But it was at that moment.
“I’ll scoop it out too.”
Slap, slap.
Bread Kim’s hands joined in.
The retractor he had been holding had somehow been passed to Nurse Hwang Jisu.
“Hngh.”
As he forcibly controlled the resisting muscles, a groan slipped through his lips.
But Nurse Hwang Jisu’s assistance was appropriate.
Once Bread Kim’s hands began moving again, they were astonishingly forceful.
His coordination with Jeong Minsu was also perfect.
“Me, here.”
“This time, I will.”
Slap, slap.
They began taking turns pushing the blood out.
Taesu, who was repeatedly squeezing the blood bags, felt his insides burn.
Watching like this did not suit his temperament at all.
*I want to.*
He felt like running over.
But they were in the middle of removing an enormous amount of blood.
The transfusion had to support him just as much.
For Lee Changgyu, the transfusion was life support itself. Taesu could not leave his position while performing such an important role.
And if he switched positions, he would have to disinfect both hands.
They could not waste even that much time.
He knew that, but it did not make his frustration any less.
His desire to throw himself at patients and do everything himself was endless.
Even so, Taesu endured while holding his position.
It was after they had cleared out the bleeding several more times in that brief interval.
Bread Kim’s hand slipped deep into Lee Changgyu’s body.
At the same moment—
Swoop.
Bread Kim’s eyebrows rose high, and he quickly called out to Taesu in a low voice.
“It’s the liver. I’ve got hold of it.”
“Find the rupture while keeping it there.”
“Okay.”
As though something was finally progressing, Bread Kim’s voice grew stronger.
Taesu quickly looked for Jeong Minsu.
“Minsu, pull your hands out.”
“What?”
“Pull them out for now.”
“Okay.”
The firm voice and atmosphere were enough.
Just as Taesu’s voice had turned fierce, Jeong Minsu moved quickly.
At that moment, Taesu looked for Jo Uncheol.
“Doctor Jo, pour disinfectant over Doctor Jeong’s hands.”
“Over his hands?”
“Hurry.”
“Fine. Got it. Doctor Jeong, hold out your hands.”
At Jo Uncheol’s urging, Jeong Minsu held out his hands with a dazed expression.
His gaze was fixed on Taesu.
“Why my hands all of a sudden? Why?”
“Don’t get scolded for nothing. Just do as you’re told.”
“I mean, that’s true, but…”
“Here, I’m pouring.”
Gurgle.
Jo Uncheol poured the disinfectant without giving the slightest thought to Jeong Minsu’s fear.
Meanwhile, Taesu surveyed everyone.
He was looking for someone to whom he could entrust another task.
But it was not easy.
Choo Ganging, Lee Chorong, and Nurse Hwang Jisu were pulling on the retractors.
They could not stop that work right away.
The only person who could be considered relatively free was Yun Juseong.
He also had to switch positions with Jo Uncheol.
In a flash, Taesu finished his brief calculation and immediately gave Yun Juseong an order.
“Doctor Yun, go behind Doctor Jeong and prepare gauze soaked generously in liquid hemostatic agent.”
“Then what about here?”
“Someone will take over. Doctor Jo.”
As soon as Taesu called for him, Jo Uncheol rose from his seat.
“I’ve poured disinfectant over Doctor Jeong’s hands. You’re Doctor Yun, right? This is my original position.”
“Doctor Jo’s… position?”
“I’m the anesthesiologist.”
“But over there—What are you arguing about? Come over here quickly. I’ll be going, then.”
Whoosh.
Yun Juseong vacated his position nimbly without asking twice.
Jo Uncheol filled the seat in an instant.
With the ECG in front of him, his expression brightened awkwardly.
“This is my seat. First…”
His sentiment lasted only an instant. He scanned the ECG and gathered the medications that could help immediately.
Meanwhile, Yun Juseong was about to move quickly as well, but stopped and asked,
“Doctor Choi, by gauze do you mean pledgets, or gauze?”
“The wound is huge. What would we use something the size of a fingernail for? Obviously gauze.”
“Oh, got it. I’ve drenched the gauze in liquid hemostatic agent.”
Slosh.
Gauze had been messily piled into a metal basin, and the excessive amount of liquid hemostatic agent swayed inside it.
It appeared that he had poured the hemostatic agent into a container holding only gauze.
It was a clean and swift method.
The time it took to ask and answer the question felt much longer by comparison.
“Stand by for a moment.”
Having seen that much, Taesu turned his gaze.
“Bread, have you marked the rupture?”
“It’s at my fingertips right now.”
When Bread Kim shouted back, Taesu’s expression brightened.
They were halfway there.
Only the other half remained.
Next, he looked for Yun Juseong.
“Doctor Yun, divide the gauze between Doctor Jeong’s hands and place it on both of them.”
“Done.”
Clack, clack.
“Huh? What? …Taesu, what is this?”
Jeong Minsu’s voice grew heavy, as though he sensed something unsettling.
Taesu ignored him and immediately issued a forceful order.
“Push both hands in as they are, wrap them around the ruptured area, and hold the liver in place.”
“Now, right here?”
“Hurry.”
“Damn it. I don’t know.”
Shove.
Jeong Minsu’s hands roughly entered the wound.
At the same time, his eyebrows twitched in all directions.
“Hold it… This feels really…”
“I don’t care how you feel.”
“Who asked you to care? Anyway, I’ve got it.”
As soon as Jeong Minsu answered, Taesu looked for Bread Kim.
