People began to enter in time for the scheduled meeting.
The doctors, who had been sitting in their respective seats as usual, stopped when they saw the group of five.
Those who were not affiliated with Myeong Sae Hospital but seemed to be similar in age with the vice-dean. Lee Yeon-beom, a professor at the clinical department realized who one of them was, hurriedly bowed down to greet him.
"Pro-professor Nam-goong."
"Oh, long time no see, Mr. Lee."
"What brings you here….”
Dowook, who was accompanying the five, had to continue sending looks and signals to calm down the associate professors who followed behind Lee Yeon-beom and were bewildered by the situation.
Knowingly or not, Professor Song Sang-guk of Gyecheon University Hospital continued with a lively conversation.
"The way I see it, Myeong Sae Hospital is the mecca that will lead neurosurgery in the next association meeting. Dr. Park, how many specialists are here?"
"There are about 28 people."
"As expected, like a member of the Big 5, there are a lot of resources. There's no way that it won't be famous. You've already proven that your skills are the best in Korea.”
"Professor Song, shall we suggest holding a conference next year at Myeong Sae Hospital?"
"Shall we? Senior Nam-goong?"
Dowook felt suffocated in front of the five people who held a lot of authority even within the association. It was an honor for a conference to be held here, but it was an emergency situation and the parties were responsible for it.
"Don't praise us too much."
At that time, there was a person who walked quickly to the front seat.
"What do you mean a conference? We're super busy next year, so we can't do it."
"You’re here, Chief Ha."
Chief Ha Sang Joong stood in front of the five.
"Aren't you seniors busy? Why do you come here every day?"
"Why are you so angry this morning?"
"Why do you think so?"
"I'm sorry I suddenly mentioned it. We'll treat all the people here to dinner."
"That's a must. Please don't interrupt the meeting."
Chief Ha, who was talking to the five, winked at Dowook, who was standing on one side. An indication that he would accompany these five. Dowook nodded and settled between the residents and the staff.
"By the way, Chief Ha. Professor Choi is not coming? I have a lot to ask about this case."
"Choi Hoo is not interested in anything other than his own surgeries."
"He even skips official events? He doesn’t seem to have any intention of advancing his career.”
"Will you go since Choi Hoo isn’t here?"
Nam-goong Seok smiled and shook his head.
"There's Park Dowook. We're not leaving. Are you leaving, Professor Song?”
"What are you talking about? I’ve been ignoring the calls from the head of the center."
Chief Ha shook his head at the chatty behavior of the seniors who were over 60 and turned to the members of the neurosurgery department. Everyone was slightly frozen.
"As you can see, the seniors of the association who came today are very flexible people who are not formal, so do as usual. Everyone’s here, right?
Chief Ha, who was looking around the conference room, stopped his gaze at the interns sitting in the back.
"What are they doing here? Interns. Why are you guys here?”
-We're here to broaden our horizons.
"Are you going to study our case? Are you going to apply for our department?"
Some nodded and some moved their eyes toward the five. Chief Ha, who read the rough situation, grumbled.
"There are so many bright stars. Then you can't do it as usual.”
"The interns are growing, so they are just being rash, Chief Ha. They'll understand."
"Right. Back in my days, I was slapped by a senior who was a year ahead as I studied cases."
Chief Ha frowned when the five brought up their childhood memories.
"What are you talking about? They'll be surprised when they hear. No, Interns surgeons don't train like that these days. They didn't know the reality because they used their scalpels during the 80s."
Chief Ha, who finished organizing the situation to some extent, sat in the center. And he brought the microphone near his mouth.
"It's been delayed from the start. Let's hurry up and proceed. Where do you want to begin with first? Spine? Cerebrovascular?”
"We're going for surgery at 10:30."
"Really? Let's start with Professor Yeom. The next team will get ready, too."
Professor Yeom Sang-chil, a specialist in the field of brain tumors, walked forward to the podium.
An hour later.
