That was not all.
Ellis forceps, Babcock forceps, bowel clamps, right-angle clamps, and more.
He made use of every surgical instrument contained in the emergency surgery kit.
Swish, swish-swish.
He incised, grasped, fixed, and cut.
It was dizzying just to watch.
Taesu moved without stopping, as though he had every method of use etched into his mind.
The expression of Jeong Min-su, who had initially stared blankly, gradually came alive.
It was because he was collecting the tissues Taesu had scraped away.
It seemed Taesu had not been scraping them out indiscriminately.
To be honest, Jeong Min-su could not understand the reason right now. His understanding of kidney surgery was not that advanced.
Taesu seemed to be different.
The surgery proceeded boldly yet surely, erasing his unease.
‘If that’s what you say.’
Even if he studied right away, it would be difficult to understand.
Then it was right to follow Taesu’s method.
Jeong Min-su swallowed his confusion.
The difficulty of performing the surgery did not mean he could not serve as an assistant.
He focused and watched the flow of the operation.
He added instinct to his experience of carrying out various surgeries alongside Taesu.
At the same time, Jeong Min-su switched his grip from a mosquito clamp to a Kelly and moved toward the affected area.
“Here and here?”
Tap.
He asked as he worked into the gaps between the surgical instruments Jeong Min-su had clamped in place.
Taesu’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
The positioning was unexpectedly precise.
But this was not the time to express that, so he merely adjusted the position.
“The Kelly lower.”
“Like this?”
“There. Hold it just like that.”
Click, click.
Taesu’s surgical instruments moved immediately.
After several more movements, Taesu opened his mouth again.
“Put the mosquito below the bowel.”
“Here.”
“Release the bowel and place it close to the Babcock on the right.”
“Like this?”
Clack. Click.
Jeong Min-su focused on Taesu’s voice and moved immediately each time.
His reactions were fairly quick.
It was clear that he was responding without letting complicated thoughts get in the way.
Taesu was satisfied with Jeong Min-su’s reactions.
He was also grateful that Jeong Min-su did not distract him with unnecessary words.
There was far too little time to say so.
Putting away the clock did not mean ignoring the passage of time.
His mind was running at full speed, like a sprinter in the short-distance track. The problem was that the finish line was nowhere in sight.
The more so it was, the calmer Taesu became.
And while moving the surgical instruments himself, he guided Jeong Min-su at the same time.
Click, tap.
“Grasp here with the Ellis.”
“Done.”
“And suction it out with the syringe.”
“Wait… Spray saline first, then suction!”
Swoosh!
Amazingly, Jeong Min-su’s reactions gradually grew faster.
It was a change brought about by his increasing reliance on Taesu.
Taesu sensed it as well.
‘If you’re telling me to use you, I’ll use you as much as you want.’
It was a hundred times better than watching him refuse because it went beyond common sense.
Taesu himself was emptying his mind.
That was because he was imitating the surgical methods of his teachers as they surfaced in his memory.
There were many advanced aspects that he could not reproduce exactly.
Thanks to that, some parts had to be omitted, while others were worked out differently to suit him.
‘This part goes this way, and this one a little farther down…’
He continued muttering inwardly without pause.
An operation like this was impossible with Kaprene’s thoracic surgical knowledge alone.
But with James, it was a different story.
There was no way for Taesu to glimpse James’s knowledge.
As an alternative, there were cases in which Kaprene and James had operated together.
Many portions had been remembered from Kaprene’s perspective.
He was forcibly drawing them out and applying them now.
That reckless act was rapidly piling up Taesu’s mental fatigue.
The accumulated mental fatigue came with a headache.
Bzzzt!
‘Ugh.’
Anything forced was bound to cause trouble.
But if he did not do this, the only option was to remove the kidney.
For one kidney to disappear because of an incident that had struck like lightning from a clear sky was out of the question.
On top of that, Jeong Min-su’s powerful compassion for others played a major role.
For the patient, and for Jeong Min-su, this surgery had to end in success.
That was why Taesu clenched his teeth.
‘Grrr.’
Even with pain that made his head feel as though it would split apart, Taesu moved doggedly.
Time passed.
He simply did not know how much had gone by.
It was when he did not think that very much time had passed.
A considerable amount of work had been done to clear out the renal medulla.
All the small scraps of scraped tissue had been removed.
And the shape of the renal pelvis had changed slightly.
It was a pyeloplasty.
Ordinarily, a pyeloplasty was quite difficult and took a great deal of time.
What Taesu had done was only a partial procedure, closer to a simplified, modified surgical technique.
It was impossible to compare it with a standard operation.
‘How could I perform all of it?’
If merely recalling a surgical method meant he could carry it all out, Taesu would already have been called a genius in the field of thoracic surgery.
That was how limited Taesu was by his lack of experience.
Still, he could be satisfied because there were things he had been unable to do in Ijambak but could do now.
Unlike his thoughts, his eyes carefully scanned the surgical site.
Swish, swish.
Taesu’s eyes moved frantically.
It was because, in reality, he could not spare even this much time.
After his final inspection, Taesu urgently called for Jeong Min-su.
“Min-su, prepare for suturing.”
“Already?”
“I’m going to remove the surgical instruments. Hurry and get ready.”
“Ah, all right.”
Jeong Min-su answered with a dazed expression.
Because he had been moving according to Taesu’s orders, he felt as though he had failed to properly grasp the context of the operation.
