Chapter 84: We Do Lung Surgery Too [2] "Hoo."
With a short deep breath, Kanghyeok drew the scalpel down.
With faint cracking sounds, the muscles between the ribs began to split apart.
The upper rib was already broken, and because the fragment had bent sharply inward, the shaking was even worse.
A strange sound, almost like wind leaking out, came from the lung where the fragment was lodged.
"Makbong! Starting now!"
"Yes!"
Makbong answered in extreme tension.
That was only natural, since one person's life now depended on his lung capacity.
He immediately blew air into the iron-ball bag, then handed it straight to Yeoju.
"Hoo—"
Yeoju took it and blew that breath into Gyehan's throat.
She did not forget to pull his lower jaw properly to open the airway as much as possible.
"Pshhh—"
Each time she breathed for him, air also leaked out from the torn lung.
That was a good sign.
It meant the air was passing through very well.
Kanghyeok nodded with a satisfied look.
"You're doing well. You two make a great combo."
"Thank you."
Makbong bowed his head deeply even as he blew into the bag.
He had no idea what combo meant, but he did not dare question it.
Talking back was Dolseok's specialty, and he had never once seen it end well.
"All right, everyone saw that, right? Those two are going to have a very hard time. That means we have to hurry."
"Yes!"
Dolseok and Yeoni answered vigorously.
As if determined to keep his own word, Kanghyeok's hands began moving at tremendous speed.
"Hand me the forceps."
"Pull here."
"Wipe this."
Because of that, Dolseok and Yeoni had no choice but to move frantically as well.
Once Kanghyeok truly set his mind to operating, his speed was unbelievable.
Even fellows would have found it burdensome to assist him.
There had even been someone on the verge of being appointed assistant professor who got thrown out.
The reason had been that he did not seem properly prepared.
From that man's point of view, it must have felt terribly unfair.
The operation he had gone in to assist with that day had been the sort he could easily have performed alone.
It was just that the gap between his skill and Kanghyeok's had been too wide.
"Ah, I said hand me that."
"Pull this."
"Are you not wiping?"
Of course, there was no way Dolseok and Yeoni could keep up with Kanghyeok's hands at their level.
As time passed, his sharp scolding only intensified, to the point that even Heo Jun, who was merely watching from the side, felt his knees weaken.
Even Makbong, who was desperately blowing into the iron-ball bag, let out a sigh of relief.
Better to be blowing this thing. I can't go over there.
Kanghyeok's scolding was so harsh that even blowing into the ball bag felt like happiness.
"Ah, Dolseok."
"Y-Yes, yes."
Dolseok answered with a thoroughly cowed face.
"Do you have something stuffed in your ears? Why can't you understand what I'm saying? Pull this."
A flicker of confusion crossed Dolseok's face.
Because it was definitely a little different from the place Kanghyeok had told him to pull just a moment ago.
But he did not dare object.
Kanghyeok's face, holding the forceps, was simply too frightening.
So frightening it would not have seemed strange if he pulled out someone's fingernail with the forceps on the spot.
"Yes, yes."
"Yeoni. Wipe the blood too. I can't see."
Yeoni felt just as wronged.
She had been wiping it frantically this whole time already.
But what could she do?
It kept coming out.
Still, she had no choice either.
Takgyeon aside, inside this room Kanghyeok was no different from the greatest master under heaven.
"Yes."
There was some reward for how relentlessly he drove them.
Before long, every fragment of the broken rib had been removed.
There had been four pieces, and all of them had been embedded in the right lung.
More precisely, in the right middle lobe and lower lobe.
"Tsk."
The location was bad.
The condition was even worse.
This was not the kind of wound that could be solved with a rough closure.
If he did that, there was no telling when it might rupture again and create another tension pneumothorax.
"Pshuushhh—"
Perhaps because all the rib fragments had been removed, the leaking air was even more violent than before.
Because of that, Makbong's face was swelling as if it might burst.
Of course, he was not blowing that hard of his own accord.
It was because of Kanghyeok's shouting.
"Can't you hear the leaking air? Blow twice as fast as before!"
"Yes, yes—kh."
He felt as though he were about to pass out, but there was nothing he could do.
Kim Gyehan was literally losing his breath, not metaphorically.
Makbong blew into the iron-ball bag as though crying while eating mustard.
Damn it. I should've stayed over there after all.
Thinking that with belated regret.
"I'll have to cut the lung after all."
Kanghyeok muttered it with the force of someone pronouncing a death sentence.
Well... judging by the lung's color, its function is still very good. It should be fine.
In truth, even normal adults were generally fine with one lung gone.
They just would not be able to display the same physical ability they had with both.
The upper lobe is the main one, and this part's fine... Let's remove only the middle and lower lobes.
If everything went according to plan, Kim Gyehan would likely feel little difference before and after the operation.
Praying that would be the case, Kanghyeok began working his way through the major bronchi.
From here on, this was almost entirely unknown territory to Dolseok and Yeoni.
Naturally, they had never seen anything like it before.
They had never even imagined it.
"You, pull this upward."
Kanghyeok pressed an Army retractor into Dolseok's hand.
It was hooked carefully onto the upper lobe of the right lung.
"Don't pull too hard. If this bursts, the patient dies. And you die too. Understand?"
"Ah, yes, yes."
Dolseok nodded over and over with a stricken face.
What kind of physician kept talking about people dying like this?
He had complaints, but he did not dare voice them.
The atmosphere was so grim it truly felt as though someone might die.
"Yeoni, spread this open here."
With another Army retractor, they had to spread open the incision.
Only then would the inside be visible clearly.
