Dr. Taesoo Choi

After running for a while, Taesoo soon arrived at the outpatient clinic for cardiothoracic surgery.
He hadn’t heard anything from Chief Park Seong-min yet.
What was needed at times like this was a nurse.
Taesoo headed straight to the nurse’s office.
Some nurses were sitting and organizing documents, while others were preparing to guide incoming patients, and others were busy with various tasks.
If he couldn’t get help from a nurse, he could always meet up with his fellow interns.
Taesoo first thought about where he could meet his fellow intern.
The hospital was large.
Especially the size of a university hospital was beyond imagination.
There were over 50 departments, and thousands of people passed through each day.
There were so many tasks within this space that one couldn’t just blindly search for someone.
Based on what the Chief had said and his previous practice, Taesoo quickly deduced what to do and moved his body.
Taesoo arrived at the blood test lab.
Squeak.
When he opened the door, a familiar face immediately came into view.
“Jeong Min-soo.”
At Taesoo’s call, the man, who had been waiting for blood test results, looked up at him.
He was one of the three interns who had applied for cardiothoracic surgery.
He had a round, warm face and a friendly aura.
Jeong Min-soo was happy to see Taesoo.
“Oh, Taesoo. What’s going on? Didn’t you used to be in the SICU?”
“The Chief called me out. Then he just told me to figure it out myself.”
“The Chief here is totally hands-off. By the way, you look terrible. Shouldn’t you get some rest?”
“I can rest here.”
At Taesoo’s response, Jeong Min-soo quickly grabbed an empty chair and placed it next to him.
“Well, in that case, I’m welcoming you.”
“If you’re welcoming me, it actually makes me uneasy.”
“Uneasy? Nah, just come in.”
Jeong Min-soo urged him, and Taesoo shrugged his shoulders and went inside.
They sat together in front of the blood testing machine, catching up.
“It’s nice and quiet here.”
“These days, we only do about 150 tests a day.”
“That’s manageable.”
“It is. But anyway, what happened to you? Why haven’t you been around?”
When Jeong Min-soo asked, Taesoo replied with a question.
“Didn’t the guys in the SICU talk about it?”
“They said it’s better not to know.”
“That’s not wrong.”
Even with Taesoo’s indifferent response, Jeong Min-soo kept pressing.
“Still, I’m curious. Tell me what happened.”
“I’ll tell you later.”
Taesoo didn’t want to bring up what happened in the SICU.
It wasn’t that he wanted to keep it a secret, but his mind still hadn’t settled.
Though it wasn’t officially his first patient, he couldn’t easily disregard the emotional attachment he had developed.
So, Taesoo wanted to focus on something else instead.
For a brief moment, there was silence between them, and then Taesoo spoke again.
“Was there anything happening while I was gone?”
“Well, two big things happened.”
“What are they?”
At Taesoo’s question, Jeong Min-soo’s expression became a bit mischievous.
“Do you know what I like?”
“I’ll buy you a drink on our day off.”
“In that case, you have to tell me. The first one is about Lee Ki-joon.”
As Jeong Min-soo started, Taesoo tilted his head.
“Lee Ki-joon?”
“He’s the one who’s been saying he’s applying for cardiothoracic surgery, right?”
“I know that.”
“Do you know what he’s been doing? He’s been hanging out with the residents and even teaming up with them.”
After hearing that, Taesoo shrugged.
“Nothing major.”
“Don’t you know his style? The problem is that he subtly looks down on people. He doesn’t do it openly, but calls people behind their backs and talks down to them. He’s a real piece of work.”
Jeong Min-soo sounded disgusted.
Lee Ki-joon had a highly opportunistic personality.
Moreover, being from the same university as many of the seniors, he could easily charm them.
He’d be friendly with them but would tend to disregard those like Jeong Min-soo, who came from a different university.
Taesoo didn’t feel like getting involved in that kind of social maneuvering.

