There, only suture needles stood lined up like trophies.
Suture needles were thin and small, easily lost. That was why they were always collected separately, to match the count later.
It was the most basic of basics in an operating room.
Especially Jeong Min-su, who had devoted himself to suturing and trained repeatedly, was even more dumbfounded.
But Taesu’s reaction was unexpectedly calm.
“If you had surgery last winter, you must have been incredibly busy.”
“Is this something to be brushed off like that?”
“You really must have been busy.”
Taesu emphasized it twice.
Yet his gaze had hardened chillingly.
Seeing that, Jeong Min-su flinched and called out.
“Doctor Choe.”
“Let’s think of it that way.”
“Is that okay?”
“Or do you feel like going down right now and wringing that military doctor bastard’s neck?”
Taesu answered in a voice devoid of even emotion.
He was furious enough to do so.
Jeong Min-su was the same.
His gaze had hardened chillingly as well.
Busy?
It was a shabby excuse.
This could only be seen as pure negligence.
Then Taesu looked at the suture needle with a cold gaze and spoke.
“To think this tiny thing could cause such a disaster.”
“Even if suture needles are sterile products, it’s strange there was no problem after they’d been sitting for months.”
“What crime have the soldiers committed?”
A hollow expression formed on its own inside his mask.
He would show and explain when the patient woke up, but that was likely all he could do.
A medical accident?
Here, that was a story from a distant land.
If the military doctor even apologized when he found out, it would be a blessing.
It was already clear as day that the matter would be haphazardly swept under the rug.
Not just the Indian army, but the Pakistani army was similar too.
Taesu could guess, having experienced it countless times in Ijambak.
Then Jeong Min-su called out to Taesu in a heavy voice.
“Choe, is this only this patient’s problem?”
“It can’t be.”
“There are nineteen more outside, right?”
The moment Jeong Min-su reminded him.
Strength shot into Taesu’s eyes.
“……Let’s hurry.”
“It was emergency surgery.”
“Critical emergency.”
“You said it was a critical emergency earlier.”
Jeong Min-su did not let a single word slide.
Taesu emphasized without minding.
“Ultra-critical emergency.”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
“Quit nitpicking and let’s hurry.”
“I……”
The moment Jeong Min-su tried to say something.
Taesu cut him off and raised his voice.
“Last minute!”
Swish!
Taesu’s hands instantly sped up.
Snick. Slice!
Starting from the movement to resect the small intestine, everything changed.
He cut without hesitation, and cut again.
His appearance was concerning enough that one might worry he was rushing alone.
That was absolutely not the case.
Jeong Min-su followed the path Taesu’s hands had taken.
“Suturing, double speed!”
Clatter.
Jeong Min-su’s hands also instantly sped up as if a motor had been attached.
But he could not reach the speed of the double tempo he had called out so boldly. It was symbolic, not an absolute standard.
Even so, it was true that he had become faster than before.
After some time had passed.
New, neat suture marks had been created on the patient’s abdomen.
The surgery was reaching its final stages.
How they had spent that time was evident from the debris filling the area around the operating table.
Jeong Min-su spoke with difficulty, his face soaked with sweat.
“Hah, hah. At the end…… The ascites was a hidden enemy.”
“We drained it for now, but it’s not a complete cure.”
“The problem was draining it. How could there be no end no matter how much we drained?”
Jeong Min-su looked around and shook his head. There were so many soaked gauzes around them for that to be true.
Meanwhile, Taesu checked the vitals.
Beep.
“The vitals are……. Okay. This much is fine.”
“Already fine?”
“Yeah. The pulse is all over the place and the blood pressure is erratic, but it’s not bad.”
Taesu spoke urgent words with a calm face.
But Jeong Min-su also accepted it stoically.
“It was a critical emergency, so those vitals are a good showing.”
“Recovery is the key.”
“For now, we have no choice but to check intermittently.”
The two’s conversation was unexpectedly calm.
Intestinal obstruction was clearly a condition requiring emergency treatment. On the other hand, the surgery itself was not that difficult.
The surgery wrapped up well, but the hidden enemy of ascites remained.
From now on, alleviating the ascites symptoms was the key to recovery. Because the cause was peritonitis, they could not rest easy.
And there was another problem.
Regarding that, Taesu spoke heavily.
“The problem is sepsis.”
“High pulse, unstable blood pressure, decreased urine output……. Ambiguous.”
“Because it’s the same as the immediate post-surgery reaction.”
“If it’s sepsis, how can we be sure?”
When Jeong Min-su asked seriously, Taesu thought for a moment and answered.
“If the blood pressure drops sharply, sepsis is confirmed.”
“Then for now, it’s just a post-surgery reaction.”
“Right. As you said, we should monitor it, but we don’t even have the situation to do so.”
“We need to ask Sam and Anthony, and tell them to let us know right away if anything seems off.”
Jeong Min-su quickly gave his opinion.
Even to Taesu, it was the most reasonable method for now.
But there was a problem.
“The ward is next door. There’s distance.”
“That’s true too.”
“Hmm. It’ll be a bit hard at first, but as surgeries finish one by one, it should be possible.”
Taesu offered a solution on his own.
