In the meantime, Taesu found the platoon leader.
“Platoon Leader, lend us a hand!”
“I’m coming!”
“We’re carrying him with Dr. Sam. One, two… three!”
“Hrngh!”
Taesu and Squad Leader Sam took the upper body, one on each side, while the platoon leader lifted both legs.
He couldn’t bring himself to ask the other soldiers.
They were barely managing to look after themselves.
Leaving them behind, the three of them carried the patient toward the operating room.
A moment later.
Bang.
The door to the room across the hall opened, and the platoon leader came out first.
“I’ll get back to what I was doing.”
Rat-a-tat.
Perhaps because he had seen all the way into the operating room, he seemed to feel even more responsible for his own duty.
Next, Squad Leader Sam and Private Anthony came out.
Taesu followed, poking only his face out as he said,
“Dr. Sam, please look after the patients with Dr. Anthony.”
“I’m not sure we’ll be able to examine them properly.”
“If you don’t know what to do, start by sticking them with morphine. On a battlefield, that’s the standard when someone’s wounded.”
At Taesu’s rough analogy, Squad Leader Sam nodded.
“That is the standard.”
“I knew it would be like this, but the start is painfully predictable.”
“Still, those guys kept their promise. Not only rifles, I don’t see a single bayonet.”
“If they’d brought any, it would have ended right then. Excuse me.”
Thud.
Taesu immediately shut the door to the room across the hall—no, the operating room.
Squad Leader Sam and Private Anthony smiled bitterly.
It was because Taesu’s words from just now lingered in their ears.
They carried the meaning that if the promise was broken, he would send back even the patients who had come.
And he said it knowing full well that the other party was the Indian Army.
They themselves didn’t have a single gun.
Even so, Taesu’s will was utterly firm.
“His nerve alone is commander-level.”
“I’d believe it if someone said he was the commander-in-chief of the PKO.”
They didn’t dislike that stubbornness of Taesu’s.
Rather, they found it stranger that they themselves had come to accept it as only natural.
Meanwhile, in the operating room, preparations for surgery were proceeding urgently.
Of the two of them, Taesu was connecting an IV to the patient’s arm.
Puncture.
The needle entered along the blood vessel on the back of the hand.
He should have felt a sharp sting. But the patient lying on the wooden operating table didn’t notice at all.
“Guuuh…”
He only grimaced hard, suffering. It was enough to make one wonder if the morphine injected earlier had been defective.
At the pain-filled sound, Taesu’s expression hardened as he moved his hands even faster.
At times like this, putting him to sleep was best.
“Administer the sedative first!”
Squeeze.
He quickly added the injection while simultaneously watching the patient’s face.
At the same time, he slowly counted backward.
‘Three… two… one.’
The moment the reverse count ended.
“Ugh, uuh…”
The patient’s groans diminished, and his eyes slowly closed.
Slide.
He had fallen asleep.
Even so, Taesu had no time to feel relieved and administered the next drug.
“General anesthetic, followed by a small dose of muscle relaxant…”
Click. Click.
Several more drugs were quickly added.
It didn’t end there; he also secured the airway through intubation.
Since the chest was not within the surgical field, he did not set up an Ambu bag. It was enough to adjust the muscle relaxant so it would not affect the movement of the lungs.
In the meantime, Jeong Minsu was finishing the minimal surgical preparations on the opposite side.
“This is done, and then…”
Clatter.
His hands moved frantically, as if motors had been attached to them.
Perhaps because they had repeated emergency surgeries countless times, the necessary surgical supplies were placed in their proper spots.
Soon, Jeong Minsu stopped on the other side of the operating table and said,
“What we need for now is ready.”
“The patient isn’t ready.”
“Then we have to help him get ready.”
“Yeah. And his current vitals are…”
As if he had been waiting, Taesu spoke about the patient’s current condition.
During that time, Jeong Minsu had begun moving again.
This time, it was not his body but both hands that were busy. Holding scissors, he was boldly cutting through the patient’s military uniform.
Riiip. Rip.
As the sharp scissors passed, the tough uniform was cut like paper.
In an instant, the patient’s upper body was exposed.
At that moment, Jeong Minsu’s expression stiffened slightly.
“What is this, a seasoned veteran?”
Just as he said, several wounds were engraved across the body.
Everything about what kind of time the patient had spent after enlisting was contained within them.
Then Taesu, having seen something, urgently called Jeong Minsu.
“Minsu. The lower right abdomen.”
“Here… Isn’t this a gunshot scar?”
Tap.
When Jeong Minsu pointed to it himself and asked, Taesu answered immediately.
“That’s right.”
“And beside it, there’s a knife scar, and also…”
“He was pressing his hand over the gunshot wound.”
At Taesu’s words, Jeong Minsu’s voice stopped as if by a lie. Then he looked at the gunshot scar again and began forming his own deduction.
“He said this part hurt. It doesn’t look that old.”
“About half a year. It could be even shorter than that.”
“You can tell even though it’s healed this much?”
“The scar’s still clear.”
Taesu stated the basis for his guess.
At that moment, Jeong Minsu rolled his eyes around, then suddenly clapped his hands.
Clap!
“Last winter!”
At that sound, a small glint passed through Taesu’s eyes as well.
“A wound from then? Yeah. That’s possible.”
“Hmm… There doesn’t seem to be an exit wound.”
Jeong Minsu’s hand had already slipped under the patient’s back.
At those words, Taesu’s expression changed subtly.
“But if he’s developed an intestinal obstruction, it could be a surgical complication.”
“It’s a surgical wound from three or four months ago. And now a problem shows up?”
