seok cut two wounds with the scalpel given to him by Jeong Seol-hwa.
As soon as the incision was made, red blood and bright yellow pus flowed out.
Jeong Seol-hwa filled a syringe with saline solution and injected it into the wound. Some of the foreign substances around the wound were washed away by the water pressure of the saline solution.
“It’s our folk tale, after all. “I feel reassured.”
“Tch. You can’t ignore me because I’m an internist. “I also do most of the treatment.”
Feeling reassured by her support, Choi Ki-seok inserted a syringe into the area where the pus pocket had formed.
In that state, when the syringe was slowly pulled, sticky pus filled the body of the syringe.
Because the infection around the gunshot wound was worse than expected, drainage was not that easy.
Empty!
After completing the drainage, the syringes were placed on the bench.
Each syringe was filled with pus, and there were as many as four such syringes.
Jiyiing.
Just then the door opened and Abna entered the operating room.
“Dr. Choi. I could only find one pack of blood that could be transfused. sorry.”
“no. You had a hard time. “Can you put a blood pack on the patient right now?”
Choi Ki-seok strengthened his resolve as he watched Abna at work.
In fact, when I worked at MHC, surgery was never difficult due to lack of blood.
No matter how rare the blood was, it could usually be obtained if prepared in advance, and in rare cases, a cell saver (a device that filters the blood of a patient suffering from bleeding and returns it to the patient) could be used.
But here, I realized that even such wind was a luxury.
You should always assume the worst and do the best you can.
Could it be said that this served as an opportunity to establish the surgical method at Obeid Hospital?
“Now that the drainage is complete, let’s remove the charcoal first.”
Choi Ki-seok held the forceps in his hand and looked down at the bullet lodged in his wrist.
The bullet stopped just before it penetrated my wrist, and the area around it was completely charred. The wrist bones were shattered like glass, and the blood vessels and tendons were torn.
Even if the treatment ended fantastically, rehabilitation could not be guaranteed.
‘I have no choice but to try as hard as I can.’
Choi Ki-seok grabbed the end of the bullet with forceps and pulled it carefully. Then, the bullet stuck in my wrist resisted fiercely, as if it were a tug-of-war.
When I gently rotated and pulled the bullet held with forceps, the bullet that had not budged slowly began to move.
A few minutes of fighting ensued.
Having successfully removed the bullet, he sighed with relief and began debridement.
Debridement is a treatment that removes infected or dead tissue to prevent secondary infection, and was the core part of today’s treatment.
Cheeeeeeeek.
Abna disinfected the area where the bullet had been with saline solution, and Jeong Seol-hwa suctioned the broken bone fragments with a suction device.
After the preparatory treatment for debridement was completed, Choi Ki-seok removed the tissue surrounding the wound with a scalpel.
Throughout his abstinence, his face was as hard as stone.
The place where the bullet passed was a ruin itself.
Wrist ligaments, tendons, muscles, etc.
There was not a single normal place among the areas where the bullet had grazed.
In addition, debridement continues to attempt resection until healthy tissue is revealed, but no matter how much surrounding tissue is cut away, no healthy tissue is revealed.
Eventually, it got to the point where I didn’t know if I was fighting or playing hide and seek.
“Ha… that’s enough now.”
Ki-seok Choi finished the debridement and looked down at the treated area.
When the dead black tissue was removed, a light pink tissue peeked out.
“Shall we prepare for sutures?”
“wait a minute.”
Choi Ki-seok shook his head at Abna’s words and used the eyes of Hippocrates on the patient.
The surgical procedure was good, but on the contrary, the surgical outcome was poor.
This is because the wrist was very damaged due to a gunshot wound.
If this continues, the patient will lose one wrist forever.
“I know what Dr. Choi is thinking. “You want to save the patient’s wrist at all costs.”
Abna continued as if she had read his mind.
“But fusion surgery is not possible at our hospital. To be precise, there is no hospital in this area that can perform joint surgery. It is possible if you go to the capital… but the moment you arrive at the capital, the golden time will end.”
“@!#[email protected]$”
The patient, who had been silent, said something.
He stared at his wrist with tearful eyes and then looked up at Choi Ki-seok again.
As if he already knew his fate.
“What is the patient saying?”
“I’m worried that I might never be able to use my wrist in the future. “I’m asking you to please let me use my hand.”
Ki-Seok Choi looked straight into the eyes of the patient in despair.
In this land where the body itself is an asset, being unable to use one hand forever seemed like a disaster.
Even though I knew that, my heart tightened at the fact that I had to let go like this.
“I’ll prepare the sutures.”
“no. “Let’s do the joint surgery ourselves.”
