Taesu picked up the prepared IV needle and called to the factory manager.
“Factory Manager, Factory Manager!”
“Ugh, uhh… Yes.”
“We’re going to start the surgery now. The surgery!”
“N-nothing… there…”
Though the factory manager stammered, Taesu understood him perfectly.
“There isn’t nothing. We have everything we need to operate.”
“Others… hurt…”
“The others are being well looked after by our team members in another location. Now we have to operate on you. We can’t delay any longer.”
“Thank…”
At the factory manager’s faint words of gratitude, Taesu shook his head.
“Tell me again later, after you wake up and you’re feeling better!”
“Ugh. Uhh…”
“Then we’ll begin. Factory Manager, you have to hang in there. Let’s go!”
Taesu gave him one last vigorous cheer.
Then he found a vein on the back of his hand and pushed the IV needle in.
Tap.
After confirming the IV was connected, he immediately administered the sedative first.
“Sedative going in, one, two, three… Okay, he’s asleep. Muscle relaxant administered lightly, and now starting local anesthetic injections.”
Before he knew it, Taesu had switched to a syringe.
With one hand, he pulled away the surgical drape and white cloth, revealing the mangled wound.
Without even a moment to frown, he carefully injected the local anesthetic around the wound with the other hand.
Meanwhile, Jeong Minsu was checking the automatic blood pressure monitor.
?!
“Current vitals are… not very good overall.”
“Can you estimate how much blood he’s lost so far?”
“Not precisely, but roughly…”
Jeong Minsu made a cautious prediction.
It was a simple calculation based on the degree of change from normal blood pressure.
Frankly, the margin of error was considerable.
He knew that, but right now, it was the only method they had to measure it.
Taesu took the vitals and estimated blood loss into account and weighed the situation in his head.
It was a question related to whether a transfusion was needed.
Taesu narrowed his brow and asked Jeong Minsu.
“Did we bring any type A blood?”
“I’ve got one pack of each blood type with me. Over there, Mr. Hyeokgwon has one pack each too.”
“Then hang type A and keep type O on standby.”
“I’ll get it ready.”
“I’ll redo the dressing first.”
They each stated what they had to do and immediately put it into action.
Taesu first put on surgical gloves.
Then he picked up the saline that had been placed on the makeshift medical cart.
Its exterior had been coated once more with disinfectant to prevent the risk of infection.
After cutting the saline open with scissors, he poured it thoroughly over the wound.
Drip, drip.
The blood flowing out mixed with the saline and was washed away.
As the wound became cleaner, the problems stood out that much more clearly.
The range of the exposed wound was even more unusual than expected.
It began beneath the armpit and extended all the way down to the waist.
And there were additional areas he discovered as well.
There were marks that had dug into the right shoulder and upper arm.
There were also wounds scattered across the right side of his back.
As Taesu dressed the wounds, he carefully tried to infer what had happened at the time.
‘So he grabbed that man and pulled him toward himself.’
Not only that, he could also estimate the distance from the grenade.
The shrapnel had penetrated over a wide area, and the depths varied.
After carefully examining those areas, Taesu could roughly guess the distance.
‘About fifty meters.’
It was considerably farther than the distance at which Taesu had taken a direct hit.
And yet the severity of the injuries was worse than expected.
The presence or absence of a bulletproof vest played a major role in that.
Taesu had been exposed to the blast while his back was protected by a bulletproof vest.
Even so, his wounds had been fairly deep.
On the other hand, while the factory manager was presumed to have been quite far from the grenade, he had been wearing no protective gear at all.
Because of that, the degree of injury was quite similar.
There was a reason Taesu was assessing and gauging the details so carefully.
It was because the wounds were concentrated on the right side.
The lungs were in the chest, and the liver was in the abdomen.
The area was broad as well, so he couldn’t feel at ease.
Taesu identified all of those points while dressing the wounds.
Soon, Jeong Minsu put on surgical gloves and approached from the opposite side.
“I hung the blood pack.”
“We need to remove the shrapnel from the chest side first and see whether the lung was hit.”
“Got it. I’m ready.”
Clack.
Jeong Minsu held a hook and gauze in both hands.
Since the two of them were performing emergency surgery, he seemed intent on focusing on assisting.
Meanwhile, Taesu picked up Debakey forceps and a Mixter.
Thus, both of them chose surgical instruments with long jaws and pointed tips.
Since it was emergency surgery, they omitted any formalities.
“Let’s go right in.”
“Yeah!”
The moment Jeong Minsu answered,
Taesu’s surgical instrument moved immediately.
And the removal of shrapnel from the wound near the chest began.
“Spread this open with the hook.”
“Ugh. Like this.”
“Pull a little more.”
“You said you gave the muscle relaxant lightly. Ugh!”
Grumbling, Jeong Minsu applied even more strength.
The hook gradually widened the blast-punctured wound.
Taesu shone his headlamp inside and worked the Debakey and Mixter.
“Hup, ngh.”
After applying force and moving several times,
a dark object tangled with blood came out at the tip of the Debakey.
Clink.
When he set it down in the basin, a metallic sound rang out.
It was a fragment of the grenade.
Seeing it, Taesu’s gaze turned cold.
No matter how much time had passed, it could never be a pleasant memory.
The same was surely true for the factory manager.
They could not erase that memory, but they could turn it into nothing more than a trace of the past.
That was what Taesu and Jeong Minsu had to do now.
They had now removed one fragment.
He could not even estimate how many more remained.
But they could not miss a single one.
