Chapter 8
"Sunbae!!!"
"Oh! Donghyun-ah! What's wrong?"
"Sunbae! Mrs. Kim's awake now!! Come!!!"
We ran immediately to the ICU
"Check her vitals and the urine bag"
"Yes sunbae"
I checked her eyes
"haaahh…" I let out a sigh
"She's recovering really fast, thank goodness!"
"Eommonim…" (calling her ma'am but in direct translation it means "mother")
"Can you talk a little??"
"Xia-ssi" (ssi a formal form of addressing)
"haaaah…" I let out another sigh of relief…
"Go-gomawoyo…" (Thank you)
"animida eommonim" (no need to thank me ma'am)
She held my hand… she's such a sweet person…
"Donghyun, don't transfer her on an ordinary room yet let her stay here on the ICU until tomorrow so she'll be closely watched and so that she'll recover fast…" I said while smiling at Brix's mother…
"Omma!!"
"A-adeul.."
"I'll leave now… I'll just comeback later…"
"Xia… thank you" Brix said
I nodded
"Donghyun-ah don't leave yet, I'll call Jihye to take the shift, we'll still monitor her to be sure…"
I went to the interns resting area and told Jihye to take shift. I went back to my office and saw a bouquet of flowers on my table…
"what the…" oh there's a note
"Xia, thank you for saving my mom, please call me comfortably by my name or call me oppa. Help me find my old self again, the person you said who became your idol, Let's be friends… this is also a piece offering. Again, thank you… -Brix"
"oh… I guess he really did mean it… he's fine after all… friends??….. good!!"
I smiled… I'll be a friend and I'll help him…
After an hour I went to Yona to tell her she'll be finally discharge tomorrow
"Yona-ya you'll finally leave the hospital tomorrow, aren't you happy??"
"but I'll miss eonni's bedtime stories…"
"hahaha!! You can visit me here anytime and I'll tell you stories!! or I'll give you my apartment's address so you can sleep over a night there, but be sure to call me first so I know, okay?? Because I might be not at home because I'm staying here for work… make sure to watch out carefully for cars and if it's possible don't come out without an adult… okay??"
"eonni? Are you my mom?"
"hahahah!" Brix laughed on the other side… oh? did he just laughed?!!!
"she's just worrying about you Yona…" Brix said…. Great thanks… -_-
"I just don't want you to get hurt… Ah!! I'll visit you on the orphanage on my day off okay?"
"ne, eonni!!"
"Yona, I have something for you" Brix was holding a huge pink box which came out under his blanket…
"uwaaa!! Is this mine??? Wow!! This is my first Barbie doll!! Thank you oppa!!"
"I'll give you more, when I visit you, I found out you're from the orphanage where my group donates goods every year, now there's really someone I know from there… I'll come out soon from the hospital to visit you when my mother's well, for now I'll stay here a bit to watch her, and thank you for helping me out…"
Huh?? Helping him out?? How??
"Eonni!! It is pretty right??"
"hmmm?? Yes of course!! Just like you… I need to go I'll come visit you tonight…"
I'm about to leave the room when Brix approached me at the door…
"Xia! Xia… umm… did you received the flowers I sent?"
"ah! Yes I did…"
"you read the letter?"
"y-yeah I did…"
"ummm…" Brix sounded like he has something to say
"I read it Brix… Let's be friends, let me call you on your name, I'll call you oppa when I get comfortable, but I'll never treat you like my idol anymore… just a friend…" I smiled
"o-okay…" he smiled back
I turned around to leave for our routine rounds…
"Doc… I saw a bouquet of flowers being put on your Office earlier Who's that from" Bona asked
"huh??"
"your blinds on your office we're open so I saw…"
"oh, that's from Brix, he sent it to say thank you and apologize…"
"ooooh… it was like yesterday when he yelled and humiliated you on the garden and now, he's apologizing? Was it because of the last time he fought with his mother?"
"yeah I think so too…"
"Well he should be! Since you saved him and his mother, and you almost got into an accident while getting here…"
"well we decided to be friends…"
"like… friends?? Forget all formalities and the age gap??"
