Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 27

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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 27.
“Director, about the Angina Pectoris—the patient actually discovered it because he was experiencing Radiating Pain. It didn’t show up in the Blood Test.”
“Ah, is that so?”
Beom Jun feigned ignorance and replied to Im Seong Hyuk.
“Yes, it was just as you mentioned before, sir. It seems we need to conduct Patient Interviews more efficiently.”
He spoke as though he’d just gained some profound insight. Unusually, he was quite talkative.
“If we’d missed it, that would’ve been a real disaster. The Angina could have worsened while inserting the Pacemaker.”
Watching the Doctor X case where Kim Pan Su died, that’s probably what would’ve happened. Despite having this method available.
Though if Im Seong Hyuk’s surgical skill hadn’t backed it up, it wouldn’t have been possible anyway.
“Medical judgment seems to be just as important as treatment itself.”
At Seong Hyuk’s words, Beom Jun seemed to realize something he’d been forgetting.
For a surgeon, definitive treatment is surgery itself—manual skill. In some ways, a matter of talent. Beom Jun had long been unable to cross that barrier of talent.
But Seong Hyuk, standing at the pinnacle, told him that judgment was what mattered.
Beom Jun, who had staked everything on diagnosis to compensate for his insufficient surgical skills, felt acknowledged by Im Seong Hyuk.
The hospital director from his previous life, who’d told him to just do more surgeries, faded from memory.
“At the very least, from now on I’m going to try listening to what patients have to say.”
Seong Hyuk spoke to Beom Jun as if making a pledge. Perhaps seeking his approval as well.
Well, truth be told, time is limited—it’s difficult to have a calm conversation with patients. With three or four appointments booked every fifteen minutes, you can really only see each patient for about five minutes.
Moreover, most patients don’t understand which symptoms are medically significant, so conversations inevitably drag on.
Beom Jun didn’t ask Seong Hyuk whether he’d been conducting Patient Interviews carelessly. This had already transcended individual doctor discretion.
Having cleared quests and grown accustomed to being a hospital director, Beom Jun now saw not the consultations themselves, but the structure in which they occurred. The gaps in it.
Perhaps by averting his gaze from Im Seong Hyuk, he saw things more clearly.
Watching Im Seong Hyuk give his best was the same, yet Beom Jun somehow felt differently than when watching Doctor X.
Still, Beom Jun told him to do better.
“Right, pay closer attention from now on. The patient knows their own body better than anyone.”
Changing the structure wasn’t his role. Seong Hyuk should keep focusing on patients just like this—for Beom Jun to survive.
While Seong Hyuk treated patients,
the hospital system he’d raised as a problem in Doctor X would be fixed by Beom Jun. That’s what a hospital director was there for.
* * *
The next day, in Kim Pan Su’s Hospital Ward, Min Ho was explaining the surgery. To obtain consent.
“PCI involves installing a Balloon or Stent—a mesh—in the thin blood vessels of the heart to widen them. The professor will use one or the other depending on the situation. I’d guess it’ll be the mesh.”
Min Ho, who had experience from accompanying procedures in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab, drew on that knowledge. While typically the Femoral Artery is used, the Radial Artery in the wrist is sometimes used for patient convenience.
“And a Pacemaker is a device placed beside the heart that sends signals to help it beat regularly, yes?”
“Mm-hmm, that’s right. The thing is, your heart’s been beating too slowly lately.”
“Yes, exactly. That’s why you’re having Shortness of Breath. When pulmonary veins become congested, fluid backs up into the alveoli….”
Min Ho slipped into medical terminology as he habitually did when speaking with other doctors.
Rarely does a patient get upset at these moments, wondering why the explanation wasn’t simpler. They think their ignorance is their fault.
Patients have the right to hear explanations in language they can understand and to make their own treatment decisions, but most delegate that authority to medical staff. Just make me better, they implore.
“Ah, so the heart is connected to the lungs, it seems.”
Yet Kim Pan Su, listening to Min Ho’s explanation, verified the content. Though he didn’t grasp every detail, he could identify the core.
“Oh, my apologies. Yes, that’s right. So you can think of it as the heart being connected to the lungs and being affected by that connection.”
Min Ho adjusted his level again and explained the surgery using analogies.
“Strictly speaking, we should place the mesh first, then insert the Pacemaker. But the professor decided to do both PCI and Pacemaker simultaneously, so it’ll all happen the same day.”
When something he already knew came up, Kim Pan Su nodded as he listened.
“I heard that from the professor. He mentioned that given my age, undergoing General Anesthesia frequently wouldn’t be good.”
Min Ho mentioned Im Seong Hyuk, revealing his respect for him.
“Right. This is only possible because it’s Professor Im.”
The greatest complication of General Anesthesia is Pneumonia.
When anesthetized, breathing becomes shallow and coughing becomes difficult, so if secretions accumulate in the lungs and become infected, it leads to Pneumonia.
Kim Pan Su is already experiencing Dyspnea, so the risk of complications is unavoidably high.
“Another doctor couldn’t have done it. The professor is genuinely concerned about you, so he’s doing this specially for your sake.”
As Min Ho was enthusiastically singing the praises of Im Seong Hyuk, a familiar voice was heard.
