“I’ll go rescue the other buried victims first. Chief Yu, please help transfer the patients in my car.”
Taeho gave a quick briefing on the patients.
The patient who had been resuscitated after cardiac arrest needed continuous ECG monitoring and oxygen saturation checks, and the patient with a ruptured femoral artery had to undergo surgery within two hours.
“Then I’m counting on you, Chief Yu.”
“Don’t worry, Director Gang.”
“Right.”
Taeho nodded and ran off into the rain.
Chief Yu Sihyeok first examined the two patients in the SUV, loaded them into the ambulance, and explained the situation to the two nurses and the EMT.
Then he called the emergency room at Samcheok Medical Center and had the waiting medical staff prepare for emergency surgery.
“With sirens on, we’re expected to arrive in twenty-five minutes. Please have both the ER and the OR fully ready by then.”
“Understood, Chief. We’ll be standing by.”
Yu Sihyeok hung up and spoke to the nurses.
“Please monitor the patients’ conditions closely on the way.”
“Yes, Chief!”
The ambulance departed for the hospital, sirens wailing.
As Yu Sihyeok and Kim Dohyeon entered the temporary tent to arrange the emergency medical equipment, a commotion was heard from outside.
“Survivors!”
Soon after, Taeho hurried in with the villagers, carrying a buried victim on a stretcher.
Every time the lantern light flashed, the patient was revealed in a ghastly sight—the left parietal region caved in and covered in blood.
Yu Sihyeok grasped the patient’s condition instantly. Such an emergency was not unfamiliar to a trauma surgeon with twenty years of experience.
Orders immediately left his mouth.
“Dohyeon, give me the patient’s status right away.”
Intern Kim Dohyeon urgently called out the numbers.
“GCS 6, pulse 48, blood pressure 190 over 100!”
The moment he heard the numbers, Yu Sihyeok’s face hardened stiffly. He quickly checked the pupils with a penlight.
The pupils were asymmetrical—3mm on the left, 6mm on the right—with delayed light reflex on the left.
“It’s Cushing’s Triad. The intracranial pressure has skyrocketed to the limit. The brainstem is on the verge of being compressed.”
“The helicopter can’t even take off right now. What do we do?”
Kim Dohyeon’s voice trembled without him realizing it.
Yu Sihyeok furrowed his brow and groaned.
In such a poor environment, invasive procedures were too dangerous. Let’s start with conservative treatment.
“Administer 20% Mannitol 100mL over fifteen minutes. Prepare hypertonic saline as well….”
“Chief Yu.”
Taeho, who had been dripping with rainwater, stepped forward, and Yu Sihyeok stopped speaking to look at him.
“May I perform the procedure?”
Yu Sihyeok nodded and stepped back. What alternative could this young doctor have? He was curious as well.
Taeho lifted the patient’s chin and said,
“Nurse Park. Secure the airway and administer 100% oxygen via NRB mask! We’re controlling the ICP first. Mannitol and 3% saline, let’s go simultaneously!”
“Yes, Director.”
Park Geumja swiftly pulled out the infusion packages from the aid bag like a well-trained soldier.
“Mannitol 125mL, ready for a thirty-second bolus infusion. Saline pressure infuser is ready.”
Taeho’s eyes skillfully found the patient’s vein. He secured an 18-gauge IV line in one go and rapidly infused the medication. Then he administered an injection mixed with Midazolam and Ketamine to the patient.
“Medication administered.”
But this was not enough.
Taeho ran to the side of the tent pillar. He grabbed a pair of trauma shears and a sterile spinal needle, then fitted the scissor handles onto the needle, fashioning a T-shaped tool on the spot.
The watching Kim Dohyeon asked with wide eyes.
“Director Gang, surely you don’t mean to drill into his head here, inside the tent?”
Even Yu Sihyeok faltered for a moment. Despite his long career, such an improvised procedure was rarely seen. However, Taeho nodded without hesitation and shouted,
“Ultrasound, now!”
Kim Dohyeon hurriedly handed over the portable ultrasound probe.