“Let’s stop gossiping, what’s the next piece of news?”
“This one’s really big.”
“What is it?”
Taesoo asked, and Jeong Min-soo immediately spoke up.
“The death of Richard Caprino. You know him, right? The famous cardiothoracic surgeon.”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t know him?”
“No, I know him.”
Taesoo’s voice sounded bitter.
He thought he had almost forgotten about it.
But maybe it was just his own illusion.
Jeong Min-soo didn’t notice anything wrong and continued talking.
“It’s been about two weeks now, right? He died in Korea on our day off. Apparently, the professors are still talking about it a lot.”
“Really?”
“You wouldn’t know because you were in the SICU, huh? Anyway, whenever the residents, assistants, or associate professors get together, that’s all they’re talking about.”
At Jeong Min-soo’s words, Taesoo only gave a faint smile.
The SICU was a place completely disconnected from the world.
Though it only had about 10 beds, there were dozens of things happening all the time.
Whenever an emergency occurred, simple procedures had to be done on the spot.
Fortunately, there hadn’t been any major accidents while Taesoo was there.
However, he had been too busy with his patient, Im Taek-su, to interact much with others.
That’s why he hadn’t kept up with the news.
After that, Jeong Min-soo continued to talk about the small events that had occurred while Taesoo was absent.

About an hour later, their conversation was winding down.
Suddenly, the door to the testing room burst open, and Chief Park Seong-min looked inside, growling.
“You little punks. I was wondering where you were hiding, and here you are, just sitting around and chatting? I should shove my foot in your mouths!”
“……”

“Choi Tae-su, stay. Jung Min-su, quickly get up and follow me. Start!”
As soon as Chief Park Seong-min finished speaking, Jung Min-su quickly jumped up and responded.
“Start!”
“Don’t just shout your answers loud, make your actions bigger. And Tae-su.”
At the call, Tae-su immediately responded.
“Yes.”
“Do the CBC (complete blood cell count) well. If the results get mixed up, it’ll be a big problem.”
“Understood!”
“Good. Then Jung Min-su, run!”
Chief Park Seong-min immediately turned around and started running.
“Going! See you later!”
Without even a proper greeting, Jung Min-su hurriedly followed him.
Once Chief Park Seong-min’s whirlwind visit ended, the blood test room fell into a deep silence.
However, Tae-su did not relax.
“It’s about to start, right?”
Despite the calm surroundings, there was a hint of tension in his voice.
He had just made a small but firm decision.
Bang!
The door to the blood test room was slammed open, and a nurse quickly entered with a blood sample.
“Dr. Choi!”
“I’ve been waiting. Over here!”
As Tae-su reached out, the nurse swiftly placed the blood sample in his hand.
Just as he was about to insert it into the machine,
“Wait! It’s urgent!”
The voice came first, and then another nurse appeared. She hurriedly approached and thrust a syringe filled with blood toward him.
“Doctor, please process this first.”
“No, please do this one first!”
Another nurse followed her in, bustling around.
That was the beginning.
The cardiothoracic outpatient clinic was managed by four specialists. At the same time, up to four blood samples came flying at Tae-su.
None of them were non-urgent.
The nurses in the cardiothoracic department were famous for their fiery personalities.
Having dealt with many urgent patients, even the calmest nurses could become frantic and pushy.
But Tae-su was no slouch.
He followed the first-in, first-out principle, but if there was a chart, he confirmed the diagnosis and processed things in order of urgency.
While up to four blood samples arrived at the same time, there was only one blood testing machine.
This was entirely under Tae-su’s control.
It was a lot to handle.
Tae-su had no time to think about his regrets with patient Im Taek-jin.
From then on, until the end of the outpatient clinic, he had to process over 150 blood tests.