"ah… I guess??"
"well, since he apologized it's good that you are now friends… so your Idol's now your friend"
"I told him I won't consider him as my idol anymore just a friend"
"oooooh I see… that's cool"
"yah! Enough... Let's move to our next patient…"
The rounds were done in no time, like the usual I asked the interns questions about things and they threw questions at me too regarding several conditions… The interns were doing really well…
"Sunbae!!"
"oh Jonghoon!"
"our team's going to eat out tonight are you coming???"
"no one will monitor Mrs. Kim's vitals, just have fun guys…"
"Sunbae, the intern Im Haneul from Cardio-Surgery said he'll watch the patient until we come back…"
"Ahhhh~ sunbae come with us… It's our first meal out…" Jihye said
"tchhh!! Okay! okay.. I'll come…"
"oh yeah!!!" hahaha!! they're acting like kids really...
Before I went out, as promised I visited Yona again… after doing that, eventually the whole team went to eat out..
"ya! Eat everything you want! It's on me" I said… since it's our team dinner for the first time…
Everyone was so happy and ordered everything they wanted to eat. After filling their stomachs for two hours we head back to the hospital.
"guys you all feel sleepy right?" I asked
"Ne!" they said in unison
"go to sleep for now I'll take the shift for monitoring Mrs. Kim"
"Sunbae, I'll do it!!" Donghyun presented
"nah!.. you guys take a rest… I'll call for you when I feel sleepy later… okay??"
"Ne!! kamsahamnida sunbae!" (yes!! thank you senior!)
I left them so they could rest for a bit, they've also worked hard… I can't tire them out as a team leader…
"Haneul" I tapped his back he was asleep while sitting…
"Oh!! Sunbaenim!!! I'm sorry I dozed off"
"it's fine, how was her vitals since earlier?"
"Her vitals were stable throughout the whole period I was watching her"
"that's good, thank you for watching her, go sleep at your quarters…"
"will you be alright sunbaenim?"
"yeah…"
"I'll go now, sunbae"
"ummm!!" I smiled while nodding
While I'm keeping a watch beside Mrs. Kim… I'm reading another book from the library of the hospital I got earlier, it's all about stent surgery… Even now that I'm a surgeon it's still our job to read and review our knowledge about the things we learned. To refresh the information and so that we can't forget and also update our knowledge about new things related to our field…
"Xia??"
"Oh! Brix…"
"Are you taking some tests?"
"No, I just want to refresh my knowledge"
"Really? Are you going to read the whole book?"
"umm… yeah…"
"that thick??"
"yeah, I'm almost through though…"
"wow!!"
"wait.. why weren't you sleeping?"
"I couldn't sleep, I actually asked for sleeping pills at the nurse station, but they said I need a prescription from my doctor…"
"Sleeping pills aren't really good, so I won't give more to you… I gave you one last night, I won't be giving you anymore…"
"I know, that's why I just went here to help watch my mother, but I didn't know you'll be watching her too…"
"yeah… I let my interns rest they were tired for the past few days…"
"ha!" he laughed
"why?"
"And you weren't tired?"
"I'm a senior to them, and I'm already used to not sleeping at all sometimes…"
"oh…. how many hours was the longest you didn't even take a sleep?"
"ummm.. about 66 hours straight? Yeah…"
"Really?!? That's like 2 days and 18 hours? Right?!? Was it during your internship? Do they usually tire out interns just like that?"
"well, my professors always called for me whether it was a major or a minor operation, there was a time when there was a field trip accident, 22 patients were brought to our hospital, 7 of them were in a critical condition and need to be operated…Though they have different complications, other departments would ask for assistance and I was told to come, surgery after another, without rest… After all surgeries, patients who's still in a critical observation are needed to be watched 24 hours, even though we took shifts, after looking out for this patient on this department, i still have to watch other patients from other department so I still couldn't sleep… that's how I was trained… "
"Wow!! That sure is tiring, I didn't know doctors were trained like that… and that's why you're a great surgeon…"
"haha!" I laughed at what he said… it was just a few days when he was swearing at me, I found this ridiculous actually.