When Taeho measured the skull thickness, it was 7.2mm, with the thinner part confirmed at 6.3mm.
Yu Sihyeok quickly identified the position beside him.
“Three centimeters lateral to the midline, posterior to the coronal suture. It is safe here.”
Taeho injected local anesthetic into the site, then slowly and precisely penetrated the outer table of the skull with the T-shaped needle.
“One turn, two turns, three turns!”
Click! With that sound, the skull was cleanly perforated.
At that moment, Yu Sihyeok got goosebumps. In all his years of experience, he had never seen such a delicate improvised procedure.
Taeho calmly attached a 10mL syringe and slowly aspirated dark red blood and cloudy cerebrospinal fluid. Within seconds, the patient’s vital signs changed.
“Pulse rising. From 48 to 68 bpm, and blood pressure immediately dropped to 150 over 90!”
Park Geumja exclaimed in an excited voice.
Admiration flowed involuntarily from Yu Sihyeok’s mouth.
‘To think he lowered the intracranial pressure by making a burr hole on the spot….’
Yu Sihyeok immediately checked the pupillary response.
“Pupil size is normal. Both sides are 3mm, and the reaction is brisk!”
Kim Dohyeon shouted as if cheering.
“Breathing has returned to regular as well. SpO2 is stable at 94%.”
Taeho and Yu Sihyeok’s eyes met.
Yu Sihyeok exclaimed.
“Director Gang, truly impressive. I’ve rarely seen such a daring yet precise procedure.”
“It was possible because you located the exact position, Chief.”
Taeho thought he had succeeded not only thanks to Yu Sihyeok but also because of Rema’s help. Throughout the procedure, Rema had marked the precise target point with augmented reality.
‘I was lucky.’
Taeho evaluated himself as such.
Kim Dohyeon stared blankly at the patient’s stabilized numbers. It was an unbelievable sight. He stuck close to Yu Sihyeok’s side and asked cautiously.
“Ch-Chief, isn’t this a technique that’s not in the textbooks?”
“No, it’s in the textbooks. It’s just a technique used on the battlefield. It’s one of the techniques I thought I’d never see in Korea.”
He paused for a moment and stared intently at Taeho. Even with a face covered in rainwater and sweat, Taeho looked extremely calm.
Yu Sihyeok marveled once more inwardly.
What surprised him most was Taeho’s attitude.
To make such swift and bold judgments in this situation! And that wasn’t all. During the procedure, far from his hands trembling, his breathing didn’t even falter in the slightest.
He had met many surgeons in his time, but he had never seen a doctor so unshaken in such an extreme situation. A person like this would undoubtedly become the top surgeon at any trauma center.
‘He still seems young; it’s such a waste for him to be at a primary care hospital!’
Yu Sihyeok genuinely coveted Taeho.
He soothed his regretful heart and whispered to Kim Dohyeon.
“Dohyeon, if you can judge and improvise as calmly as that in urgent situations going forward, you’ll become the best surgeon.”
Kim Dohyeon swallowed dryly without a word.
Until now, his role model had been Yu Sihyeok. Although Yu Sihyeok was at a provincial medical center, it wasn’t because he lacked skill. Precisely because his skill was outstanding, Yu Sihyeok rarely offered praise for things that were merely decent. And yet….
He had already spared no high praise for Director Gang Taeho for the second time.
Kim Dohyeon felt as if a golden halo was shining behind Gang Taeho’s head.
Just then, a villager shouted as the tent entrance opened.
“Doctors! They say the police and the 119 rescue squad have arrived!”
***
In front of the landslide site, the blue and red emergency lights of the emergency vehicles flashed.
In front of them, police officers were controlling the swarming reporters.
“Everyone step back! You cannot enter inside the control line!”
As the reporters’ microphones and cameras were raised in unison, intense flashes lit up the sky in an instant.
“Currently, three of the four rescued workers are severely injured! Medical staff and fire department special rescue teams are fighting a desperate battle on the scene!”
A female reporter delivered the news in front of the camera with an urgent voice.