“Bread, pull out.”
“Phew. I’ve got it. I definitely have it.”
Bread Kim reinforced his words with certainty.
Only then did Taesu shout his next order.
“Minsu, hold there. And Bread, push a ton of gauze in around the liver.”
The one startled by Taesu’s order was Jeong Minsu.
“Hey, then what about my hands?”
“I told you to hold there.”
“You have no idea how this feels, the texture…”
“I said it doesn’t matter.”
Taesu was utterly uncompromising.
It was then.
Bread Kim had been narrowing his eyes, trying to figure out what was happening, but suddenly a flash lit up his gaze.
“Right. If we do it like this, it’ll have the effect of gauze packing.”
“Bread.”
“Got it. I’ll move quickly. Anyway, that’s a good idea.”
Bread Kim praised him enthusiastically as he got to work.
There was no time for him to complain about why Taesu had not said so earlier.
The procedure was markedly different from ordinary gauze packing.
A conversation to persuade him?
That in itself would have been a waste of time.
It was fortunate that Taesu had driven things forward in a strong voice.
Otherwise, Lee Changgyu’s heart might have gone into temporary shutdown because of the time dragged out.
*Faith. And trust.*
Even engraving those words into his heart once more was not enough.
Just then, Jeong Minsu’s reaction rang out quietly.
“Wow, damn. …Seriously, damn.”
Neither his expression nor the sensation at his fingertips seemed pleasant in the slightest.
Knowing the patient’s condition, he could not openly complain and merely grumbled under his breath.
Taesu’s attention to Jeong Minsu lasted only a moment.
Before long, everyone’s eyes were focused solely on the ECG.
Beep-beep-beep.
His vitals had not stabilized yet.
It was not time to breathe easy.
But there was a brief moment of leeway.
Enough to change positions.
Taesu immediately called for Nurse Hwang Jisu.
“Nurse Hwang, over here.”
“Yes.”
Whoosh.
When she approached nimbly, Taesu gave her a short, concise explanation.
“The blood bag…”
“Just squeeze and release it in short, repeated motions?”
“Exactly. But be careful not to squeeze too hard.”
“Understood.”
Slap, slap.
Nurse Hwang Jisu applied pressure with both hands as soon as she took over.
Her touch was quite steady.
Perhaps because she belonged to an NGO, her hands showed that she knew well how to deal with emergencies like this.
Only then could Taesu get away from the IV in the leg.
He headed toward the ECG.
In that brief interval, he passed behind Jeong Minsu and tapped him on the shoulder.
Tap.
It was a small gesture.
But perhaps it contained Taesu’s warm encouragement, because Jeong Minsu merely shot him a light sidelong glance.
“Tch, you bastard.”
Jeong Minsu seemed to find Taesu irritating for giving him both a hard time and a consolation.
Still, he was doing something significant for the emergency treatment, so he said nothing more.
Before long, Taesu approached Jo Uncheol, who was managing the main IV.
“How is he?”
“Your judgment was appropriate. He’s improving very slightly, really just a little at a time.”
“Really?”
“You can see for yourself.”
Jo Uncheol gestured toward the ECG with his chin.
Taesu was looking at it too, but it still seemed unbelievable.
“It really seems to be working.”
“Phew. A method like this… I never could have imagined it before.”
“Doctor Jo.”
“I know. I’ve already erased yesterday, so you don’t need to worry.”
Jo Uncheol gave a bitter smile.
He was denying all the years he had spent up to this point.
It was difficult to hope that even his heart was in a good place.
Taesu did not force him to accept it.
“So we just have to stay here for now, right? More importantly, what medications have been administered?”
“Adding what I heard from Doctor Yun a little while ago, for now…”
A list of medications used by anesthesiology followed one after another.
There were also medications provided by the surrounding NGO medical staff.
It was hard to believe that he had just returned to his original position.
As Taesu listened, his gaze shifted elsewhere.
Yun Juseong was there.
Even now, he was watching every change in Lee Changgyu’s condition with his eyes blazing.
Taesu felt admiration toward him.
Though it was not his field of expertise, he had brought Lee Changgyu’s vitals this far.
The present moment was possible because of the effort he had put in beforehand.
*I heard things were pretty fierce in Oman.*
Taesu had trusted those words and entrusted him with the IV. It had been the right judgment.
A little while later.
Taesu received a thorough report from Jo Uncheol on Lee Changgyu’s vitals.
They were improving only slightly.
It would take time for the numbers to stabilize further.
How much time was expected?
“Ten minutes.”
“Right. Ten minutes.”
Jo Uncheol answered immediately.
This was an extremely important matter.
It was not something only the two of them should know.
So Taesu turned around at once and spoke to everyone.
“If we can maintain this without any problems for just ten minutes…”
“Then it’s over?”
Jeong Minsu cut in, his face full of anticipation.
Taesu lightly shook his head and continued.
“Then we’ll be able to take one step out of the hyperacute stage.”
The reactions to those words varied.
“Just one step?”
“We’ve been doing this for over an hour already…”
“Still, it’s fortunate we’ve made it this far.”
“It’s hard to call it ‘just’ one step.”
Disappointed expressions appeared here and there.
It did not seem like a satisfying reward for all their efforts.
The standard for satisfaction was, of course, the moment the patient regained stability.
Slowly.
Everyone looked at Lee Changgyu.
And the corners of their eyes drooped.
The suffering this young child had to endure was far too cruel.