"There are two pieces. One is lodged in the lung, and the other scraped upward past it."
"What kind of bullshit is that...? You seriously going to ramble on like that while I'm over here grunting?"
"If we'd missed this, it would've led to pneumonia and sepsis. It would've gotten critical."
"Nngh! Just hurry up... and fix it... already."
Jeong Minsu spoke in broken fragments.
Though it hadn't even been a minute, he must have been struggling to control his strength with such precision.
Taesu had no intention of dragging this out either.
"Hold it just like that."
"Nnngh."
"...Got one out."
Ting!
As the metallic sound rang out, a faint look of relief crossed Jeong Minsu's scrunched face.
"Yeah. Hngh. Just like that..."
"The one that scraped upward... Why is this... Hoo!"
"Hey, you!"
"I'm in a bad spot too, so hang on a sec."
Clack.
As if to prove he hadn't been speaking empty words, Taesu set down the Mixter and switched to straight forceps.
It was a surgical instrument better suited for digging in deeper.
Then he moved his head to adjust the angle of his headlamp.
Having seemingly found the position, Taesu slowly pushed the straight forceps into the gap.
Wiggle, wiggle.
Taesu's hand moved bit by bit, manipulating the surgical tool.
The more he did so, the more Jeong Minsu's forearm suffered.
"Nnngh."
Jeong Minsu's face turned beet red, and beyond that, his arm began to tremble.
He must have been dying to let go right that instant.
But he couldn't.
In situations like this, if you let the opportunity slip once, it takes a long time to seize it again.
Finishing it in one go was the best.
Knowing that all too well, he gritted his teeth and endured even as his arm shook.
And after a brief moment.
"It's done."
Clatter.
Taesu's low shout and the metallic sound rang out together.
Only upon hearing that did Jeong Minsu release his grip on the Deaver he'd been pulling.
"Hrrgh!"
He stayed perfectly still with his face deeply scrunched.
Taesu asked with narrowed eyes.
"Cramp?"
"Yeah. Nngh."
"You bastard. Good work."
Taesu greeted him with a pitiful expression.
He wanted to rubJeong Minsu's arm, but he couldn't in the middle of surgery.
Fortunately, it was a temporary thing.
Clench. Clench.
Jeong Minsu repeatedly clenched and unclenched his hand as he looked at the basin.
Among the barely over 1-centimeter fragments, two new ones had been added.
"Such tiny things causing so much trouble."
His gaze toward the fragments that had tormented him couldn't possibly be kind.
In the meantime, Taesu spoke to Jeong Minsu while wielding the scalpel and DeBakey again.
"Check the vitals and loosen your muscles for a bit."
"Got it."
Beep.
Wincing slightly at the lingering pain, Jeong Minsu pressed the button on the automatic blood pressure monitor.
But then.
Jeong Minsu's narrow eyes suddenly went wide as he checked the numbers.
"Huh? Taesu, the vitals are weird."
"Give me the numbers."
"Starting with pulse..."
Jeong Minsu recited the numbers in order.
Taesu, who had been extracting fragments from another wound, froze for a moment.
"Why is the pulse dropping?"
"Is urine not coming out? ...It's coming out little by little."
"Check again."
"Yeah... It's similar. Hold on."
Beep, beep.
Jeong Minsu repeatedly pressed the button on the automatic blood pressure monitor.
But the more he checked the numbers, the more his expression hardened.
"Pulse change isn't that significant. But the blood pressure is fluctuating."
"Transfusion... The blood pack hasn't decreased as much as expected."
As Taesu checked first, Jeong Minsu also turned his gaze that way.
The IV fluid and blood pack were decreasing at similar rates.
That was a normal response.
But the pulse and blood pressure were clearly showing abnormal readings.
Neither of their expressions looked good.
Among them, Taesu's gaze turned toward the abdomen.
"Could it be a liver problem?"
"If the fragments flew in with the same force, they would've struck the liver where there are no ribs..."
"They could've dug in deep, but there's not that much bleeding."
Taesu asked logically.
To that, Jeong Minsu approached from a different angle.
"What if the hole is blocked by a blood clot and internal bleeding is continuing?"
"We can check that easily."
Taesu immediately grabbed a thick syringe.
Seeing that, Jeong Minsu also quickly grabbed a thick one.
The needles were thick and long, matching the width of the syringes.
The two of them stabbed various points in the abdominal wounds with those needles.
Thud, thud.
Every hole they stabbed bled.
But it wasn't to a degree that would affect the vitals.
If it were a hole blocking internal bleeding, it should have shown some different reaction.
Once they confirmed it wasn't, they moved on without hesitation.
To the next one, and the next.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu moved the needles so quickly they barely seemed to breathe.
Soon they had stabbed all the concentrated holes in the side.
But none of the spots were decisive.
They focused on the holes near the liver but only shook their heads.
"Here and here dug down to the liver surface. There's bleeding, but not to that extent."
"The front is the same."
"Then the back?"
"There isn't an organ in the back that would bleed... Huh?"
Jeong Minsu seemed to get a feeling as he spoke.
Taesu felt the same.
There was an organ located close to the back.
It was the kidney.
"Minsu!"