“Dr. Choi. “It’s impossible!”
Abna was the first to raise her voice.
“Our hospital has nothing. There are no artificial blood vessels, tendons, or microscopic microscopes. “No matter how excellent Dr. Choi is, a basic environment must be provided before he can perform surgery.”
“Didn’t you say there is a hospital run by the Red Cross nearby?”
Jeong Seol-hwa, who had been silent, opened her mouth.
“yes. Even though it’s two hours away, it’s still a little better than ours. Until the joint surgery…”
“I’ll contact them. “If the surgical environment is good enough, I think it would be okay to transfer the patient and perform the surgery there.”
“Dr. Jeong. “What’s wrong with you too?”
Abna frowned as if she was frustrated with the world.
“I also want to do as much as I can like Kiseok. “If surgery is not possible there, there is nothing we can do.”
“Thank you, Seolhwa.”
“I’ll go out and contact you.”
As Jeong Seol-hwa left, there was a cold silence in the operating room.
Ki-Seok Choi is lost in thought to save the patient’s wrist.
Abna is displeased with his reckless actions.
A patient stomping his feet because he was worried about his wrist and his child.
The three people were immersed in their own world.
Eventually, Jeong Seol-hwa, who had finished contacting the Red Cross, returned to the operating room.
“Kiseok. I can rent an operating room there. “They said they could provide the artificial tissue needed to reconstruct the wrist… but that there was no artificial bone.”
“That’s enough. let’s go.”
Choi Ki-seok nodded slightly. Then, gauze soaked in saline solution was covered over the patient’s wrist incision, and then a bandage and splint were placed on top of it.
Since I had decided to have joint surgery, there was no reason to suture the incision.
“You’re so reckless, Dr. Choi.”
“I know it will seem that way. But if there is even the slightest possibility, you should give it a try. “If I were a patient, I wouldn’t want my doctor to give up on me.”
Abna looked at Choi Ki-seok, who was burning brightly, and sighed as if the earth was falling apart.
Because I sensed that Choi Ki-seok could not be stopped.
“all right. “Then how should I explain it to the patient?”
“Please tell me that I will have a second surgery at another hospital to save my wrist.”
“yes.”
As I was leaving the operating room with the patient, I ran into Neymar, the hospital director. When the situation was explained, Neymar willingly offered to stand on duty in Choi Ki-seok’s place.
“Please, Dr. Choi.”
Neymar gently wrapped his hand around Choi Ki-seok, and Choi Ki-seok responded by nodding his head.
Soon, the ambulance driven by Nareka left Obeid Hospital.
The road after 10 p.m. was pitch dark.
The only thing that sparkled was the moonlight and starlight.
The ambulance running on the rough dirt road often shook violently, and the patients and staff in the back also danced.
While heading to the Red Cross Hospital, Choi Ki-seok’s only thought was about surgery.
Although wrist reconstruction is not a specialty, isn’t the field of surgery all the same?
Slit, cut and paste.
I judged that I had a good chance of winning if I followed those principles and performed the surgery. I also had experience assisting in joint surgery during my training at Medical College.
How much time has passed?
An ambulance carrying Obeid Hospital staff finally arrived at the Red Cross Hospital.
As the staff entered the emergency room with the patient, a man who was waiting greeted the group.
“hello. This is the general surgery clade.”
“Nice to meet you. “This is Kiseok Choi.”
“The operating room has already been reserved, so you can proceed in the B rosette. “The necessary artificial tissues are stored in the refrigerator.”
“thank you. “I will not forget today’s grace.”
“ha ha ha. I am also a doctor. How can we resist the noble desire to save the patient? I hope there will be good results.”
Clad took the lead and guided Choi Ki-seok and his group to the operating room. And I watched the group prepare for surgery in the observation operating room.
‘What on earth are you thinking?’
With his arms crossed, his eyes were fixed on Choi Ki-seok.
I heard about the patient over the phone from the female doctor who accompanied me.
However, after listening to her words, I decided that it would be difficult to revive the patient’s wrist even if he woke up from death.
Even if a hand surgeon were here, wrist reconstruction would be impossible.
The fundamental reason why surgery is impossible.
It is a microscopic microscope.
Only with a microscopic microscope was it possible to identify and suture a nerve measuring about 0.1 millimeter.
In a situation where visibility could not be secured, surgery was meaningless.
‘It’s just that there are artificial tissue fragments, but our hospital doesn’t have a microscopic microscope…’
Clad clicked his tongue in regret.
Still, the reason he couldn’t leave easily was because the surgeon was Choi Ki-seok, currently the world’s only triple board thoracic surgeon.