"why?!? it's true though" but he seems to be sincere
"well, thank you" I smiled
We continued talking until 2 am in the morning and I feel a lot comfortable around him now, seems like we really became friends despite the age gap. He seemed like not an idol? I never once thought of having a long conversation like this… he seems just like a childhood friend who's catching up with me.
He went out first when he said he's feeling sleepy, but I stayed for another hour to finish the book I was reading while monitoring his mother's condition.
"Sunbae…" someone tapped my back
"hmmm??"
"It's already 4:30 am…"
"huh??"
"Sunbae, It's already 4:30 am"
"really?!! Oh!! I didn't notice I slept already here"
"I thought you'd call me, but you didn't so… I came here, I'll take the shift sunbae"
"geurae, gomawo…" (really, thanks) I tapped his shoulders and immediately left.
I went to my office and went straight to my resting room… I lied on my bed as soon as I saw it…
6:30 my alarm went on…
"Ommo!!" I hurried and went to the bathroom inside my resting room to take a bath… good thing I had already stored extra clothes here on my office.
In just a while Yona will be discharged from the hospital, that's why I'm on her room to see her go and say goodbye
"Yona-ya here's my phone number and my apartment address, come visit me here often okay? and if you wanna sleep over night at my place, you should call me first okay?"
"yes eonni, I'll come visit here often too.. ah!! Oppa!!!" he suddenly called out for Brix
"yes?��
"Don't fight with my eonni and don't scare the nurses and doctors here again…" and she pouted
"hahaha!! Ne! ne!" (Yes! Yes!)
"promise?"
"yes, promise…"
"oh, here's the person who'll pick you up… It's time to go Yona…"
"oppa!! Bye!!!" she said waving towards Brix
I went with her outside the hospital to see her leave…
"Eonni!! Bye!! I'll come visit often" she was waving at me even she was inside the car…
I feel sad to see her go since she was like a younger sister to me… I went back inside and stayed at my office to arrange some papers until lunch…
"Sunbae, I saw you reading a stent surgery book when I came to the ICU, can you let me borrow it?" Donghyun asked while our team was having our lunch at the hospital's cafeteria.
"Sure…"
"If I have questions can I come and ask you??"
"Of course…" I smiled at him and tapped twice his head like I'm tapping a child
I went to the garden carrying the book on my hand… Donghyun must've liked gardens this much he's always hanging out around here.
"Sunbae!!"
"Oh! Here's the book about stent surgeries. Ah! You can't put some lines 'cause I just borrowed it from the library, okay?
"yes sunbae, I'll just return the book to the library for you when I'm done reading it…"
"Ok… let's go we still have our routine rounds…"
"Yes sunbae!"
He followed around. Our team was having its routine rounds and Brix's mother was transferred to his room where Yona left.
"Eommonim! Your recovery is great…" Bora said
"I agree eommonim, but I suggest for you to stay for a week so that you'll fully recover" I added
"Thank you doctors, thank you Xia-ssi"
"Ne…" I smiled at her and caressed her hand
We left the room and that concludes our rounds. I went back to my office to continue the paper works I've been doing earlier. I didn't notice the time passed… I went out on a nearby restaurant to take out some dinner… I actually thought it would be nice to eat in the garden today to relax and look at the sky.
"Sunbae…"
"Oh Donghyun!! You're here again, is the garden your personal space?" I asked
"no sunbae, I just feel relaxed around here, I was actually reading the book you lend me"
"Really?? Ooohhh you're working really hard! Do you have any questions regarding any topic on the book??
"ummm so far… none..."
"ohhh… you're smart!! Hahaha!! wanna eat?? I offered him some
"No, thank you sunbae, besides I'm going down to grab my dinner"
"I see…" I smiled
"I should go sunbae, enjoy your dinner"
"ummm… thank you… you too… eat well!!"
I continued eating my dinner and drank my cup of Iced tea…
"A suitor???"
