Hua Tuo Becomes a Surgeon

Hi guys! I’m back~! Although I did announce in the discord that I will be gone for a while so I could focus on my review for my exam, I forgot to announce it here, and I’m very very sorry for that. Anyway, as an apology, I’ll release an early update for every novel I’m translating yey~

Oh and thank you to Kate and Sarah for subscribing to my patreon while I was away!

Chapter 6

After conquering the ribs and sternum, suturing the separated layers of muscles one by one, and finally suturing the skin to close the chest and fixing the drainage tube.

Having replicated every surgical step performed by Oh Gook-hwan through a virtual patient, Hwabu nodded in satisfaction.

In reality, the surgery took over three hours, but since it was performed on a virtual three-dimensional model, it only took about ten minutes.

“Phew! Even doing it virtually requires this much effort, so it must be several times harder to do it directly on a patient. In my time, if the sternum had been fractured and the heart and surrounding organs had been damaged, there would have been no way to save them. Yet in this era, even such patients can be saved! I guess the blessings you receive depend on the era you live in.”

***

“Dr, Song.”

Song Jiho, who was drinking coffee near the vending machine, stood up and bowed when Choi Yongsoo appeared.

“Yes, Doctor.”

Song Jiho is in his first year of residency, while Choi Yongsoo is in his second year of residency.

“Did Dr. Oh Gook-hwan’s surgery go well?”

“Yes, the surgery went well, so I think the recovery will be good too. Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“Get me something sweet.”

“Yes.”

Song Jiho handed him a cup of coffee, and Choi Yongsoo took a sip, making a slurping sound, then sat down.

“Phew, finally caught a break. How come there’s never a day without an emergency on Fridays?”

“I know, right?”

“By the way, what are we going to do with that anchovy kid?”

Song Jiho paused for a moment when Choi Yongsoo mentioned Lee Minho.

In the past, she might have agreed with him, but now that the lawsuit had been dropped, his on-call duty had been lifted, and Oh Gook-hwan’s attitude towards Lee Minho in the operating room seemed to have also changed slightly.

So maybe it’s time to stop bullying him?

“He’s off-duty now, so isn’t it a bit much to continue picking on him? And Dr. Oh Gook-hwan himself said it’s time to stop.”

“Hey! Even if Dr. Oh said to stop, what intern the world leaves work off-hours?”

“Yes, but he’d been working during the day and been on call at the CICU (Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit). Frankly, after all the crap he’s been through and the on-call duty, I think it’s enough to lay off him.”

“Why are you suddenly defending him?”

Choi Yongsoo tilted his head, and Song Jiho shrugged his shoulders with a blank expression.

“Even so, the interns are already avoiding our department. If we go too far, we might have another shortfall this year. That’s why I said that.”

The Cardiothoracic Surgery Department almost always had a shortfall in the first round of recruitment each year, and had to go through a second round of recruitment to fill the number of residents needed.

“Even if we do well, a department like ours that’s always on call is still avoided. So it’s better to be tough and teach them properly.”

“Haha! That’s not wrong, but honestly, despite giving them a hard time, we haven’t really taught them much, have we?”

At Song Jiho’s words, Choi Yongsoo looked slightly embarrassed.

“What’s wrong with you all of a sudden? Did you get a meal from that anchovy?”

“Aigoo, why would you say that? I didn’t get anything. It’s just that from the perspective of anchovy, there might be some unfairness. Besides, after seeing him today, he seemed to have woken up and changed a bit.”

“He’s the one who brought a dead patient to the operating room, he deserves that much punishment. What’s unfair about it?”

“Well, that’s not really a punishment for an intern, is it? And… oh, never mind. I’m busy, so I’ll go first.”

“What’s so busy about you! Looks like you want to stick up for him, but if you do that, you might get caught by Professor Hwang.”

“I’m not sticking up for anyone, I just think that’s enough. And besides, didn’t Dr. Oh Gook-hwan tell us to stop bullying anchovy? Don’t you think he’s telling us that because Professor Hwang told him to?”

“Is that so?”

“I’ll go now.”

When Song Jiho left, Choi Yongsoo scratched his head for a moment, then drank his coffee in one gulp.

“Ugh! That bastard couldn’t even make a sound when he was an intern, but now that he’s a first-year resident, he’s slowly starting to assert himself. Is it time to put him in his place?”

***

Cardiothoracic surgery interns mainly go around the ICU or hospital wards, performing tasks like drawing blood, dressing wounds, checking vitals, changing tubes, simple sutures, and charting, while the first- and second-year residents manage these interns, teaching them basic surgical techniques.

“Dr. Lee Minho.”

“Yes, Dr. Song Jiho.”

“Looks like we’re only a few days away until our department rotation is over, so where’s your next department?”

“It’s EM (Emergency Medicine).”

“EM? Why there of all places?”

As Song Jiho’s voice trailed off, Hwabu smiled bitterly.

“I’ve decided not to dwell on the past, so don’t worry.”

“R-right. Come to think of it, EM might feel sorry for you, so maybe it’ll be better there than here.”

“……”

“Anyway, it’ll be October soon. Have you decided on your specialization?”

When Song Jiho showed more interest than before, Hwabu inwardly tilted his head.

Looking through Lee Minho’s memories, he hadn’t shown this much interest in asking him such questions.

Once the cardiothoracic surgery internship is over, he’ll be forgotten.

But for some reason, his attitude towards him seemed to have changed slightly.

‘Is he starting to understand the injustice of this body’s owner?’

If it had been Lee Minho, he would have been slightly comforted, but Hwabu was indifferent.

“I’m thinking about CS (Cardiothoracic Surgery) or NS (Neurosurgery), but GS (General Surgery) is also attractive, so I’m still undecided.”