That awkwardness vanished the moment he prepared the sutures.
Click. Swish.
As he gripped the suture needle with the needle holder and lifted it, even his eyes changed.
That was because he considered suturing his pride.
After also taking hold of an International forceps for assistance, Jeong Min-su spoke with a resolute expression.
“I’m ready.”
“Ten seconds.”
Tap, tap.
Taesu deftly removed the surgical instruments holding the renal medulla in place.
It was after he removed the bowel clamp last.
Lowering the instruments, Taesu deftly closed up the kidney.
Click!
“Begin suturing!”
At that moment, Jeong Min-su’s hands began moving busily.
The way he had been led along until then vanished as if it had been a lie; he moved actively and nimbly.
Swish, swish.
“Suture here, then this way…”
He stitched the kidney densely with a thin suture needle, moving with considerable speed.
Even Taesu found it fascinating.
But this was not the time to become absorbed in the spectacle.
“First, stitch it loosely and close it as much as possible.”
“Okay.”
Tap, tap.
Jeong Min-su immediately changed the flow of his suturing and widened the intervals.
Taesu occasionally pulled the sutures, helping close the kidney. At the same time, he sprayed liquid hemostatic agent over the cut surface.
He intended to create an effect similar to adhesive so that the kidney could adhere firmly.
Soon, the loosely stitched kidney had been closed until it resembled its original shape.
Even so, a slight gap remained visible.
Unsatisfied, Taesu urged him on.
“Stronger!”
“Ungh!”
“Pull with your hand!”
“Come on!”
Squeeze!
They tightened it so much that the renal cortex interlocked and even began to crumple.
The kidney itself had become slightly smaller.
It meant that an equal amount had been carved out of the medulla.
It was regrettable to think that its function would be reduced.
However, he was also suffering from nephromegaly.
From that perspective, the reduction in size offered at least some hope of suppressing the disease’s progression.
The condition of the kidney was complicated in several ways.
The uncomplicated part was that they had to finish suturing as quickly as possible.
As the kidney was mercilessly drawn closed, Jeong Min-su spoke solemnly.
“Now stitch it densely again!”
Click, click.
As he had said aloud, his suturing style returned to its original pattern.
That was when it happened.
Swish.
Taesu turned and quickly prepared something from the temporary medical cart.
Amazingly, he held a needle holder and a Mixter in his hands.
“I’ll come down from above.”
“From both sides? Then we’ll cut the time even further.”
“Last one minute.”
“Right. One minute—absolutely one minute!”
Click, click.
Jeong Min-su increased his speed first.
In reality, finishing the sutures within one minute was impossible.
It was merely a symbolic goal.
Their hands moved with that much urgency.
But they had to repeat the same motion countless times within a limited space. Their hands could not help but become strained.
Pain like that was buried beneath their desperation.
‘One minute. One minute!’
With the urgency of time chasing them from behind, they continued suturing without even noticing the ache in their bones.
Taesu was the same.
His suturing speed was fairly fast as well.
Jeong Min-su was somewhat faster, but Taesu’s speed was not something to dismiss.
Click, swish.
Taesu continued suturing from top to bottom, while Jeong Min-su worked from bottom to top.
Soon, the two of them met in the middle.
It was a point slightly above the center.
Jeong Min-su first held out his suture thread to Taesu and spoke.
“Switch.”
“Good idea.”
Click. Tap.
Taesu left his own suture threaded through the kidney and grasped Jeong Min-su’s suture with the needle holder.
Jeong Min-su likewise switched to Taesu’s suture.
Then they changed directions and stitched as though retracing the paths they had come along.
Thanks to that, a double layer of sutures was completed piece by piece without any collisions.
Soon, the suturing was finished.
A clear double line of sutures ran from the middle of the right kidney down toward the lower portion.
It felt as though they had repeated the exact same suturing twice.
That was because Taesu and Jeong Min-su’s suturing styles were so similar.
Tap. Tap.
The two of them tied their knots and cut the suture threads almost simultaneously.
But that was not the end. Each of them took hold of a bulldog clamp.
Taesu immediately released the bulldog clamp that had blocked the renal artery and gave an order.
“Release it.”
“Kidney, please work properly. Please!”
Click.
Jeong Min-su earnestly made his wish as he released the bulldog clamp blocking the renal vein.
In the meantime, Taesu moved the bulldog clamp to the bridge.
He then blocked the blood flowing through the bridge.
Whoosh!
The renal artery gradually swelled, showing that blood was heading toward the kidney.
The kidney soon grew taut as well, as though it had been inflated.
The more it did so, the more intensity entered Taesu and Jeong Min-su’s eyes.
They were checking for bleeding at the sutured area. Since a kidney handled a massive flow of blood over twenty-four hours, no gaps could be tolerated.
Even a slight wound could develop into a major hemorrhage.
When shrapnel from a grenade had penetrated it, a blood clot could sometimes form and achieve hemostasis.
But that was the wrong outcome.
Normally, blood was supposed to circulate endlessly.
That was why suturing was so important.
In a partial nephrectomy, the key was how flawlessly the sutures were placed.
It was only natural for Taesu and Jeong Min-su to watch with their eyes blazing.
They were watching just so when—
Trickle.
A sudden drop of blood appeared.
The instant they saw it, both their eyes widened.
“Bleeding!”
“Where? Where!”
They tried to find the source of the bleeding with hawk-sharp eyes.