A/N: From now on, I'll upload any donated chapter on the Friday of that week (unless I don't have any chapters stocked, then I'll upload it the next Monday with the regular chapter).
The main and 2nd surgeon. Three assistants. The anesthesiology team and nurse team all surrounded the patient and went into full surgery mode for two hours.
Sitting in the observation room, Shin Beom, the head of neurosurgery at Hansung Hospital, watched the surgical video from the monitor displaying microscopic images.
When the surgeon, Park Dowook, cut off the abnormal tissue, blood spurted out as the entangled blood vessels were unraveled.
At that moment, the 2nd surgeon, Choi Hoo's clip arrived as if he'd been waiting for it and a needle danced as it sutured the torn vessel.
-Prof. Lee. situation check.
-Just wait a sec. Dr. Jeong. Would you count down from 10?
-10, 9…..
In a very short period of time, tumor removal and aneurysm conjugation were completed. He had never seen such a high-level surgery performed so easily in his 20-year professional experience.
The skill required was one thing, but the rhythm of the two surgeons was crazily in sync. Goosebumps went up his arms.
The chief of neurosurgery at the Korea National University Hospital, who had been looking at the monitor in awe, dropped his jaw in admiration.
"Chief Ha. Choi Hoo is one thing, but what is that main surgeon? Did you scout him recently? Isn't your hospital not doing well right now?"
"He's my student."
"Wow, Eff. You raised such a guy?"
"Not sure if I raised him or he grew by himself. I'm not sure anymore myself."
Even though professors from the association were all amazed by his student's skills, Ha Sang Joong, the main character, was somewhat disinterested.
Joo Seok Beom looked at his student who had returned after two years of learning advanced culture from one of the top 10 universities in the U.S.
"Prof. Shim, there are surgeries at this level daily at UCLA, right?"
Joo Seok Beom's student, Shim Moon-ho, could not hear his question. Because he was fully focused on watching the monitor with his mouth open.
"Hey, brat. Prof. Shim."
"Ah, don't talk to me. The next sublation is about to start."
Hurt by the criticism from his favorite student, Joo Seok Beom crouched down with his head bowed down.
"Please wipe my sweat."
At Dowook's words, the nurse held a towel to his forehead and then stepped down.
4 hours of continuous surgery.
He couldn't remember how many times the sweat pouring down his forehead had stung his eyes.
There was still a long way to go because the time was significantly increased by the process of checking and molding the previously measured abnormalities via touching each tissue.
Dowook adjusted the microscope to the next area and paused.
"Prof. Choi, here. This seems like our target area, doesn't it?"
"The blood vessels aren't consistent. There's a good chance of that."
A deformity in the temporal lobe directly connected to the auditory nerve.
The most difficult part to operate was revealed when fatigue was causing him to lose feeling below his calves.
He took his eyes off the microscope and looked up at the ceiling because he thought his neck muscles would get strained.
'Eugh, it's stiff.'
Even Last Choi's amazing surgical sense was bound to become dull in the face of hard times. Dowook was worried he wouldn't recover easily even with a bit of stretching.
As it was an important area, he turned to ask Prof Choi to take over. The nurse was wiping off his sweat. Prof. Choi was also having a hard time.
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Additionally, if they changed positions here, the balance of the surgery where he kept sublating and Prof. Choi kept anastomizing would be broken. He had to overcome this by himself.
"I'm starting."
Through the microscope, the blades of the ultra-small scissors and auxiliary forceps were directed toward the deformed tissue.
The moment he was about to try ablating.
"Ah."
Dowook was startled and couldn't proceed. He'd almost resected the tissue connected to the auditory nerve. If one was to cut even 1mm of such brain nerve, it could cause a disability.
Following that, he could see the surgical instruments in the microscope shaking. It was evident that the strength in his fingertips was also at a limit.
"Whew, let's rest for 2 minutes."