Yeoni nodded silently.
She was so exhausted she did not even have the strength to answer.
Kanghyeok paid no attention to either of their reactions.
Or rather, it would have been more accurate to say he could not.
That was how little room for ease he had.
Keeping the lung open like this is a burden in itself.
Normally, even if an operating room was not a sterile chamber, it was still kept far cleaner than other places.
It was cold, dry, and even had purification systems.
Compared to that, this place was little better than a cesspit.
They were all wearing masks and surgical caps, so there would not be direct contamination.
But the lung was an organ especially vulnerable to infection.
And on top of that, it was already injured, which made it the perfect opening for germs.
That means I have to hurry.
Kanghyeok slid his hand into the space Dolseok and Yeoni had created.
Because the light was insufficient, what he could see was uncertain at best.
But his perfect anatomical knowledge guided his exploration.
"This is the main branch."
It was almost miraculous handwork.
Kanghyeok briefly admired himself, then traced down from the main branch.
He absolutely could not touch a bronchus leading into the upper lobe by mistake.
If he did, he would have to remove the entire right lung.
He'd still live, probably. But he wouldn't be carrying Seonjo on his back and running.
More likely, he would die before that.
Maybe Seonjo would die too.
That won't do.
No matter how incompetent the king was, a king was still a king.
History might change for the better, but if it did not, then Joseon itself might disappear as a nation.
"Good. This is it. Both of you hold on just a little longer. You're doing well."
"Yes, young master."
"Makbong, blow faster."
"Yes, yes."
"Physician Heo, at least check the blood pressure."
"Oh, yes, yes."
At last, Kanghyeok's irritation even spilled onto Heo Jun.
Heo Jun, who had been watching blankly, hurried into motion.
It had already been nearly a year since he last measured blood pressure, so the method felt hazy.
He wanted to ask how to do it, but the words would not come out easily.
Kanghyeok's face beside him looked exactly like that of a vicious killing star.
Work, brain, work!
Heo Jun frantically forced his mind to move.
After all, was he not the sort of figure whose name would remain in Joseon's history?
Fortunately, he managed to recall how to measure blood pressure, and soon he was able to produce a satisfactory result.
"The blood pressure is 90 over 60."
"Hm."
It was not entirely satisfying, but under the circumstances it was acceptable.
What mattered most was that this was practically a bloodless operation.
If the hospital director saw this, he'd probably have to double my salary.
Somehow, it felt as though his skill had only been improving since coming to Joseon.
He thought it was because the environment was so poor that he was being forced to squeeze everything out of himself.
In the end, a person's limits really are decided by the person himself.
Half intoxicated with self-admiration, Kanghyeok took up the suture.
Then he tied off every vessel entering the middle and lower lobes.
Veins and arteries alike.
So tightly that they would never come loose.
Very firmly.
"All right, scissors now."
He was about to cut away the bronchi going into the right middle and lower lobes together with the tied vessels.
It was a fairly important technique.
And at the same time, a dangerous one.
"Makbong! Faster than now!"
"What?"
Makbong cried out while panting for breath.
His voice was already hoarse, and he looked as though he might die on the spot.
Kanghyeok felt a little sorry, but there was nothing to be done.
Someone who looked as though he might die and someone who actually would die were very different things.
"Faster!"
"Ugh. Yes."
Makbong blew with every last bit of strength he had.
His sacrifice could not be wasted.
Dolseok and Yeoni also used all their strength to give Kanghyeok the best field of view possible.
As if gathering energy like a spirit bomb, everyone's hopes in the room converged at Kanghyeok's fingertips.
"Now. Here I go."
Kanghyeok slowly moved the scissors and cut through the bronchus leading to the middle lobe.
A cut surface slightly thinner than a finger appeared, and air rushed out violently.
"Pishhh—"
Only then did Makbong understand why Kanghyeok had been hounding him so fiercely.
The amount of breath escaping uselessly was not even comparable to before.
"This damn it."
He blew that curse-filled breath into the bag, and Yeoju took it and continuously blew it into Kim Gyehan's mouth.
There was not even time to leave behind a brief sketch.
She could only force the scene into her memory.
"Heo..."
Heo Jun simply stood there gaping.
He had felt it when Kanghyeok operated on the head before as well, but Kanghyeok's medical skill far surpassed the bounds of what that era could even imagine.
Could there be any sight more suited to the words broadening one's horizons?
"Snip."
Kanghyeok paid them no heed and continued moving only the scissors.
He had cut every branch heading to the middle lobe, and now it was the turn of the branches leading to the lower lobe.
From time to time he opened his mouth, but every word was a barked order.
"Makbong! Faster!"
"Mmph, mmph."
Makbong nodded with only his head, the bag still in his mouth.
Kanghyeok had no time even to look at that answer.
He was now at the point of detaching the middle and lower lobes of the lung.
"Snip, snip."
Each time Kanghyeok's scissors moved, more bronchi and vessels were cut away, and more air leaked out.
At the same time, the middle and lower lobes of the lung began to hang loose.
"Hup."
When Kanghyeok pulled with force, nearly half the lung came free with a heavy lurch.
"Heo."
Heo Jun and everyone else gaped open-mouthed.
Makbong did the same and immediately got shouted at by Kanghyeok.
"Hurry up and keep blowing!"
"Ah, ah. Yes."
Makbong was not the only one being scolded.
"Everyone, stop staring at the lung and focus, focus!"
"Uh, yes."
Wind was pouring madly out of the cut end of the bronchus.
Holding the needle with the suturing instrument, Kanghyeok muttered,
"Once I tie this off... it's over."
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