Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 118

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 118.
Certain illnesses leave traces of a life lived.
Just as you can glimpse someone’s gait from the worn sole of a shoe.
Those who labor physically wear down their cartilage first; those who live where the air is poor damage their lungs. It’s inevitable.
And so, when a doctor sets about repairing a broken body,
he finds himself glimpsing the patient’s life whether he wishes to or not.
— Tap-tap.
Hyun-ji arranged printouts from other departments’ consultations and set them neatly before Im Sung-hyuk. Just from today alone, they covered three sheets of A4, front and back.
“Professor, I’ve gathered all the consultations. Would you like to take a look?”
Among the lines of requests, one name had been marked with a highlighter.
“There’s also the Vice Director’s mother. She’s with Pulmonology.”
“Ah, her? She didn’t have a Percutaneous Coronary Intervention,
*
did she. It was a Myocardial Infarction
**
case.”
*Percutaneous Coronary Intervention
**Myocardial Infarction
Im Sung-hyuk spoke, searching his memory. Her mother had been a patient with myocardial infarction.
“That’s right. Seven years ago she had a stent placed, and Cardiology was managing her blood pressure, but apparently she came to the Emergency Room a few days ago complaining of breathlessness.”
The heart supplies blood to the entire body, but the heart itself needs blood rich in nutrients to continue beating.
The coronary arteries—thin vessels—supply that blood to the heart. When a coronary artery is blocked, a mesh or balloon is inserted into the vessel and expanded to widen it.
Seven years ago. When Gu Hui-jeong’s mother underwent that surgery, Im Sung-hyuk was still a Resident. It had been not long after he’d joined Korea University Hospital.
‘Has it really been that long?’
Back then, the Vice Director had consulted directly with the Professor and decided on the treatment plan himself.
Though he hadn’t performed the surgery on his mother with his own hands, he’d done nearly everything else.
That was why Im Sung-hyuk’s attending physician had cursed him bitterly behind his back.
“Is he a doctor or what?! Huh? If you’re going to be a caregiver, then act like one. If he’s a Vice Director, should he really be carrying on like this?”
Of course, there were instances where patients requested certain medications during surgery or declined because of scheduling, but most of the time they deferred entirely to the doctor’s judgment.
The attending physician, forced to follow the Vice Director’s word over his own opinion, had accumulated considerable resentment.
Yet even so, the Vice Director held his ground against the Professor. Though complaints erupted from various quarters, her mother’s surgery proceeded with remarkable efficiency and she recovered in remarkably short time.
The prognosis was excellent. The surgery had been successful without any complications whatsoever.
‘That was the first time I saw her up close, actually.’
The Vice Director, whom he’d only glimpsed in the grand lecture hall, had a force that allowed her to charge forward without hesitation once she’d set her sights on something—and Im Sung-hyuk had admired that greatly.
When a family member falls ill, caregivers often collapse, but she was the opposite. The Vice Director fought with the Professors to protect her mother.
Different profession though it was, Im Sung-hyuk had no doubt she accomplished an enormous amount of work at Korea University Hospital. She wouldn’t cut corners out of annoyance or fatigue.
Angina and myocardial infarction tend to strike people with competitive dispositions.
He didn’t know if precise statistics existed. It was just his experience. When treating patients with angina or myocardial infarction, he often encountered people who’d lived fiercely.
Seeing that her mother had developed angina, Im Sung-hyuk had thought she’d inherited that temperament. The way she pushed forward—there was something of a fighter’s instinct in it.
“So she was discharged straight from the Emergency Room? What were her vitals?”
“147/72—54. She received diuretics and her breathing stabilized.”
Given how the diuretics had worked, water must have accumulated in her lungs, causing the breathlessness.
If the lungs, which are directly connected to the heart, were in trouble, then a heart problem was highly likely.
“Did Cardiology have anything particular to say? The Vice Director didn’t mention anything else?”
Im Sung-hyuk had met with Cardiology Professor Kang Se-ra at a multidisciplinary conference yesterday, but the Vice Director’s mother hadn’t come up, nor had the Vice Director herself.
As the attending physician, she should be under considerable stress—it was a strange situation.
“The Vice Director? The only handoff note was that she came to the Emergency Room as a caregiver. There was nothing else.”
At Hyun-ji’s words, Im Sung-hyuk slowly furrowed his brow.
‘Why is she sitting still?’
The Vice Director was not just different from seven years ago—she was a completely different person.
“Keep close watch on that patient for now. Send me her name and registration number.”
Im Sung-hyuk reached for his white coat hanging on the rack and spoke as he pulled it on. The coat, which reached to his knees, fluttered as it settled over his shoulders.
“Yes, I just sent it by text! Where are you going?”
“Director’s Office. I’ll be late, so don’t wait—head home.”
Hyun-ji glanced at her watch.
Half past five. Still thirty minutes until quitting time, yet she was being told to leave early!
“Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow!”
Hyun-ji’s face lit up.
Her whole body seemed ready to spring out the door.