He declared a field-break time and clenched his fists several times. However, the tension only increased and he merely got more nervous, no longer able to calm down once it started.
As he was about to sigh.
A low humming sound rang out in the operating room.
A calm classical melody that he seemed to have heard somewhere flowed into Dowook's ears. It was not grand music, but the gentle humming seemed to comfort the medical staff who performed the surgery without a break.
Tingle.
A new sense that formed on his fingertips. This did not belong to a doctor. His fingers moved in the air without his conscious control, following the melody. Like he was playing the piano.
Dowook's eyes naturally turned to Jeong Woo-seok.
He had not lost his will even though he suddenly experienced something that was not easy to accept like an awake surgery. There were many things that could be learned from him. That was probably why he could be a great pianist even when he couldn't see anything.
After he finished humming for a minute, Jeong Woo-seok spoke.
"The surgery seems to be going well. I can sing at the same beat as usual."
"What song is this? It's a classical one, right?"
"Try to guess. It's pretty famous. If you become interested enough in Classical music to search for it, I'll play it on a piano for you later."
Dowook smiled internally at the irony that his fingers knew when he didn't know the title because of Jeong Woo-seok's sense.
'Oh?'
Amazingly, the trembling in his fingers stopped.
Even when he accepted Prof. Choi's sense and grabbed the tools, he couldn't feel the trembling.
Maybe because of the power of music or because he took a break. It was not important. Due to this, they could overcome the crisis. He gained confidence that he could complete this surgery perfectly till the end.
"It's been 2 minutes. Let's begin. Everyone hold on until the end."
The operation, which lasted for 8 hours, ended, and the patient who was once again put under anesthesia had his head closed.
When he pulled his hands away after finishing the scalp suture, Dowook looked at the time. It was 7:30 PM. They'd started in the morning and now it was evening.
"Eughh….."
His joints were shouting at him.
"Good job, Dr. Park."
Prof. Lee Won Seok placed his hand on Dowook's limp shoulder and gave him a massage.
"Eugh. Thank you. But you didn't leave?"
"When the patient wakes up, we have to go through a check-up anyway, so I'll take it from here. You go and rest."
"Whew. Then I'll leave it to you."
He walked out of the OR and put the mask, gown, and gloves in the waste bin. After wiping his hands and face with water, he walked out of the D-rosette and felt like he could breathe again.
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The moment he passed the corridor of neurosurgery, thinking about lying on the sofa in the staff resting area.
He ran into the professors from the association as they left Chief Ha's office.
"Wait, that's Dr. Park, isn't it? The main surgeon."
"I think so?"
The professors gathered around Dowook in an instant.
"Back when you were operating on the posterior semicircular duct. Did you set the operation range while assuming the tumor growth to be within the internal acoustic canal? The resection route was so neat there was no need for hemostasis. It can even be used in regular tumor surgery."
"I'm still wondering how you got around the part where you can't see anything because of the chutzal vein."
"Dr. Park, I'm….."
Dowook, who was dazed in exhaustion, became dumbfounded and unable to say anything when the professors' questions flew at him.
"Tek! What are you doing to someone exhausted from surgery?"
Chief Ha quickly walked over and pushed away some of the professors who were persistently asking questions about the surgery.
"Dowook. Did you finish up?"
"Yes, neatly."
"Good job. Go rest. I'll take care of these people."
"Is that ok? I'll leave it to you, chief. Everyone, thank you for your visit."
Questions continued to fly toward Dowook's back as he left after greeting everyone.
"Dr. Park, when you filter out a bunch of jugular nerves…."
"Dr. Park!"
A few hours later, in the VIP ward.
Jeong Woo-seok, who awoke from the anesthesia, opened his mouth to speak.
"My head is prickling."
"It's due to the pain in the scalp. If you could differentiate it from headaches, it would help in determining the outcome."
"Ah. I think I remember hearing about it. The pain will last for 3 weeks, wasn't it?"
"You just need to suffer through it for 2 weeks."