"ommo!!" I almost spilled my iced tea
"Brix you startled me…"
"Hospital romance???"
"Huh?!"
"that guy??"
"What?!? No!!! are you serious?!?!! Hahaha!���
"what?! He seems nice"
"he's a hoobae from my department, he should be nice to his sunbae right?"
"well, agree…"
"Dinner??" I offered
"Nah… I'm good…"
"wait… were you eavesdropping again??"
"ahhh… no, not particularly I just happened to have some ears… I just saw you two talking, I almost thought he was your boyfriend…"
"I don't have time for romance…"
"Ah! Really?!?"
"yeah…"
My phone suddenly rang
"oh! just a moment…"
"ok"
"Hello?? Bora… why??" I answered the call
"Doc we need you at the emergency…"
"what's the situation??"
"there's a private car which was crushed by a ten-wheeler truck also, 3 cars collided together with the car, there are 9 patients with a chest injury some may need a surgery, the driver of the first car has the worst condition…"
"Ask for their CT scans and do some blood work ASAP! I'm coming down to the emergency now…"
I hung up the call
"I'm sorry Brix there was an emergency, I need to go down…"
"Ok"
I ran to the emergency room and saw the situation… I could say it was totally a mess…
"Sunbae!!!"
"Oh Jihye…"
"I still don't know how to handle a pneumothorax"
"where's the patient??"
"here"
I ran to the patient and handled his situation… he seems to be fine after what I did
"Check his chest X-ray and report to me immediately…"
"Sunbae!!!" Jonghoon called
"the oxygen level's too low… it's a Severe Pulmonary Contusion--" before I even finished my instruction Bona called for me
"Doc!!!" Bona called
"Ok wait!! Jonghoon-ah you know how to handle this right??"
"yes sunbae"
"Ok…"
I went to the other bed and saw a lady
"This lady has a windshield glass shard punctured on her chest!!!"
"What?!!?!"
"Shooot!! This is a huge shard!!" I almost lost my mind
"ok get her lab results, chest X-ray and a CT-Scan ASAP!!!"
"Yes doc!!"
"Nurse!?!?"
"Yes doc…"
"Bring me some pain killers"
"Donghyun-ah!!! Help me control the bleeding…"
"Yes, Sunbae…"
"Sunbaenim!!"
"Haneul!! What are you doing here?!?" I said while we control the bleeding of the patient
"I received a call from another hospital, a patient with cardiac contusion and a ruptured vein will be transferred to our hospital because it's not the specialization of the surgeons there… Our problem is, there's no lead Surgeon to perform the surgery, so I thought of you since Thoracic handles Heart surgeries too"
"H-Haneul… it's a part of my area but not my A+ expertise" I said while controlling the bleeding of my patient
"Sunbaenim, you're our last hope…" the patient was taken for a CT-Scan and other test
"haaaa!! Wait!! ummm… okay do you have her X-ray and CT-scan?"
"Here Sunbaenim"
"let's see…I'll do her operation prepare a scrub team, mine can't help as you can see…"
"Doc here's the CT, Xray, and lab results of the lady with shred" Bona said
"the Shred has punctured her Inferior Vena Cava… It should be removed ASAP, there'll be a severe bleeding it has to be closed as fast as you can, tell your sister to lead this operation, you take the 1st assistant position, I have an incoming operation"
"Sunbaenim!! The patient's here" Haneul said and pulled me…
"But doc!!! we both have observed but never done an operation like this…"
"I trust you!!! I'll check your operation on a monitor, while I operate on this patient, I'll still guide you!! prepare an OR now!!!" I said while heading to the Emergency drop off…
As what I said I'll watch their operation on a monitor inside my operating room, I communicated with them through something like a phone line…
"well start the operation"
I'm operating a patient from the Cardio-Surgery department while coaching the other operation… I need to separate my knowledge for this one and the other.
"Bora, after you remove the clamps the blood might excessively flow so close it immediately"
"Doc! I won't be able to close it if I can't see…"
"Try to feel it with your fingers and memorize it, you need to close it immediately!!"