“Honestly, that wasn’t my idea. If the hospital director hadn’t mentioned it, I would’ve missed it.”
It was Im Seong Hyuk, arriving for Ward Round. He corrected Min Ho’s attempt to elevate him.
“Oh, Professor, you’re here? And the director came along?”
Beom Jun was with him as well.
“Ah, I ran into Professor Im while he was doing his rounds.”
In truth, Beom Jun had searched out Im Seong Hyuk’s location and engineered this encounter to look coincidental, but he gave a shrug.
“How are you feeling, with surgery coming up soon?”
Beom Jun had joined the Ward Round because he wanted to see Kim Pan Su. To see in person a character he’d cared for in Doctor X.
“I’m doing very well. How kind of you, hospital director, to visit personally. Thank you for looking after this old man.”
Kim Pan Su bowed respectfully, but something felt strange to Beom Jun. The same peculiar feeling as when he’d first met Im Seong Hyuk.
Kim Pan Su’s white hair gleamed softly in the fluorescent light, and from his neatly clasped hands emanated a sense of deliberation.
He carried an atmosphere more grave and composed than Beom Jun had imagined.
The saying “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” doesn’t apply only to punishment.
Just as a quiet person can raise their voice to someone who treats them carelessly,
when respect is felt toward oneself, even a crude person sometimes lowers themselves and becomes humble.
Kim Pan Su, as Beom Jun observed him, fell into this latter category. He made whoever faced him become gentle of their own accord. Perhaps that was because he was someone with a very large inner world.
“No, sir. Please make yourself comfortable while you’re here.”
Beom Jun matched his tone and spoke in a low, measured voice to Kim Pan Su.
“Yes, I shall. And I thank you for the surgery.”
That a doctor cannot entirely exclude personal feeling from treatment—it cannot be helped. Beom Jun genuinely wished this patient in front of him would survive.
“I hope to see you again in good health.”
Beom Jun turned away from him, making a silent vow. That whatever it took, he would not spare his support.
After all the Ward Rounds, including Kim Pan Su, were complete, Beom Jun asked Seong Hyuk on the way back.
“The surgery—there shouldn’t be any problems?”
“Kim Pan Su? It’ll take a long time, but difficulty-wise it’s not hard.”
Beom Jun found Seong Hyuk reassuring all over again.
Seong Hyuk was a doctor you could entrust a patient to with confidence, and Beom Jun knew well how difficult it was to become such a person.
It’s preferable to climb while ascending; but for someone already at the peak to maintain treatment quality takes considerable effort and mental fortitude.
“Right then. You’ll do well. I trust you.”
Yet at Beom Jun’s words, Seong Hyuk merely gazed at him with eyes full of trust, without excuse or complaint.
Han Seung Woo was making rounds with a string of fellows, residents, and interns in tow. Altogether, it easily added up to ten people.
The Ward Round procession packed the narrow hospital corridor so tightly that even a patient could barely pass through.
But Han Seung Woo’s nerves stood on end when he spotted the hospital director with Im Seong Hyuk.
‘What’s this, so Im Seong Hyuk’s been stuck to the director lately.’
His side had far greater numbers, so why did he feel outmatched? A single hospital director’s presence was decidedly formidable.
Among the doctors sweeping past in gowns that reached their knees, the director in a white jacket stood out unmistakably.
Han Seung Woo wanted to look closely at how Beom Jun and Seong Hyuk conversed, but too many eyes were on him from behind.
Still, he could tell at least that the two were intimate with each other.
Han Seung Woo felt unsettled. He was in the Vice Director’s line—the most solid line at Korea University Hospital—yet ever since the director’s accident, the atmosphere had been strange. There were even rumors the Vice Director had been sidelined?
“Professor, how was the Conference? I heard a case transferred from Cardiology was presented.”
A fellow who hadn’t attended the Conference asked Han Seung Woo.
“Huh?! Kim Pan Su? Nothing special happened.”
Han Seung Woo spoke casually, but inside he was seething. His mistake had been laid bare right in front of people, and his pride was in tatters.
“I was at the Conference too. I think doing PCI was a hasty decision. Don’t you think we should’ve watched and waited?”
Another female fellow chimed in, suggesting it was Im Seong Hyuk’s premature judgment, not Han Seung Woo’s fault.
PCI is often performed in Cardiology as well. Had Han Seung Woo detected the Angina Pectoris, he should have managed it. The problem is he didn’t notice.
But Han Seung Woo refused to admit that his mistake was relying only on Blood Test results and failing to order additional tests.
And to have it brought up openly at the Conference like that. Strictly speaking, he hadn’t missed it—he hadn’t actually misdiagnosed it.
Han Seung Woo found this situation deeply unjust. As he handed off patients, his nerves were razor-sharp.
‘I gave the information as requested, and that’s my fault? If additional information was needed, shouldn’t they have asked for it?’
Cardiology, which handles non-surgical interventions like medication, and Thoracic Surgery, where surgery is the main focus, both deal with the heart, yet they weren’t close.
Work at their intersection wasn’t well-distributed, and disagreements between the two departments arose frequently.
Still, Im Seong Hyuk had shown no particular gestures until now, but this time it was different. With the hospital director at his side, unlike the usual solitary figure.
‘…I can’t just sit idle.’
Han Seung Woo ground his teeth internally.

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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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