-Medication to assist in work history was performed at the same time, but thymectomy was performed due to seizures accompanied by respiratory paralysis.….
During the patient report of Lee Yeon-beom, a detailed spinal nerve specialist, the five only sat still with a sour look.
Lee Yeon-beom quickly moved on to the next case because his seniors were not interested at all.
-This patient has spinal cord infarction and neuropathy at the same time, making conservative treatment impossible…….
It was the most difficult case to manage, but this time again, the five were busy holding back yawns.
– That's how I finished the second surgery and am watching the prognosis. Do you have any questions? …… There isn't.
A case which the authorities of the association turned a blind eye to.
When the presenter quickly passed the remaining cases, the staff and residents studying the spinal nerve field also failed to ask any questions passionately.
Chief Ha, who couldn't look on anymore, stretched his neck out and glared at the five.
"Are you here to watch?"
"No, I'm afraid I'll disturb you. We're not that shameless."
"Since you participated officially, you have to show at least the minimum courtesy."
"Should I?"
Professor Nam-goong Seok spoke into the microphone after scanning the monitor in front which displayed a computer chart.
"Dr. Lee."
"Yes, sir."
"You said you had fracture executive surgery because of the pressure on the patient’s axis, right? I think the 2nd and 3rd cervical vertebrae will be crushed soon. Why didn't you fix them in place?”
"Cr-crushed?"
Surprised by the unexpected question, Lee Yeon-beom exchanged looks with the doctor who performed the surgery. He hurriedly searched through the documents he had brought and replied with a look of relief.
"It's not that we didn't predict a rupture either. The patient had a high fever, so the remaining surgery was turned to conservative treatment."
"Fever? This is a problem that is difficult to explain because nerves are complicatedly intertwined with organs. It's right to fix them in place because there’s a fever. Open the patient's X-ray.”
Nam Hana in the corner quickly manipulated her laptop and switched the screen.
"If you look at the joint angle, it's bent at 80 degrees, not 70 degrees. It's about to be overstated."
Lee Yeon-beom made a face as if someone had hit him over the head with a brick.
"If the patient had a fever due to nerve pressure, and you turned to conservative treatment, that would only extend the patient's recovery period."
"Right. It will take at least 8 weeks. Still, reoperation will shorten it to five weeks.”
"I'll consider it. Thank you, Professor Nam-goong."
After saying this, Lee Yeon-beom glared strongly at the doctor in charge sitting behind him.
Different coping methods for the same cause. Although it was not wrong at the hospital, he could fully infer from the face of the doctor in charge that Nam-goong Seok's criticism was painful.
Chief Ha, who watched this process, sighed deeply.
"Senior Nam-goong."
"Huh?"
"Okay."
"Huh? What?"
"I understand well, so please don't discourage the children."
"What. I didn't know that Mr. Lee's team handled spinal nerves this well. That's why we can communicate.”
Chief Ha, who asked for the participation of the five, immediately admitted to the mistake and raised the white flag. If they sincerely bit into a case, it wouldn't end until the evening.
"Good job, Professor Lee."
Chief Ha beckoned for Lee Yeon-beom to step down quickly. And the five moved their eyes toward one person waiting.
"Dowook."
"What?"
"You just go first."
Dowook, who was in the back, walked out under Chief Ha's direction. At the same time, all five of them, who were lined up, straightened their postures and watched Dowook.
Lee Yeon-beom, who was tidying up on the podium, flinched at the appearance of the five who changed their eyes. He spoke carefully to the approaching Dowook.
"Dowook, I think they're waiting to rip into your case thoroughly. Will it be okay?"
"I think it’ll be a bit tiresome."
Dowook heard Lee Yeon-beom's lament as he put up the chart.
"I didn't know that the patient with the simplest symptoms would be pointed out among our team cases. Those old men are scary."
"There's a way to end the recovery period in three weeks."
"Huh? Professor Nam-goong said it was five weeks.”
"Uh… Please don't reveal that I said it."