“Even with the same obstruction, the rate of progression differs from person to person.”
“Well, that’s true, but… I don’t know. We’ll find out once we open him up.”
“Yeah. Let’s hurry and finish securing the surgical field, then put on our gowns.”
After the conversation ended, Taesu applied disinfectant across the entire abdomen.
Jeong Minsu helped as well, spreading out the surgical drape.
A moment later.
Having completed all surgical preparations, Taesu and Jeong Minsu stood facing each other across the operating table.
With his gloved hand, Taesu pressed on the patient’s abdomen.
Press.
He wasn’t playing around; he was gauging the resistance of the muscles.
Seeming satisfied, Taesu glanced over. Receiving that signal, Jeong Minsu nodded and stood straight.
At the same time, Taesu declared briefly,
“We will proceed with emergency surgery for intestinal obstruction. Patient, we’ll be in your care.”
“We’ll be in your care.”
Bow.
Though it was an operation performed by only the two of them, they did not forget the greeting.
But the reason it felt rushed was because the patient’s vitals were not good.
Taesu picked up the scalpel and spoke hurriedly.
“Scalpel going in.”
“Ready!”
“Beginning laparotomy!”
Sssk.
Taesu’s scalpel moved around the faint gunshot wound.
Perhaps because this emergency surgery was not an issue of bleeding, little blood flowed out. Instead, the ascitic fluid that had been filling the inside spilled out.
Drip.
“Blot it up and clear it away first!”
“I’ll set the Balfour.”
“There aren’t any hands to help.”
“I can do it alone.”
Swipe, click.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu each moved busily.
Since there were few people in the surgery, they had to move their hands all the more diligently.
Soon, the Balfour retractor was set, and the affected area was exposed.
Black lesions occupied the small intestine and descending colon adjacent to the liver.
But the eyes of both men, exposed above their masks, grew awkward.
Jeong Minsu voiced the reason first.
“Dr. Choi, isn’t this a bit strange?”
“It’s very strange.”
“Right. Intestinal obstructions usually aren’t like this, are they?”
When Jeong Minsu asked to confirm, Taesu nodded immediately.
“Yeah. An intestinal obstruction is when part of the intestine gets blocked and starts to rot.”
“Then what is this? Why is it rotting over such a wide area?”
Jeong Minsu continued tilting his head.
That was how unusual the shape of this intestinal obstruction was.
Necrosis was progressing in an area the size of a fist. It felt as if the necrosis had begun on the outer surface of the small intestine and spread outward.
It was a form where the sequence was reversed compared to the progression of other intestinal obstructions.
As Taesu examined it with his brow furrowed, he spoke in a low voice.
“It’s not an ordinary intestinal obstruction.”
“Then?”
“We’ll have to confirm as we operate.”
Click.
Taesu directed the Metzenbaum scissors and Mixter forceps toward the affected area.
Jeong Minsu followed, positioning the intestinal forceps and long forceps.
And the surgery proceeded immediately.
The order of surgery for intestinal obstruction was simple.
It proceeded by cutting out the necrotic intestine and performing an anastomosis.
It was the same now.
First, Jeong Minsu lifted the necrotic section.
“Here.”
Immediately, Taesu cut it away with a generous margin using the Metzenbaum and Mixter.
“Cut.”
Snip.
“Let’s cut the other side with some room too, around here.”
“Good idea.”
Snip.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu exchanged brief opinions as they moved their hands.
It was to ensure they would not have to repeat the same operation twice.
After excising the necrotic area like that, they had to proceed immediately with the anastomosis.
At that moment, the roles of the two naturally changed.
Click, click.
Taesu held the two resected ends with the Mixter and Allis forceps.
The process of carefully bringing them together so the two sides would not be misaligned proceeded in one straight motion.
“…Done. They’re aligned.”
“Stay just like that. Beginning anastomosis.”
Rustle.
The needle holder and intestinal forceps in Jeong Minsu’s hands moved fluidly.
The anastomosis continued quickly and steadily.
For someone skilled enough to suture even thin blood vessels, an anastomosis of the small intestine posed no problem.
That did not mean he acted relaxed or arrogant.
Even for a single stitch, Jeong Minsu moved his hands with his eyes full of focus.
“Insert here, then back through here…”
From time to time, his murmuring could be heard.
They were words that slipped out without his realizing whenever Jeong Minsu concentrated.
Behind his mask, Taesu smiled faintly.
When he was operating, he was definitely an appealing friend.
Since they were in surgery, he deliberately avoided thinking of anything beyond that.
That was when the resection and anastomosis of the small intestine were being repeated in alternation.
Taesu’s eyes suddenly hardened at something he saw.
“…”
Taesu’s gaze and movements abruptly stopped.
At the same time, Jeong Minsu, who had been holding the necrotic small intestine, glanced over.
“Why?”
“Stay just like that.”
“What did you see?”
“This.”
Swoosh.
Taesu’s Mixter grasped the next necrotic section of small intestine to be handled and turned it slightly.
There existed something there that should not have been there.
The moment Jeong Minsu found it as well, he put strength into his eyes and said,
“A suture needle?”
“Damn it.”
“What the hell. Are you saying they left it behind during the gunshot surgery?”
Jeong Minsu’s voice rose at the end of its own accord, as if he couldn’t believe it.
Taesu seemed to think the same, and nodded.
“Looks like it.”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
“There’s no other way to explain it.”
“Taesu. Checking the suture needles after you finish suturing is basic. That’s why we lay them out where they’re easy to see like this.”
Tap.
Jeong Minsu picked up a piece of gauze set aside nearby and showed it to him.