"Bona!! After it was closed… suction!! Wash and suction Okay!!??"
"Yes Doc"
I stopped coaching them and focus on my own operation…
"There's nothing to worry about this patient… she's doing veeeery fine…"
The operation went for 5 hours
"suction…"
"move the clamp a bit…"
"cut…"
"cut…"
"Suction"
"wash"
"suction"
"Haneul please wrap up"
"Thank you Sunbaenim, you've worked hard"
"You've all worked hard everyone!!"
I went to the other OR
"Doc…" Bora called out as if she can't no longer do it
"No… continue… you're doing fine…"
The other operation finished 30 minutes after I did…
"Good Job guys… now wrap this up... Interns come to the ward with me"
They went with me immediately to the ward where the emergency patients were brought, still wearing our scrub suits…
"Take shifts on watching this ward, the patients may have something they'll be complaining later"
"yes sunbaenim!!"
I was about to sit on a corner in the ward but Jihye stopped me
"Sunbae, we can handle this please take a rest…"
"No need Jihye, thank you.."
"Please rest Sunbae…" the other three interns said
"Fine… Thank you…"
I'm not sleepy though but indeed my body feels tired. I went to the rooftop and sat on the middle of the Helipad… It's 3:54 am… This was a mind-blowing day… I lied down on the ground facing the sky… Oh!!! There are still stars… I connected them with my fingers like I was touching them until I fall asleep.
"was it really nice to sleep here?"
Huh?? Someone's shielding my eyes from the sunlight…
"nugu….??" (Who….?)
"I didn't know that sun has already came o----" I was fixing myself and stood up
"Brix!?"
"yeah… 6:12… the forecast said the sun will rise early today that's why I came up to see"
"ahhh.."
"I didn't know a cool surgeon was sleeping here…"
"Cool? Hahaha!! What's cool about it having slept here without noticing?"
"Not that…"
"Then what?"
"I followed you on the emergency last night and watched you… you were really cool even though they've been calling you left and right… you've handled the situation pretty well too, even at the surgery"
"You were there??? Why??"
"Why not? You're so cool!! Were you originally some kind of a genius?"
"Genius?? Hey! Did you sleep well? You kept uttering words…"
"How could you do that??"
"Do what?"
"Operate and coach at the same time? That would be really hard, but you did!"
"ummm… concentration?"
"That's an upper level of concentration… you were really amazing!!"
"Surgeons are super humans!" he added
"Hahaha!! Ummmm… The team maybe looking for me so I should go…"
"yeah… go ahead I'll stay here for a while"
"ok…"
I went down and head to my office to take a bath…
"How's the patients we operated last night?"
"they're doing fine Doc…"
"good, Jihye…any complaints from the patients from the accident yesterday?"
"the man with pneumothorax yesterday complained chest pain and I gave him a painkiller"
"Where's his X-ray?"
"It's here Sunbae" she showed me
"There's nothing wrong with his chest X-ray, he'll be fine… It's just a shock, if he complains again give him a cold compress and painkiller, after 24 hours give him a hot compress."
"Yes sunbae"
"we'll do the rounds now, because there's a lot of them…"
We were half through with our rounds when I heard their stomach crumble…
"Who's that?" I asked
"it's me Sunbae" Jonghoon confessed
"okay… Let's eat our lunch first…"
"Yes!!" they all said
They all went to the cafeteria to eat but I went to my office instead to check the new CT-scan of the patient I operated last night under Cardio-surgery's watch.
"Mwoya igeo!?" (what's this!?)
Oh!! it's an ordered lunch box, I took it out from the paper bag…
"Oooh!! Power drink!!"
Something fell from the bag
"ooooh letter!! Who's this from?!?"
"for the Amazing surgeon Xia! Eat well and drink the tonic so you'll have more energy. -Brix"
"tch!! Why would he bother himself? but anyway…" I started to dig in the food while I look at the CT-scan
"there's no problem at all!"
"umm!! My phone's ringing"
"Yes, hello! Who's this??"