Finally, when the blood tests were floating before his eyes and the sound of results printing hadn’t stopped, the clinic came to an end.
“This is the last one. Good job.”
He heard a light greeting as a nurse took the blood test results and left.
It was then that Tae-su truly felt it was over and relaxed just a little.
Now, the senior doctors would be heading home.
On the other hand, the residents and interns were about to face the real battle.
First, by 7 PM, they had to prepare for dressing the patients, gather their medication, and check for any signs of trouble, wishing them well for the night.
Each patient took at least 2-3 minutes, sometimes up to 10 minutes, depending on the situation.
This all happened after dinner, and the number of patients to be taken care of was large.
If they finished early, they would have more time to rest; if they finished late, they would have to work through the night.
In the end, it was a race against time.
As soon as the outpatient clinic was over, the residents and interns gathered in front of the duty room.
There were 8 of them: 3 interns and 5 residents.
It was a well-known cardiothoracic department at a prestigious university hospital in Korea, but the reality was harsh.
Chief Park Seong-min was in charge of managing them all.
Chief Park Seong-min walked slowly in front of the lined-up residents and interns, then spoke.
“Anyone off today, raise your hand quickly.”
Snap!
Immediately, two people raised their hands.
Chief Park Seong-min glanced at them and nodded.
“You two, get out of here right now, change your clothes, and leave the hospital.”
“Yes!”
“But, if you don’t answer the phone, you’re dead. If you’re late coming back, you’re dead. If you cause trouble, you’ll die even more by my hands. Got it?”
“Got it!”
The higher-ranking residents answered half-jokingly, and Chief Park Seong-min gave a wink and a nod.
“Alright, then, disappear.”
“Good work!”
“Alright, off we go!”
They shouted loud enough to shake the hallway before quickly disappearing.
Afterward, Chief Park Seong-min surveyed the remaining group and spoke again.
“Those of you left, starting in exactly five minutes—at 7 PM sharp—you’ll be handling the patients’ medication and dressing in the ward.”
“Yes!”
“Who knows how many hospitalized patients there are right now?”
At Chief Park Seong-min’s question, one of the residents raised their hand.
“There are 56.”
“Oh, our brainy third-year, Lee Pil-young. Thank you for the great info.”
“It’s too much praise.”
“Alright, no more flattery. We’ll finish giving medication and dressing 56 patients in exactly one hour.”
Upon hearing Chief Park Seong-min’s words, everyone looked stunned.
“One hour? Five people doing that is a bit much.”
“Is that so? Impossible? If you decide it’s impossible and say it out loud, your night’s going to be really tiring.”
“No, it’s not impossible.”
Lee Pil-young hesitated slightly as he spoke, and Chief Park Seong-min continued.
“When I was a first-year, I did 20 patients’ medications and dressings in one hour, plus charting. Haven’t you heard that legend?”
“We’ve heard of it.”
“Since someone knows about it, you must finish everything within one hour. After that, the residents will be on emergency standby, and the interns will take care of themselves. My speech is done, how much time is left?”
“Three minutes.”
“There’s no time to chat. Get ready. When it hits 7, we’re starting exactly.”
Having said all that, Chief Park Seong-min slowly turned and walked into the duty room.
And with that, the battle began.
The residents and interns rushed toward the nurses’ station in the ward.
The residents grabbed the charts from the counter and started shouting while flipping through them.
“Room 1, patient Lee Min-ji, Epinephrine 3 milligrams…”
It was, of course, the interns’ job to gather the medications the residents called out.
The nurses, accustomed to the situation, began organizing the dressing tools on carts.
Before all the medications for the 50-plus patients could be gathered, the time Chief Park Seong-min had set arrived.
As if timing it, Jung Min-su shouted.
“Dr. Lee Pil-young, it’s time!”
“Damn it. I haven’t finished gathering everything yet.”
“What should we do?”
Jung Min-su asked anxiously.
Without answering, Lee Pil-young pointed to one of the residents and gave an order.
“You, take an intern and go first.”
“Hey, come on!”
The resident started running, with Jung Min-su following behind him.
Soon after, a nurse pushed a cart, and Lee Pil-young slightly bowed to her as a greeting.
“Please take care of it.”
“Don’t worry.”
The nurse responded as she moved away.
It was considered proper to speak informally to fellow doctors but respectfully to nurses.
After that, as the injection medications and oral medications were prepared, the residents and interns each ran off.
Even Tae-su was not an exception.