Looks like he’s going to get something.
Jeong Minsu left Taesu behind and moved to execute the orders.
“Since immobilization comes first… Like this.”
Swoosh. Rustle.
Jeong Minsu left the surgical tools as they were and only changed their direction.
Then he hung them over a foam rest so they wouldn’t stray from their current positions.
After that, he turned toward the temporary medical cart and set about making the “bridge.”
It was the very moment he thought the operating table was empty.
Swoosh.
Taesu approached the operating table, donning new surgical gloves.
A vinyl bag containing a syringe was clenched in Taesu’s teeth.
That vinyl bag was quite long.
Accordingly, the syringe was large too, and the needle was thick and long.
Its size was beyond comparison with conventionally used syringes.
Swish.
Having adjusted his gloves, Taesu tore open the vinyl bag.
He then gripped the syringe and aimed the needle at the kidney.
Soon the needle began digging into the swollen kidney.
“…….”
His lips bitten tight, Taesu moved the syringe carefully.
And soon he pulled the plunger.
Sllurp.
Dark red blood filled the syringe’s large cylinder.
That blood was extremely viscous, yet it filled the cylinder unnaturally, as if solids were mixed in.
Gurgle, plop.
“…….”
Even holding his breath, Taesu continued pulling the plunger with careful precision.
At that moment, Jeong Minsu glanced over and flinched.
He quickly turned back and asked Taesu.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Drawing blood.”
“We agreed to minimize bleeding!”
“We need to draw the dead blood first to make things easier later.”
Taesu kept his answers as brief as possible and focused on the syringe.
His expression was full of conviction.
Jeong Minsu was bewildered by the feeling so different from moments ago, then realized something on his own and asked.
“Did James do something like this before?”
“Yeah. But what about the bridge?”
“I’ll hurry up and make it… Stop glaring. You’re acting strange, that’s why I’m reacting like this.”
Jeong Minsu made a lame excuse and turned back toward the medical cart.
Freed from that gaze, Taesu could focus entirely on the syringe.
Soon the cylinder was completely full.
With nowhere to discard the drawn blood, Taesu poured it onto the floor.
Splorch.
The viscous blood fell in thick clumps.
Looking closely, one could see dark granules mixed within.
It was dead blood, just as he had told Jeong Minsu earlier.
However, this procedure was not an emergency treatment method for renal enlargement.
The origin of this applied procedure was emergency treatment guidelines for hemothorax.
When hemothorax occurs, the principle is to draw out the blood pooled in the lungs.
At first, he had had to attempt it via Caprene’s knowledge.
Now it was completely mastered in Taesu’s hands, allowing him to perform emergency treatment at any time.
He had added James’s advice to that emergency treatment method.
“—The kidney has an outer cortex and inner medulla, and the medulla in particular acts like a fine filter, so large clots cannot form easily.”
That advice had played a decisive role.
Taesu had combined the counsel of these two masters on the spot and applied it in an unorthodox manner.
This was no coincidence.
It was an original emergency treatment method devised by Taesu.
He had struggled desperately to break free from a situation flowing toward hopelessness and conceived of it.
Strength entered Taesu’s eyes.
It was clear evidence that he was steadily internalizing his teachers’ lessons without letting them go to waste.
This was exactly how it would become know-how unique to Taesu.
It felt like he had found some direction.
At the same time, electricity seemed to sweep through his entire body.
It truly tingled.
‘Thank you. But I still have a long way to go.’
Sending a brief thanks to his teachers inwardly, he steeled his will even further.
It felt like he had only taken the first spoonful.
There was no satisfaction.
And the surgery was only beginning now.
He didn’t want to be swayed by a momentary emotion and miss something more important.
With that mindset, Taesu moved the syringe again.
Taesu drew blood from the enlarged kidney several times.
Reddish bloody water pooled around him on the floor from the discarded blood.
Though he drew blood like that, the kidney’s size showed no change, likely because blood was flowing back in.
Taesu was not disappointed.
At first, the sticky blood had become much thinner.
It was clear that he had cleared away a considerable amount of the dead blood and clots lodged in the kidney medulla.
Hope was visible, however faintly.
It was after he mustered his courage once more and discarded another syringe of blood onto the floor.
“This is enough.”
Since this was his first time attempting this emergency treatment, Taesu stopped at an appropriate point.
As experience accumulated, a clear standard for when to stop would be established. He did not rush greedily to determine that right now.
It was when Taesu was putting away the syringe.
Clack.
Jeong Minsu stood facing the operating table and held out the completed bridge. It appeared to be needles connected to both ends of a catheter.
Using an artificial blood vessel would have been easier and could have been fashioned without burdening the body.
However, the supply was low, and it was disposable.
Catheters were enormously plentiful and had the advantage of being usable multiple times in the same surgery.
Instead, they had the decisive drawback that thrombolytics had to be administered during long-term use.
Thus even trivial aspects had their pros and cons.
In any case, catheters were frequently used because they were convenient.
Perhaps because he had made it many times, its completion gradually improved.
Jeong Minsu asked in a slightly brighter voice.
“Done making it. How about you?”
“I think I circulated the blood a bit.”
“We’ll check later. Let’s connect the bridge first.”
Jeong Minsu prioritized the surgery’s progress over curiosity.
It was only natural, so Taesu immediately agreed.
“Then I’ll secure the renal artery.”