At the doctor's air of excitement, Jeong Woo-seok made an observation.
"It seems everything went as expected."
"It exceeds the expectation. The skills of the two surgeons were better than I expected. I think you can expect the hearing loss after surgery to be about 10%. What do you think? Do you think the sound has changed?"
"Hmm..."
Jeong Woo-seok, who was still listening to the surrounding sounds, realized that all the buzzing noise that he heard regularly before the surgery had disappeared.
Excluding the heaviness of his body due to the anesthesia, it was similar to when he applied himself to music.
That was how he judged it when
"Prof. Lee."
Jeong Woo-seok's left eyelid shook slightly as it opened. Then, he accurately turned to look at Prof. Lee Won Seok, who came to stand next to his bed.
"I keep feeling indistinct in front of me. Is this also an aftereffect?"
"What? There's no reason….."
Dowook, who passed out and woke up in the middle of the night, went down to the lobby's 24-hour cafe and ordered a dark espresso, which he held in his hands.
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Although there were many people who couldn't drink it due to its bitterness, Dowook, who couldn't taste anything, had no problem with it. Though it sometimes did hurt his stomach.
Holding his coffee in one hand, he went outside to get some fresh air.
A small garden where interns and residents came to sneakily smoke. Since he didn't smoke, he stayed far away as he recalled today's surgery.
The process of resolving the patient's symptoms in a full day of surgery and reflecting on it. The fragrant coffee added to the fresh air as he felt satisfaction build in his heart that he did something worthy of a doctor today.
Even before, he felt this was the way to becoming a surgeon. However, there weren't as many times that he felt as satisfied as today.
"You did good, Park Dowook."
After lifting his mood, he returned to the hospital lobby and found a group of people blocking the entrance.
Vrrr.
His phone rang, and when he checked, it was Prof. Lee Won Seok.
[Dr. Park, can you come with me on rounds tomorrow at 9 AM? I'll talk to Chief Ha about it. Jeong Woo-seok's....]
Before he could finish reading it, one of the people gathered at the entrance saw him.
"There! Park Dowook is over there!"
"...me?"
The dozens of eyes that were looking into the lobby turned to the back at once. Even though there was no signal, the voices poured out like rapid-fire cannons at the same time.
"This is Medi Seoul Correspondent Hong Si-an! Is it true that pianist Jeong Woo-seok's eyesight has returned?! Please say a word about it!"
"This is Kukil Newspaper! It is said that you performed this surgery as a student of Prof. Choi, who has a reputation for being the best in Korea. Whose idea was this method that has not been reported to the academia yet?"
"Doctor!"
"Dr. Park Dowook!"
Reporters. They were all reporters.
Dowook took a step back without knowing it because the expression on their faces when asking questions was full of recklessness at the face of a life-and-death situation.
Dowook, who was barricaded by the reporters in an instant, was bewildered as he finished reading the message.
[...Jeong Woo-seok's eyesight has recovered.]
* * *
The next day.
Entering the hospital at 8 o'clock, Dowook proceeded straight to the neural clinic.
The automatic door opened, and while he was looking around thinking that it would be chaotic because of yesterday's matter, his friend Son Jae-geol appeared and grabbed his arm.
"Hey, why are you so late?"
"I came early though? The rounds are scheduled for 9 AM."
"A lot of visitors came because of you."
"Visitors?"
Son Jae-geol pointed to the rest area to Dowook, who became nervous at the thought it might be the reporters from last night who made a fuss over things he didn't know.
Dowook looked over and stopped moving.
The professors of the Korean Neurosurgery Society sat together and waved at Dowook.
"You're here, Dr. Park."
"Would you like a cup of coffee?"
"We came to hear the things we couldn't yesterday. We won't disturb you from your work so don't worry."
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They had the unique taste of enjoying talking about opening patients' heads for 3 days and 2 nights.
Dowook had a strong suspicion today would be hectic again.