"Hi! Did you eat the lunch I left on your office??"
I removed the phone from my ear and looked at the unknown number
"Brix?!? How did you get my number?"
"A nurse from your scrub team came to change my mother's dextrose, I asked for your number, she doesn't actually wanna give me your number, but I said there was something I want to ask which is super important"
"So, what's that super important you're going to ask me?"
"Ummm… did you ate the lunch I left?"
"That's it?!?"
"yeah!! That's it!"
"It wasn't even that important! But, yes! I did…thank you, I'll treat you some other time in return"
"okay! ah!! This is my personal number, save it if you'd like… Because I'll save yours"
"okay… since we're friends…" I said
"okay… eat well!! Bye!!"
"yeah, thanks!"
After eating I went out to resume our rounds, I'm expecting to finish our rounds at 3 pm…
"How's her BP?
"130/100"
"It's not on my standard" I said
"I want beautiful numbers… Eommonim let's achieve 120/80 those are the only numbers I want." I said to Mrs. Kim while smiling
"Let's increase the milligrams of the medication she takes. I'll hand out the new dose to the nurse station later… You guys monitor her BP every 2 hours until she achieves that BP, do you guys copy?"
"Yes sunbaenim!"
"Is she our last patient?"
"Yes Doc…" Bona answered
"okay, remember my instructions, dismiss!"
We were about to went out together when Mrs. Kim called me
"Xia-ssi??"
"Eommonim! Is there somewhere aching?"
"no… no… Brix went out to the café to get some coffee for himself…"
"Do you want me to get him for you??"
"No need, I just want to speak with you…"
"ah… Ne…"
"Brix told me you're now friends… right?"
"ah… yes… he apologized, so… who am I not to forgive anyway?"
"I'm actually thankful that you were a nice person… I really like you…"
"Ahh!! Thank you eommonim"
"Xia-ssi… do you like my son?"
"Eommonim??"
"I mean you were his fan, right?? Do you happen to like him as a man too, somewhat in a romantic way?"
"we became friends and I told him that I'll not consider him as my idol, so we won't be awkward as friends… I just like him as a friend… He's actually a very nice person in reality, totally opposite from our first encounter…"
"I actually like you for him, that's why I asked you…"
"ahhh… eommonim… I already know my place as a fan before, I know that my idol will have someone better in the future and as a friend I'm not expecting much because I also know my place and limitations…"
"But we can't tell right? Since you are friends now and don't think of yourself insufficiently, If ever… just… If ever there'll be a chance that you'll fall in love with him, right?"
"Ahhhh….ummmm… " I really don't know what to say
"Omma!! Oh! Xia you're here!! I had some coffee it won't be of harm to my wounds, right?"
"N-no it won't they're actually healed now and you should be discharge from the hospital but since you decided to stay for a bit… so…"
"Omma… you both were too serious when I came, were you talking about something? Are you in pain again?"
"She's totally fine you don't have to worry"
"I was asking her if how I should maintain a normal blood pressure, right Xia?"
"Yes… she did… I-I should get going…"
"eommonim I need to go now"
"okay… visit me often okay?"
"I will eommonim…" I smiled at her
"ahh.. Brix I increased the dose of your mother's medication to normalize her blood pressure"
"okay, thank you…"
"I'll get going…"
I left the room and went to my office and took my things and head out to go home, my patients were doing well and the interns are keeping watch, I told them to call anytime if there's a problem… That's why I have time to go home to wash the clothes I used when I didn't go home for days, to rest as well.
I actually hope I could go home every night so I could rest comfortably, well, the hospital's just a few minutes away if I walk, but sometimes I just couldn't leave my patients specially those who are in a critical condition and are needed to be observed. Though actually Sunday is my day off but if I'm needed at the hospital, I should go… Specially that I'm still new in the hospital and I hold a critical position as a team leader, quite burdensome but I enjoy my job as a surgeon…
I finished all my chores and now I'm lying on my bed. I was thinking of my conversation with Brix's mom earlier until I fell asleep.