Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 119

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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 119.
Two days had passed since the visit to the Emergency Room, and dawn was breaking.
Park In-suk, the mother of Vice Director Gu Hui-jeong, had not slept all night.
Each time she dozed off and tried to sleep, her breath would catch and jolt her awake.
It was like torture—falling asleep, then startling awake in panic as her breath suddenly cut off, the cycle repeating endlessly.
The more stress she felt, the harder it became to breathe.
Through it all, Hui-jeong sat beside her mother, keeping watch.
“She was fine yesterday, but she’s gotten worse in just one day. Maybe we should go to the Emergency Room.”
“Just wait. We’ll only waste money going there.”
“What’s the point of earning money if not for this? Mom, you’re so stubborn—and your own daughter’s a vice director.”
Park In-suk refused to go to the hospital. Hui-jeong didn’t push hard to persuade her either.
Though her medical fees would be discounted, the real reason was her deep distrust of hospitals themselves.
Having witnessed how the patient Kim Do-yoon was used by the Chairman, the Vice Director couldn’t be certain she could trust her mother to Korea University Hospital.
She was even reluctant to share her mother’s information.
Until now, she had never been wary of doctors banding together. She’d simply been curious about Uigwonhoe, which she wasn’t allowed to attend—she’d never intended to enter that world of doctors from her days in America.
But their tight-knit bonds were now moving in a direction that harmed patients.
As someone outside the medical establishment, the Vice Director felt afraid of Uigwonhoe for the first time. She couldn’t fathom what they could do, how much, or in what manner.
‘Should I transfer to a different hospital? Honestly, Cheon Hui University Hospital is closer anyway.’
But Hui-jeong quickly changed her mind. What if someone recognized her? A Vice Director of Korea University Hospital receiving care elsewhere? She’d become a laughingstock.
“This is absurd. I can’t believe this. Ha… haha.”
The Vice Director let out a hollow laugh.
It was ironic—she couldn’t trust her own hospital enough to receive treatment there.
When had things come to this?
She had worked with every nerve on edge, fearful that the Hospital Director would destroy Korea University Hospital.
No one had been more sincere in building Korea University Hospital than she had been. Some said maintaining the nation’s top hospital was achievement enough, but Hui-jeong’s ambitions reached far beyond that.
But now it became clear—it wasn’t the Hospital Director destroying Korea University Hospital, but the Chairman.
Back then, she had believed the Chairman’s words and taken the lead in removing incompetent Hospital Directors,
but now she wasn’t even certain those directors had truly been the worst.
‘Was I just one of the Chairman’s dogs?’
She had thought the Chairman supported her vision, but looking back, it was the reverse. She had been the one realizing the Chairman’s will all along.
The past now felt distant to Hui-jeong—from the day she abandoned her American career and returned to Korea until now.
Honestly, she didn’t understand why she was still at Korea University Hospital.
Hui-jeong patted her mother’s back as she steadied her breathing.
The one good thing was that she could care for her mother up close. Since her father passed away, her mother had been alone, and Hui-jeong had worried. But being in Korea meant they could be together.
Yet the mother’s back beneath her hand trembled irregularly. Since her lungs weren’t functioning properly, unnecessary muscles were convulsing, forcing the diaphragm to move.
“Hhgh… haaa. Whooo.”
“Mom, are you alright? This won’t do. We’re going to the hospital. I’m calling an ambulance.”
Hui-jeong spoke firmly, stopping her mother from trying to push through on her own. Her self-made mother was so terribly stubborn.
She was better now that she was older, but in her younger days, no one in the family could have stopped her.
“Go where? You mean your hospital?”
Park In-suk spoke with clear displeasure, her tone weak for want of energy.
But at her mother’s words, Hui-jeong found herself momentarily speechless.
“…Of course Korea University Hospital. Where else would we go?”
Korea University Hospital might be acceptable, but there was no other alternative either.
All she could do was entrust her mother’s care to the hospital and pray. She could only hope the Chairman had no interest in her mother.
Hui-jeong bit her lip. Suddenly she recalled what Ha-rin had said.
‘I think Director Choe knew. He knew the Chairman was using the patient Kim Do-yoon, but treated him anyway.’
How had he managed it? What exactly had he done?
Director Choe hadn’t avoided Kim Do-yoon even though he knew it was the Chairman’s trap. In the end, he’d turned the situation on its head.
“Huff, hhgh. Ha.”
Park In-suk continued to gasp for breath. Hui-jeong fell into a profound sense of helplessness. She, who had always accomplished everything through her own effort, could do nothing now.
— Woo – woo –
A siren wailed outside the apartment, tearing through the predawn air and drawing closer. The ambulance’s red lights swept across the window.
* * *
“We’ve arrived. You can walk, can’t you?”
“Yes, thank you.”
The ambulance had reached Korea University Hospital quickly. After breathing oxygen in the ambulance, her mother had stabilized somewhat.
“Please be careful getting out.”
Hui-jeong steadied her mother’s arm and stood before the Emergency Room entrance.
But her hesitation did not end during the ambulance ride. Was it right to go inside?
Park In-suk quickly noticed her daughter’s hesitation.
“We don’t need to go in. I’m fine now.”
“You’re not fine. If you don’t keep using the oxygen, you’ll struggle to breathe again.”
Hui-jeong chided her mother gently while taking her hand.
She led the calloused hand—thickened from a lifetime of hard work—into the Emergency Room. As quietly as possible.
As she passed the crowded reception desk, her grip tightened unconsciously.
Park In-suk turned her head to study her daughter’s face. It was rigid with tension, her eyes darting left and right, scanning the hospital interior.