"Yeah!"
Rustle.
Jeong Minsu examined the nearby back area.
In the meantime, Taesu quickly circled the operating table and stood beside him.
Clack.
As soon as Taesu arrived, Jeong Minsu pointed to two holes on the right side.
"Here and here."
"The position is definitely ambiguous."
"We'll know if we stab them."
Swish.
Jeong Minsu carefully pushed the needle into the nearest hole.
It seemed to go in deeper than expected.
Then Jeong Minsu paused.
"I went through."
"So?"
Gurgle.
Blood gushed out from the hole.
The amount showed a stark difference from the other holes.
Rather than joy at having found it, deeper bewilderment took root in Taesu and Jeong Minsu.
"If there's this much bleeding."
"There should be more severe bleeding from the other holes too."
But reality wasn't like that.
Bleeding only continued from the holes presumed to be near the kidney.
It was too strange.
Then Taesu spoke with a realization-struck face.
"Nephromegaly!"
"Kidney enlargement?"
"It's the phenomenon where the kidney swells because circulation isn't working."
"Then blood pressure would be unstable to that extent... And the heart would be affected too... Right!"
Jeong Minsu raised his voice immediately.
But there was a problem.
"This means we have to operate on the kidney."
"Aren't we in the middle of an emergency surgery right now? Isn't this a limited surgery where we only quickly resolve life-threatening lesions?"
"Right now, nephromegaly is also an emergency."
"And you're saying the two of us should do it? When we only have one O-type blood pack left?"
Jeong Minsu's eyes wavered.
He didn't want to accept performing emergency surgery for nephromegaly with their current surgical facilities.
Honestly, Taesu felt the same.
The amount of blood contained in the kidney was considerable.
Also, the amount of blood passing through the kidneys daily was enormous.
If they touched it, massive bleeding was a guaranteed outcome.
But performing it in a place without even a suction device, with no blood packs either, was reckless.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu's mouths clamped shut.
"..."
"..."
If they couldn't find a solution, this silence would likely stretch on for a long time.
They had been happy at first because the lung problem had been smoothly resolved.
The atmosphere plummeted so rapidly that their earlier joy felt almost presumptuous.
Both were deep in thought.
Taesu suddenly exhaled short and hard.
"Ha!"
"Did you think of something?"
"No. Nothing comes to mind."
"Then why?"
Jeong Minsu showed displeasure with narrowed brows.
Taesu reminded him of their situation.
"We can't just stand here spacing out."
"That's why I'm saying we need to find a way."
"Are we going to leave everything else alone until then?"
Taesu's question was sharp.
But that point was so accurate it was irrefutable.
They couldn't afford to waste time staring blankly.
The sharp upturn of Jeong Minsu's eyes subtly lowered.
"That's not it. The other wounds need to be dealt with too if we want to finish the surgery."
"Let's split up since we don't have time."
"How?"
While Jeong Minsu was asking.
Tap.
Taesu circled widely around the operating table and returned to his original position.
He disinfected his dry surgical gloves again with antiseptic and answered while wetting them.
"I'll focus on the flank."
"You sure?"
"The bleeding isn't severe. And I've handled this often."
As Taesu answered, Jeong Minsu recalled what he had to do and asked.
"So I extract the remaining fragments?"
"The muscle relaxant should have spread enough by now, so you can manage."
"Wait a sec."
Jeong Minsu quickly picked up the hook and began checking.
Swish.
It definitely took less force to widen the holes.
It was on a different level from right after the emergency surgery began.
"This is doable."
"Then let's continue right away."
"Yeah."
The two quickly finished their agreement.
And each picked up their surgical instruments and moved their hands separately.
Taesu took in the deeply sunken flank.
The fractured ribs were bent visibly, showing how bad the wound site was.
Moreover, the exposure time to the outside was growing longer.
It was a moment where rapid emergency treatment was desperately needed.
Splash, splash.
He poured saline solution to replenish fluids first.
It was an obvious emergency measure.
It had the effect of washing away blood, and also served to make necrotic tissue (sphacelus) stand out more clearly.
Once the surface was clearly cleaned, distinguishing between healthy tissue and necrotic tissue became easy.
He immediately switched instruments and began clearing the necrotizing tissue.
This was no reckless improvisation; a clear medical guideline existed.
Necrectomy.
In Korea, it was called necrotic tissue resection.
'First this side.'
Snip, snip.
He grabbed the necrotic tissue with the Mixter and boldly cut it with Metzenbaum scissors.
The excised tissue was wider than the necrotic area.
It was to remove even the necrosis that couldn't be seen with the naked eye. Only by cutting that way could they lower the probability of necrosis recurring after surgery.
That was the basic principle of necrectomy.
And so Taesu excised every bit of necrotic tissue he saw.
But that wasn't all.
In between moving his hands, he thought about how to operate on the kidney.
'The key is the bleeding...'
Snip. Snip.
Even while thinking, Taesu's hands didn't stop.
That didn't mean he was taking necrectomy lightly.
If the limit of thought were 10, he was concentrating more than 8 on the current procedure.
The remaining 2 was thinking about kidney surgery.
If he couldn't even maintain that balance, he would have to throw away the scalpel.