“I drew the renal vein. You take the top, I take the bottom.”
“The space is narrow, so let’s not get too greedy.”
“Okay. Now, let’s start quickly.”
Taesu and Jeong Minsu immediately began searching for their assigned blood vessels.
The atmosphere was quite different from just moments ago.
It was deadly serious and calm.
That was because the kidney’s condition was far worse than imagined.
In an emergency requiring focus on speed, stimulating each other is effective.
But in this case, it would work negatively.
In times like this, reducing agitation and remaining calm leads to fewer mistakes.
The two, who had matched their breathing countless times, no longer needed such clichéd procedures.
Eye contact and actions alone were sufficient.
Because the affected area was narrow, their hands occasionally collided.
Tick, tok.
Each time, they changed how they held their instruments to create space for the other.
Even with such consideration, their hands kept bumping.
“…….”
“…….”
Neither changed their expression in the slightest.
They proceeded calmly in that silence, appearing almost strangely composed.
It was during this that Taesu opened his mouth first.
“The bridge is connected to the renal artery.”
“I found mine too. Good, blood’s coming out. I’ll pierce this side too.”
Rustle, rustle.
Jeong Minsu moved his hands further to finish connecting the bridge.
Slight sweat beaded on both their foreheads.
It was the tension of concentrating to find blood vessels in a narrow space.
Taesu roughly wiped the sweat with a surgical drape and asked Jeong Minsu.
“What are the vitals right now?”
“……Pulse has risen slightly. Blood pressure is stable without major changes.”
“Looks like circulation is improving since the bridge is distributing blood.”
“It’s a situation where half the blood that should go to the right kidney gets a free pass straight to the vein.”
Jeong Minsu explained in more detail.
He seemed to be imprinting the concept once more in his head.
Meanwhile, Taesu pondered the next step.
Their individual thinking time was brief.
Jeong Minsu opened his mouth first and asked Taesu.
“So far it’s going according to your plan, right?”
“Roughly.”
“What’s next?”
“We need to block blood flow for a moment.”
At those words, Jeong Minsu’s eyes sparkled.
“Like the CABG (coronary artery bypass grafting) emergency procedure we did before?”
“Similar, but this time I think we need to circulate blood every ten minutes.”
“Right. If blood flow is blocked for too long, the kidney will just die.”
As expected, Jeong Minsu was quick-witted when it came to medicine.
Taesu was glad he could shorten the explanation.
“It’d be a problem if we killed it after all this trouble trying to save it.”
“Obviously. But if we circulate blood every ten minutes, can’t we keep operating?”
“Will there be no bleeding at all during surgery?”
“Ah, we have to dig into the kidney……. The type A transfusion is almost finished.”
Jeong Minsu looked at the emptying transfusion pack with resentful eyes.
Since they couldn’t let the transfusion stop, he immediately switched to a type O pack.
Taesu felt the same as Jeong Minsu.
If they had even one more transfusion pack, they might have had some leeway.
But the type O pack currently hung was the last one.
The emergency surgery had to end before that transfusion pack ran out.
Clack.
Jeong Minsu returned to the operating table.
Meanwhile, Taesu quickly spoke what he had been thinking.
“If we call circulating blood every ten minutes one cycle, there won’t be many cycles.”
“We have to finish within those few cycles.”
“It’s a speed battle again.”
“When have we ever operated leisurely?”
Jeong Minsu put on a detached smile.
Taesu also smiled bitterly and continued.
“Let’s strike only the core as quickly as possible.”
“Got it.”
“Then let’s position the bulldog clamps first.”
Clack.
Taesu hung a hemostatic clamp on the renal artery.
Jeong Minsu did the same to the renal vein.
Once in position, Taesu ordered without delay.
“Bite.”
“Yes!”
Snap!
The bulldog clamps bit down firmly, blocking the renal artery and renal vein simultaneously.
Only the vessels going to and from the kidney were blocked.
Blood was flowing smoothly through the bridge.
The moment blood flow was blocked, a ten-minute time limit began.
He moved his wristwatch to an easily visible spot so he could check it at any time.
Two seconds passed with each breath.
To the point of calculating that, all focus was now aligned with time.
That signified a super-emergency situation.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu’s expressions changed first.
“Minsu, secure the necrosis site.”
“Site secured.”
“Beginning resection immediately.”
Swoosh.
Taesu’s scalpel dug into the area around the blackened kidney.
At the same time.
A stream of blood flowed from inside the kidney.
But because the vessels were blocked, it wasn’t a waterfall-like hemorrhage.
It surged out once, then flowed down like a stream.
Jeong Minsu quickly dabbed at the bleeding with gauze.
Swoosh.
The moment the bleeding was briefly obscured, Taesu held the cut tissue with Mixter forceps and moved the scalpel again.
The incision was short.
Because it was impossible to gauge how wide and deep the necrosis extended.
Even as time closed in fiercely, he did not neglect the effort to minimize resection.
Soon the kidney opened left and right.
It was the moment they first faced the interior.
All the effort to get here?
Getting immersed in such sentiment was itself a waste of time.
Taesu glanced at the time and his face contorted sharply.
“Damn. Already past five minutes!”
“Such bullsh—...! How much do they expect us to do in five minutes!”
Jeong Minsu spat out rough curses to the point of rendering their promise to watch their language utterly meaningless.
That was how much time right now was not gold, but life itself.