Dowook slumped a little and whispered quietly to Lee Yeon-beom. Lee Yeon-beom, who was listening, opened his eyes wide.
Lee Yeon-beom, who stepped down from the podium, stood in front of Nam-goong Seok.
"Senior."
"Huh?"
"What do you think of a simple procedure for inserting K-steel wires during the re-surgery?”
"K-steel wire? In the neck?"
Nam-goong Seok was uncertain, but Kim Ho, a senior professor at St. Paul's Hospital sitting next to him, clapped his hands.
"That's right. I thought of this, too. These days, steel wires can be made as strong as metal plates, so orthopedics often use them."
"Professor Kim, do you mean to use orthopedic skills for neurosurgery?"
"Do you not touch bones because you're in neurosurgery? We should use what we can.”
"Well, the prognosis would be much better to make only a slight hole than to squeeze your neck. What will it be…."
Nam-goong Seok, who admitted to it, looked at Lee Yeon-beom.
"That's right. That's a neater way. It will be over in three weeks, not five weeks.”
Kim Ho also raised his thumb toward Lee Yeon-beom.
"Very good, Dr. Lee. Your posture is completely different from when you were a resident. No matter how great a senior is, don't be so intimidated and come forward."
"Thank you."
Lee Yeon-beom, who sat down, bowed his head slightly to Dowook in thanks.
‘Five tigers are sitting down while the rabbits are playing.’
He looked at Lee Yeon-beom, who was overwhelmed by the five, and then looked at his hand, which was tingling.
A sense filled with the neurosurgery experiences of five great seniors.
Each person's tendencies were so similar that it was hard to tell which senior the sense was from. Perhaps that was why, even if it was replaced by the sense of the person next to them, the afterglow of all senses remained longer.
It felt like five senses were all located in one hand.
This was a collective intelligence itself, which was better to be used for meetings like this than in the operating room. He also thought that maybe he could combine other similar senses with this concept.
"Hana, please pull up the 1st chart".
The computer chart of the first patient appeared on a large monitor next to the platform. He saw that the eyes of the five were focused on the screen.
‘If I get attention, I keep getting tired.’
A seventh-year specialist was so embarrassed by the light criticism that they brought up, but how could he withstand the pressure when he would become a first-year specialist next year?
Knowing that he could not keep using his special sense every time, Dowook continued an easy presentation that they would never react to.
So that the surgical process he performed, using Prof. Choi’s sense, was not noticeable.
He had hidden it well up to the eighth of the 19 cases when.
-Oh, is it a patient who was brought in because of a burst blood vessel?
As soon as the chart appeared on the screen, Nam-goong Seok showed interest.
-You sewed it up in 30 minutes?
-The process must have been tough. The head, chest, and stomach are all fatal injuries. Was it because two neurosurgeons were in the emergency ward that you only tried to restore the head completely?
There was no way to move on simply because it was the case of Yoo Sang-il, the bus driver from the academy bus crash. Dowook answered quickly.
"At that time, the head of the emergency medicine department was in charge of overall damage control. I might be the attending physician, but after the third operation, he will be under the care of the Hepatopancreatic department."
Since it was the first time this case was posted at the conference, other neurosurgeons also watched the screen with interest. He tried to give Nam Hana a signal to move on quickly, but Nam-goong Seok's words were faster.
-That suture structure. Does cardiothoracic surgery use that, too?
-I wonder as well.
Dowook groaned at the screen.
A knot used to connect the blood vessels in the brain was seen in a place connecting the cardiovascular blood vessel. The two main surgeons were too busy in other areas so it was one that he did in a hurry. It was obvious that it was not an ordinary treatment.
-It's effective but rough. It’s interesting.
-Wasn’t the chest treated by an emergency surgeon? This is like a specialist level in minute details. Did he do double boarding?
The five, who were sharing their opinions with curiosity, looked at Dowook at once.
-Dr. Park. How did the process for this one happen?
The time had come.
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