Jeong Min-su slowly chewed it over and soon nodded.
“Right. The first patient is entering the ward now, but who knows how many more will go in.”
“When we briefly leave our posts in turns, we can use the Platoon Leader as auxiliary.”
“We just need to go check once after each surgery ends.”
Jeong Min-su added.
Thinking about it calmly again, the method they had just discussed was the best.
The conversation about patient care ended there.
There were many patients waiting outside.
It was time to wrap up.
Taesu and Jeong Min-su stood facing the operating table.
Soon they exchanged glances and bowed their heads together in respect.
“Surgery complete. Good work.”
“Good work.”
They bowed.
Since it was a greeting toward the patient, they finished courteously.
The composure ended there.
The moment the declaration of completion ended, Taesu and Jeong Min-su moved like lightning.
Taesu hurried to prepare to move the patient.
“Fluids are done, breathing is fine…….”
Meanwhile, Jeong Min-su roughly opened the door as if kicking it and shouted.
Slam!
“Surgery is over. We need to move this patient first!”
“Coming now!”
Squad Leader Sam’s answering voice was heard from outside.
And immediately, Squad Leader Sam and Private Anthony entered.
The two immediately scattered and approached Taesu and Jeong Min-su respectively.
Swish!
Squad Leader Sam, arriving in front of Taesu, spoke first of the situation outside.
“There are three patients in too much pain.”
“Three of them?”
“One of them was administered morphine but shows little response.”
“Then we’ll take that patient next, but first we need to move this patient next door.”
At the same time Taesu spoke.
Clack.
Private Anthony lifted the stretcher and rested it against the operating table.
“I brought it here.”
Taesu paused seeing that.
“Where did that stretcher come from……?”
“It’s the one we carried the factory manager in yesterday. I explained that.”
Jeong Min-su fired back like a machine gun, and Taesu paused.
It was because he had forgotten this and had carried the patient in an uncomfortable position.
“You should’ve told me when we brought this patient.”
“You were the one rushing me to get inside quickly.”
Jeong Min-su retorted in disbelief.
Taesu had nothing to say to that either.
Swish.
He pointlessly turned his gaze to Squad Leader Sam and Private Anthony, saying with a bitter face.
“I’m glad that you two can at least be a little more comfortable.”
“If you see the situation outside, you won’t be saying that.”
“I’ll see for myself. Let’s move the patient first.”
Taesu was curious too, so he urged everyone on.
At those words, everyone hurried to move.
While preparing to transport, Taesu also explained the patient care method he had coordinated with Jeong Min-su.
Shortly after.
Slam!
The operating room door opened roughly.
Squad Leader Sam and Private Anthony came out with the stretcher through the gap.
“Hurry!”
“Understood!”
Thud-thud!
The two moved at a quick pace carrying the stretcher front and back.
The patient who had just undergone surgery lay atop it.
Their footsteps were so fast it was hard to believe they were moving a strapping adult.
They hurried toward the house next door like that.
Following, Taesu exited the operating room and ordered inside.
“Doctor Jeong, please reset as quickly as possible.”
“I said I got it. Go check the patients quickly!”
Jeong Min-su’s pushing voice was heard even louder.
Taesu nodded and turned his body.
Looking at the platform in the yard, most of the Indian soldiers were lying down.
More than half of them were wrapped in bandages.
It looked like basic emergency treatment had been performed.
The affected areas were so varied that it was easy to imagine how much Squad Leader Sam and Private Anthony had struggled.
Thanks to that, the groans that had filled the yard before surgery had decreased considerably. But silence had not arrived.
“Nnnggh!”
A moan came from the soldier positioned closest to the operating room.
He must have been the patient Squad Leader Sam had mentioned.
Taesu approached while looking around for the Platoon Leader.
The Platoon Leader approached with such briskness that Taesu felt embarrassed by his own searching, and greeted him first.
“I heard the surgery ended well. Thank you.”
“This is just the beginning. More importantly, what’s hurting that friend?”
“A few days ago during base reinforcement work…….”
The Platoon Leader began speaking while looking at a memo.
Seeing that, Taesu immediately stopped him.
“I think it’ll be faster if I look at it myself.”
“Ah, that’s right. Here.”
Swish.
Receiving the offered memo, he saw it was written in neat alphabet.
Indian army officers were the ruling class who had received higher education. So the Platoon Leader could utilize English in various ways.
It was outside Taesu’s interest, so he did not think deeply about it.
The information of the patients currently suffering was more important.
Among them, he quickly checked the memo regarding the patient in pain now.
“Sudden flank pain, indigestion, discomfort every time he urinates?”
It had nothing to do with base reinforcement work.
Rather, they were symptoms closer to an internal medicine condition.
Tilting his head, Taesu approached the patient.
He was hunched over like a shrimp, so his face could not be seen properly.
As always, Taesu lightly touched him to show familiarity to the patient.
Tap.
“Hey.”
But then.
“Nnnggh!”
The patient’s groan instantly grew louder.
Startled, Taesu first checked where his hand had touched.
‘His back? Then…….’
Swish!
He checked the contents of the temporary chart again.
He took in the symptoms in his head and added the current reaction.
At that moment, Taesu’s face crumpled.