* * *
Im Sung-hyuk strode toward the Director’s Office on long legs. It wasn’t a quick conversation.
“The Vice Director’s mother came to the Emergency Room two days ago, it seems. She was discharged the same day.”
“I know. I’m looking into it now.”
When Im Sung-hyuk arrived at the Director’s Office, Beom-jun was reviewing the patient’s information on the hospital system.
— Park In-sook / 79 years old / ER-04
In the Emergency Room discharge record, the reason for admission and the treatment provided were documented chronologically.
“It looks like Heart Failure
***
to me.”
“That’s my assessment as well. It’s been a long time since her Percutaneous Coronary Intervention, and she’s elderly.”
***Heart Failure
The heart isn’t pumping properly.
Blood that can’t move forward backs up in the lung vessels behind it, and the tissue fluid forced out by the elevated pressure accumulates in the lungs.
“There was a multidisciplinary conference yesterday. Professor Kang Se-ra was there too.”
“Yeah? What did Professor Kang say?”
“Nothing in particular. I only learned that Patient Park In-sook had been admitted today.”
Beom-jun responded to Im Sung-hyuk’s words.
“Well, it’s not a major event. If she’s improving enough with diuretics, her condition isn’t that severe.”
“That’s true, but. The Vice Director seems to be sitting awfully still. You know how she was seven years ago when she had the surgery.”
At Im Sung-hyuk’s words, Beom-jun felt tension grip his temples. A sharp twinge, as if a migraine were setting in.
In his mind, Beom-jun scrolled back through “Doctor X.” He recalled the Vice Director from seven years ago, from the earlier episodes.
“The moment she developed chest pain, she came straight to the Emergency Room. If she hadn’t, she’d likely be dead by now.”
The Vice Director, who had thrown herself into every treatment undertaken at Korea University Hospital with zealous determination,
even accounting for the fact that her mother’s life was at stake, had been half-wild with panic.
Though emotional intervention usually ruins a case, Gu Hui-jeong had instead honed her keen perception and grasped her mother’s symptoms.
It had likely been an emergency situation then. Without immediate surgery, the patient could have died.
‘The Vice Director handled it well. Even Im Sung-hyuk had acknowledged that.’
In fact, discovery itself could be called miraculous. Myocardial infarctions often result in sudden death on the street, with the cause only determined later.
“She arranged everything right up until discharge.”
“Exactly. The attending physician only performed the surgery itself. The Vice Director did nearly everything else.”
Beom-jun nodded as he spoke.
“Now, just mentioning Patient Park In-sook’s name would irritate the Vice Director. I called yesterday to ask how she was doing, and she was pretty short with me.”
“The Vice Director? That’s odd. That doesn’t seem like her.”
She was someone who, when hospital work was concerned, wouldn’t hesitate or resist.
“Whatever’s happening, her fundamental nature probably hasn’t gone anywhere.”
Im Sung-hyuk spoke with puzzlement.
‘That’s right. People don’t change that easily. Even if we write off the hostility disappearing because of Reset Tissue, her personality itself shouldn’t have transformed.’
Im Sung-hyuk left a hint for Beom-jun about the Vice Director—that she was likely seething beneath the surface.
Gu Hui-jeong in Beom-jun’s memory was the same.
She had considerable attachment to Korea University Hospital. Beom-jun had thought it a twisted emotion from not becoming Director, but.
‘I thought it was longing for what she didn’t have, but was that not it?’
Either way, after her hostility faded, Gu Hui-jeong had been like someone who’d given up everything—her spirit was dead.
Beom-jun nodded at Im Sung-hyuk’s words.
Beom-jun furrowed his brow and stared at the computer. The monitor that Im Sung-hyuk had pulled up displayed Park In-sook’s chest X-ray.
Where a healthy lung should appear dark, there was a hazy white shadow. Especially in the lower lobes—fluid accumulation making it pure white.
The shadowing spread from the lung hilum, resembling a bat with wings spread wide.
“Bat Wing Sign.”
“That’s right, Director.”
Pulmonary edema from congestive heart failure.
Having acquired thoracic surgical knowledge at Im Sung-hyuk’s level, Beom-jun could envision Park In-sook’s condition.
Given how the diaphragm itself was blurred and blotted, it was considerably advanced.
Beom-jun spoke while examining Park In-sook’s chart.
“When is Park In-sook’s next follow-up?”
“Cardiology follow-up is scheduled for a month out, but I don’t think she’ll make it that long.”
Beom-jun nodded at Im Sung-hyuk’s assessment.
Though diuretics had been prescribed, they wouldn’t be enough. The patient was elderly.
In the X-ray image, the heart—normally positioned at the lung’s center—was there, but far larger than normal. The cardiac muscle had thickened to compensate for hypertension.
It was the trace of a heart struggling to compensate as its function deteriorated. The dike had broken; now the flood would come.
“A month? Forget a month—she won’t even make a week. She’ll be back in the Emergency Room soon.”
With his assessment complete, Beom-jun’s gaze left the monitor. He looked at Im Sung-hyuk and spoke.
“Prepare yourself.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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