In addition, they had to confirm whether any organs had been damaged.
There was much to do, but as always, time was not on the medical team’s side.
The key to emergency surgery was, after all, speed.
As he was thinking that, Jeong Minsu spoke up.
“This is going to take too long.”
“That’s why… I’m going to change methods.”
Clack.
Taesu switched to a different surgical instrument.
Jeong Minsu narrowed his eyes and said the name of the instrument.
“A scalpel?”
“It’s a No. 11 blade.”
The blade normally used for skin incisions was a No. 10.
Its tip was rounded and broad, making it useful for incising skin or tissue.
But the blade Taesu had prepared in advance had a pointed tip.
It was optimized for deep, narrow wounds.
Clack.
Taesu adjusted his grip on the scalpel in earnest and gave the order.
“We’re picking up the pace.”
The moment he said that,
Stab!
He thrust the scalpel blade straight into the hole where a fragment had dug in.
In that state, he immediately called for Jeong Minsu.
“Minsu!”
“I’ve got eyes too!”
Jeong Minsu responded loudly, and his surgical instruments had also changed.
He was holding hooks in both hands.
Thud.
The hooks in both hands dug in to the left and right with the scalpel between them.
“Hup!”
When he applied strength, the space opened so wide that the scalpel became loose.
At that moment, Taesu pulled out the scalpel, inserted the Debakey, and extracted the fragment.
It was a continuation of a method similar to the one before.
But by changing instruments, the time required was drastically reduced.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu both sensed that instinctively.
“Just as expected.”
“That’s the second one removed.”
“Going straight to the next.”
Stab.
Taesu’s hand immediately moved to the next wound.
Jeong Minsu followed after him.
The rhythm between the two of them was not simply fast.
Before, they had looked frantic; now, while maintaining their speed, there was a glimpse of calm.
They had grown that much, but they still could not lead the surgery in a completely stable manner.
“Minsu, bleeding there!”
“Don’t just charge ahead blindly. I lose you while trying to follow!”
“I’ll look at this side, so handle that and catch up.”
“Stopping the bleeding will take… Ah, whatever.”
Clack. Clack.
Jeong Minsu, who had been getting chased by the flow bit by bit, began taking sudden action.
He rolled gauze thinly and pushed it into the punctured wound.
Taesu paused for a moment, but soon accepted it.
“Yeah. It’d be better to block it like that instead.”
“Now I won’t fall behind.”
“Say that after you catch up.”
Slip. Clack.
Even as he spoke, Taesu kept both hands busily moving.
Seeing him pull ahead, Jeong Minsu followed doggedly with a look of determination in his eyes.
In that way, they quickly administered emergency treatment to several of the wounds.
The number of fragments tangled with blood clots in the basin increased by that much.
But compared to the entire situation, what they were doing now was truly nothing more than a drop in the bucket.
They still had a long, long way to go.
Both of them knew that well.
Right now, it was only a brief warm-up before operating on the difficult wounds.
Their hands were already thoroughly warmed up.
The next wound they approached was completely different from the previous ones.
It was a wide-open wound, to the point that bone was visible. Flesh had been gouged out that much, the skin had been charred black and damaged, and the surrounding area was burned.
Its location was also quite concerning.
It was the upper part of the flank, with the lung situated inside.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu switched surgical instruments first.
“First, a curette and Mixter.”
“Then I’ll take international forceps and tissue forceps.”
As Taesu chose his surgical instruments first, Jeong Minsu picked up the assisting instruments to match.
Without even the slightest pause, both their hands moved toward the wound at the same time.
“From the inside.”
“Fourth and fifth ribs fractured.”
“Confirmed. This is a penetration mark, right?”
Clack.
When Taesu pointed between the ribs, Jeong Minsu examined it carefully and nodded.
“I think so.”
“Then the fragment bounced off the fifth rib and dug inward.”
“And the impact must have fractured the fourth rib too.”
When Jeong Minsu agreed, Taesu made a deeper inference.
“But the fragment probably lost some force.”
“We’ll only know that for sure once we dig in.”
“Then we dig in.”
“Hold on.”
Clack, clack.
Jeong Minsu used the surgical instruments to grip each of the fractured ribs.
Then he took hold of a broad retractor, a Deaver.
Next, he pushed the Deaver beneath the surgical instruments and pulled it toward himself with force.
“Hup!”
Tear.
The sound of tissue ripping came, and the fractured ribs rose slightly upward.
He had created space by changing the direction of the costal cartilage connected to the sternum.
Taesu was impressed by Jeong Minsu’s ability to apply himself.
“Good. Then the space is definitely there!”
“Hurry… up. Hard to… hold this for long.”
Jeong Minsu’s face was turning bright red.
It wasn’t something that could be done by simply applying brute strength. Maintaining just the right amount of force so the costal cartilage wouldn’t tear was extremely difficult.
Taesu had no desire whatsoever to enjoy Jeong Minsu’s hardship.
He immediately set his face and began moving.
“I’ll hurry.”
Slide.
At the same time as he spoke, the surgical instruments slipped into the space Jeong Minsu had made.
The headlamp illuminated the spot where Taesu fixed his gaze. Through that light, he could brightly examine the dark interior.
But Taesu’s expression, by contrast, grew darker and darker.
“Minsu, our guess was wrong.”
“Ugh. Huh?”
“The fourth and fifth ribs were each hit by fragments.”
“Then… fragments, ugh. Two of them?”
As Jeong Minsu asked with difficulty, Taesu answered with even more information.