In front of the Gangwon Fire Department Special Rescue Team vehicle, Fire Captain I Seungchan commanded via radio.
“Pump vehicles, suppress the water level immediately; TR-2 Team, enter the southern slope and begin rescue!”
The pump vehicle’s engine rumbled loudly, and a powerful mechanical sound echoed through the night sky. As the giant suction hose drew in muddy water at a rate of dozens of liters per second, water spray exploded like a fountain and dispersed into the night air.
At the same time, the drainage team urgently installed pneumatic lifting bags beneath the concrete slab. As air was pumped in, the nearly 4-ton concrete slab slowly rose like a balloon.
“It’s going up! Just a little more!”
The villagers who had been working together also vigorously shoveled and quickly removed the remaining earth. At that very moment, a rescue dog raised its snout high and barked sharply.
“Over here! I think we’ve found a survivor!”
A rescue worker hurriedly and carefully pushed a small camera lens into the crevice. Moments later, a single work boot covered in mud was clearly visible on the monitor screen.
“Let’s proceed with the rescue! Hurry!”
The rescue workers’ urgent shouts echoed like reverberations.
The collapsed rafters were arduously suspended from crane wires and slowly lifted.
From beneath them, a faint coughing sound was heard.
“Kuhuk, kuhuk!”
“They’re alive! Survivor found here!”
The buried victim was found sitting half-upright in the narrow gap. Their face was pale, but they seemed to have no other external injuries.
The buried victim was carefully pulled out and moved.
Behind the police line, reporters’ flashes burst.
“The civilian-government joint rescue team has saved another one!”
The female reporter exclaimed in a voice filled with joy.
Taeho quickly raised his hand to block the flashes.
“No flash photography! There’s a high risk of corneal damage to the patient!”
Police officers quickly rushed over and pushed the reporters back.
2:12 AM.
Finally, the search operation for buried victims concluded.
“All victims rescued!”
Inside the tent, the medical staff checked the last patient’s oxygen saturation. When the number entered the stable range at 91%, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Kim Dohyeon rejoiced and raised a clenched fist.
“All eight survived!”
Yu Sihyeok smiled and looked at Taeho.
“Director Gang, you’ve worked hard.”
“I endured thanks to you, Chief. Thank you. Dr. Kim Dohyeon, Nurse Park, and our nurse aides as well—you’ve all worked hard.”
Taeho conveyed warm thanks to each and every member of the medical staff.
The nursing assistants who had been busy wiping the mud from the patients’ faces and wounds every time they were brought in also smiled brightly.
Seong Gihwan walked over wrapped in a blanket.
“It really went well. Good work, Director.”
“You worked hard too, Gihwan.”
The two nodded at each other with smiles.
The last rescued buried victim was transported to the hospital.
The villagers wrapped in blankets, warming themselves with hot barley tea and coffee, each had something to say.
“They say everyone survived!”
“What a relief, truly!”
“There were plenty badly hurt earlier; did they save ’em all?”
“Our Geumsan Clinic doc is somethin’ else. He saved ’em all!”
“Oof, my back! I’ll be sore all over when I get home.”
“What’s there to worry about? Just go to Geumsan Clinic. Our director will fix ya right up!”
“That’s right, that’s right.”
Finally, when the medical staff packed up their equipment and exited the temporary tent, thunderous applause burst from the waiting villagers outside.
When Taeho stood before them, the applause died down.
“Thanks to the residents of Geumsan-ri, we were able to save everyone. You’ve all worked hard. Thank you.”
Taeho bowed deeply to the villagers.
“We just did what the doc told us to do.”
“The doc worked the hardest.”
“If the doc gets sick, our village is in real trouble! Hurry up and go rest and get some sleep.”
Taeho nodded and smiled. Before they knew it, the villagers had developed a sense of community with Taeho.
-Gang Taeho has demonstrated an indomitable will in an extreme situation today.
-Gang Taeho’s case has been registered in the Rema Medical Database.
-Special Reward: +800 Coins
-Current Balance: 1045 Coins
-Congratulations. You have achieved Bronze Rank.