But then, in a single moment, her daughter’s expression softened. Hui-jeong’s gaze had found something—a young man standing before them.
“Professor Im Sung-hyuk?”
Dressed in his white coat since before dawn, he greeted Hui-jeong as if he’d known she was coming.
And there in the crowded Emergency Room, Park In-suk’s breathing suddenly accelerated again.
“Huff, hgh. Hhf.”
“Oh, Mom? Mom, are you alright? Look at me, please.”
Park In-suk clutched her chest, gasping for breath.
Sung-hyuk, standing across from them, rushed over immediately.
He at once noticed the pallor around her lips and beneath her fingernails.
‘Cyanosis.’
The signs of cyanosis—oxygen not reaching the extremities of the body.
“Oxygen ready here! Get me a saturation monitor!”
At Sung-hyuk’s command, the Emergency Room doctors and nurses scattered in all directions.
One brought an oxygen tank; another brought a machine to measure oxygen saturation and clipped it to Park In-suk’s finger.
In less than a minute, an oxygen mask was placed over Park In-suk’s face. Just as it had been in the ambulance, oxygen had a powerful effect on her cyanosis.
“Whooo, whooo.”
Park In-suk’s breathing returned to normal. Still, Im Sung-hyuk waited until her oxygen saturation climbed above ninety-five percent before reducing the oxygen flow.
“Is it cardiac arrest, Doctor? Should we prepare the crash cart?”
“No. First, let’s expedite the admission process.”
The seasoned medical team looked ready to begin Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation at any moment, but fortunately, Park In-suk’s heart had not yet stopped.
“Ward 77 has been kept available. It would be best to move immediately.”
Sung-hyuk brought an Emergency Room wheelchair and helped Park In-suk into it. Before Hui-jeong could even respond, he turned to the Emergency Room nurse.
“I’ll transfer the patient myself. Call me if anything comes up.”
“You’re going personally, Professor?”
“Yes. It shouldn’t take long.”
Even as her condition fluctuated, Park In-suk received the escort of a professor during admission.
It was as good as having Sung-hyuk taking personal responsibility for anything that might occur en route.
Hui-jeong followed silently behind Sung-hyuk.
As Vice Director, seeing him alongside Director Choe always made her feel like they were causing trouble together, but now that he was her mother’s attending physician, he seemed utterly trustworthy.
Im Sung-hyuk led the way, guiding their path, while Hui-jeong pushed the wheelchair carrying her mother.
— Squeak.
Im Sung-hyuk entered the freight elevator closest to the Emergency Room and descended underground.
With each level they descended, the countless patients and caregivers around them dwindled away.
Soon only Im Sung-hyuk, Gu Hui-jeong, and Park In-suk remained in the wide corridor, and Hui-jeong asked:
“Is this on the Director’s orders?”
The passage they were traveling was a secret tunnel beneath Korea University Hospital. Originally built for emergency wartime situations,
it was used to minimize outside contact when celebrities or political figures came in as patients.
But this was absolutely beyond what a professor could authorize. It had to be the Hospital Director’s instruction.
‘He’s keeping Mom’s admission confidential.’
By allowing Beom-jun to use the underground passage, he was ensuring that Han Myeong-jae’s attention would never fall upon Park In-suk—a gesture of care from Beom-jun and a guarantee of her safety.
“Ah, not exactly. I happened to be on Emergency Room duty today.”
Sung-hyuk offered a transparent lie. His awkward performance was painfully obvious to anyone watching.
“You’re saying the room was just held empty, that’s all?”
A VIP room was especially the Hospital Director’s exclusive prerogative.
‘How long ago did he know Mom was coming, to keep that room empty all this time?’
Hui-jeong grumbled inwardly, but her gratitude was as genuine as her complaint.
Certainly, Director Choe was different from the Chairman, who had hidden behind her while pushing her forward.
He knew how to cherish his people and loved patients with that same sincerity.
That’s why Im Sung-hyuk followed him, too.
For now, Im Sung-hyuk was overshadowed by Director Choe, but there had been a time when he was the hospital’s greatest headache—proposing surgeries that shouldn’t be done, draining the budget.
Yet somehow, he had become the standard by which Korea University Hospital’s doctors measured themselves.
Countless doctors now admired him and sought him out, wishing to become like him. Anyone at Korea University Hospital would know that the thoracic surgery department was bursting at the seams these days.
“Actually, the Director told me to take good care of your mother when she came in.”
Sung-hyuk rubbed the back of his head, speaking sheepishly. Having abandoned his unconvincing act, he was sincere and forthright.
Hui-jeong knew it too. Im Sung-hyuk, who had become a professor not long ago, was carrying far too much burden.
‘The thoracic surgery deficit isn’t even Im Sung-hyuk’s fault. It was too much to ask of him.’
The real fault lay with the hospital’s mismanagement. Hui-jeong herself had contributed to that mismanagement.
Hui-jeong released the handles of the wheelchair.
She offered them to Sung-hyuk instead.
“Please take care of my mother. Professor Im.”
“Of course! We’ll need to get a chest X-ray and EKG first, but I suspect fluid is accumulating in the lungs due to decreased cardiac function.”
Sung-hyuk explained the situation rapidly to Hui-jeong, the patient’s caregiver. Hui-jeong leaned close to her mother’s ear, whose hearing had declined with age, and spoke loudly.
“Mom! Just like when you came to the Emergency Room before, they’re going to do some tests first!”
Then, having stooped to match the height of the wheelchair, she straightened her spine and asked Sung-hyuk:
“Where is the Director right now?”

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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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