Hwabu mentioned the specialty he wanted, not the one Lee Minho originally desired.

Song Jiho’s eyes widened in an instant.

Departments like surgery, orthopedics, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology often deal with many fatalities, and the caregivers are usually on edge, causing most interns to avoid these departments.

However, to be deliberating between three surgical specialties…

In most cases, people who do this have a sense of mission to become a real doctor who saves lives rather than being driven by money.

Because of this, Lee Minho seemed different.

“Ahem, NS and GS are attractive, but if you really want to be a doctor who saves lives, you have to deal with the heart. If the heart stops, you die.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then come to our department.”

“Yes? Oh, I’m still thinking about it…”

“From your point of view, you must hate Professor Hwang because of the unfair things he did, but Professor Hwang is not the only one in our department. Professor Kim and Professor So are also very skilled, and there’s a lot to learn from them.”

“That’s true, but there are still a few months left, so I’ll think about it a bit more.”

“Ahem, alright, I understand. I hope you choose our department.”

“Yes.”

As they approached the patient’s ward, Song Jiho glanced at the chart and then asked Lee Minho a question.

“What’s the most important thing to watch out for when draining an abscess?”

Not only did Hwabu already familiarize himself with the necessary measures for each patient through the chart and Lee Minho’s memories, but he even simulated them in his mind, so he answered as soon as he was asked, as if he had prepared for it.

“When administering lidocaine syringe (local anesthetic injection), you need to control the depth carefully since you may inject it into the abscess.”

“You know well. I heard from Dr. Choi that you did a clean job with the subclavian, so I believe you’ll do well with the abscess incision and drainage too. If you do it roughly like last time, you’re in trouble!”

“Yes.”

A while later, Hwabu opened the door to the patient’s ward, and explained what he would be doing to the patient. He then put on sterile gloves, draped the area around the affected area with a small sheet, and disinfected the skin.

After injecting the anesthetic, he waited a moment for it to take effect, and then picked up a scalpel and made an incision in the disinfected skin, revealing a yellowish abscess mass mixed with red blood.

He first suctioned the visible abscess, then washed it with saline, and suctioned again. He then inserted a gauze deep into the wound to absorb the pus, waited a moment, removed the gauze, rinsed again with saline, and inserted the suction catheter as deep as possible to aspirate any remaining pus.

‘In my time, when an abscess formed, we would pierce the skin, squeeze it out, and apply a poultice on it, but now that the times have changed, we can forcibly suck out the abscess and wash every corner, which will definitely speed up the recovery.’

Hwabu thought back to the time he used to apply poultices made by himself onto patients’ bodies and smiled bitterly to himself. At that time, his poultice was considered a miracle drug made by a god and was treated as a precious medicine that was difficult to obtain even with money.

‘Ooh!’

Song Jiho, who had been watching Lee Minho’s abscess drainage, had a slightly worried expression on his face at first, but now he was looking at the patient’s affected area with his eyes wide open.

Lee Minho had performed an abscess drainage a few days ago.

At that time, he was so rough with the suctioning of the abscess and the overall procedure, and he had been scolded harshly. But today, he was doing the procedure meticulously and carefully, without a single flaw.

‘He’s doing it even neater than me! Was this guy always so diligent with patients? Even in the operating room earlier, his attitude has definitely improved.’

What could have caused this change?

As Song Jiho continued to closely observe Lee Minho’s actions as they visited other wards.

From dressing the patient’s wounds to changing their nasal tubes and urinary catheters, Lee Minho was doing all the procedures meticulously and attentively, unlike his usual avoidance or careless approach.

‘Ho, wow! There’s nothing I can nitpick about today.’

As he watched, he found himself getting a little greedy.

Actually, the reason he had asked Lee Minho to choose cardiothoracic surgery was to secure at least one intern in advance, as most interns avoided cardiothoracic surgery. But now, it wasn’t for that reason anymore. He became interested in the intern Lee Minho himself.

‘This guy, he might actually be better than I thought, and judging by the way he does things, it’s clear he’s made up his mind on surgery…’

He also felt a little sorry for him.

He might have harbored the strongest resentment towards Choi Yongsoo, who had bullied him the most in the department, but how could he feel good about people like Song Jiho who had gone along with it?

After finishing the rounds, Song Jiho casually asked Lee Minho.

“Whew! We’re finally done. I didn’t get to eat dinner properly because of all the emergency surgeries today. You didn’t get to eat dinner either, right?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go, I’ll treat you at the hospital convenience store.”

Hwabu’s eyes sparkled at once.

He couldn’t go to the convenience store in the hospital because he didn’t have his wallet with him, so he could only swallow his saliva, but now this unexpected treat?

“I was already hungry. Thank you, Dr. Song Jiho.”

Song Jiho chuckled inwardly when Lee Minho bowed his head.

‘I see, this guy is the type who gets his heartstrings pulled easily, huh?’

A while later, they arrived at the convenience store and Song Jiho spoke to Lee Minho in a kind tone.

“You’ve been on duty unfairly, and you’ve been running around sweating all day, so you must be very hungry. Pick whatever you want to eat.”

“Yes! C-can I really pick anything I want to eat?”

“Pick anything, even the expensive ones.”

“Understood. Thank you very much.”

Song Jiho smiled to himself as Lee Minho nodded repeatedly. The fact that he was showing such a reaction meant that he at least didn’t have any ill feelings towards him.

‘Well, he’s not called ‘Skinny Anchovy’ for nothing, with no appetite to speak of……’

However, Song Jiho’s thoughts changed when Lee Minho returned with a basket overflowing with various lunchboxes, snacks, drinks, and more.

“Dr. Lee Minho!”

“Yes, sir.”

“Can you finish all of that? You’re not planning to eat it in the office, are you?”