Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 3

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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 3.
Beom Jun nodded and collected his thoughts.
The first patient in was a two-year-old infant. Up to that point, Seong Hyeok had been trying to persuade the hospital director, who opposed the surgery.
“At this rate, the patient won’t last much longer. You know that too, Director.”
The child, who had been undergoing surgery since birth and was now two years old, showed no signs of improvement.
‘A complication was discovered, and everyone had given up.’
But Seong Hyeok, true to form as the protagonist, never abandoned his patient.
This is where the original director’s line came in.
‘If the surgery fails, will you take responsibility? Let’s play it safe. It’s not as though there are no other options.’
He was pushing for maintaining the status quo rather than pursuing radical treatment.
If Seong Hyeok’s surgery failed, it would become the hospital’s liability.
Of course, without surgery, as time passed, the child would only deteriorate—very gradually.
But it’s difficult for the patient’s parents, laypeople though they are, to notice such change. Whether the medical staff are truly doing their best or merely talking a good game is, frankly, hard to distinguish unless you’re directly involved.
And hearing this, Seong Hyeok left the director’s office shuddering with indignation, laying the groundwork for future conflict with the director.
To survive in , you must never become Seong Hyeok’s enemy. If that happens, Seong Hyeok will take the director’s seat just as in the original story, and to prevent that, the deputy director and board will have Beom Jun killed.
But if Seong Hyeok becomes my talent instead? Then as he grows, my position grows with him. And if I’m the one without whom he can’t treat patients, even better.
‘All right. I’ll do the exact opposite of what the original director said.’
Beom Jun, having finished his deliberation, opened his mouth slowly.
“That’s an excellent idea. Let’s proceed with surgery immediately.”
The answer is predetermined. This surgery will succeed.
“If that’s Professor Seong’s opinion, then we must operate. Of course we must. How could we settle for superficial treatment?”
After all, medication alone won’t control it, and the patient’s condition will only worsen with time.
Seong Hyeok may seem reckless, but he never acts without reason. When he insists something impossible is possible, there’s always a clear rationale—and beneath it all lies genuine concern for his patient.
“Pardon?”
At Beom Jun’s words, Seong Hyeok responded in bewilderment. He’d prepared abundant counterarguments, only to find himself at a loss before a director offering a wholly different reaction.
Beom Jun, who had planned to deflect before Seong Hyeok could strike, gave a thumbs up to the increasingly unsettled professor.
“Attempting something so difficult—truly worthy of Professor Seong. Remarkable. Absolutely remarkable!”
Ah, perhaps I’ve overdone it.
The more Beom Jun praised him, the more Seong Hyeok’s expression twisted.
“…What exactly are you thinking?”
Seong Hyeok asked suspiciously. It was a question, but he already knew the answer deep down. This was one of his ways of adhering to principle.
“You mean to shoulder the blame if the surgery goes wrong.”
Patients have the right to know about their treatment. That’s why surgical consent forms and signatures exist.
But even so, when a patient cannot accept the outcome, it falls to the hospital to assume responsibility and protect its staff. Doctors are employees, after all.
“I understand your distrust.”
“No, that’s not it at all.”
Beom Jun felt exasperated, but he couldn’t very well announce that the surgery would succeed.
There’s no pleasing him. No gratitude, only suspicion.
“Trust me. You’ll do well. It’s a procedure you’ve done before.”
The moment Beom Jun spoke, he realized his mistake. The situation was far more precarious than before—an alarmingly uncertain state regarding whether the patient could withstand surgery. This was the surgery’s greatest challenge.
As expected, the protagonist gritted his teeth at Beom Jun’s words. Seong Hyeok, convinced the director was mocking him, ground out his response.
“We’ll see. I will save that child.”
Seong Hyeok, unaware of Beom Jun’s misgivings, slammed the director’s office door and left.
‘That guy, that guy. Such promise. And yet I’m the director, and he’s just a newly appointed professor.’
Beom Jun was not oblivious to the urgency in his heart. Even as they spoke, the infant’s life was slipping away.
Beom Jun logged into the hospital’s electronic medical records system.
To protect patient privacy, all medical staff can access only their assigned patients. But in , the hospital director has master access. The right to view information on every patient.
Without much deliberation, he searched for Seong Hyeok’s patient and found the infant scheduled for surgery.
– Lee Seo / Age 2 / 7.3 kg
Two years old and only seven kilograms. For a child where survival took priority over development, the child was shockingly small for his age.
Lee Seo’s diagnosis was, as shown in , Tetralogy of Fallot.
Right ventricular outflow tract stenosis, ventricular septal defect, overriding aorta, and right ventricular hypertrophy occurring simultaneously—a congenital heart defect.
Beom Jun had seen this often enough during medical school. Relatively common among cardiac malformations. There’s no preventative method since it’s genetic. Typically, surgery around age two results in full recovery.
But Lee Seo was different. After the first surgery, a complication arose: pulmonary regurgitation.
“So he’s determined to try anyway.”
Even a surgeon can never be one hundred percent certain of success. But Seong Hyeok in was that sort of man. The type who crushes obstacles and keeps moving.
Of course, within the novel, many opinions had been voiced about Lee Seo’s revision surgery, and not a few carried notes of concern.
Our protagonist would rise to the occasion and successfully perform the surgery regardless, but only Beom Jun knew that.
“Ah, right. His mother objected back then, didn’t she?”
Remembering something, Beom Jun pored over Lee Seo’s patient information. In , there was someone besides the director opposed to Lee Seo’s surgery.
Someone exhausted by two years of repeated surgeries as much as Lee Seo himself. That someone was the child’s parents. Especially Lee Seo’s mother harbored deep concerns about such high-risk surgery.
Seong Hyeok would persuade them, but that was merely bombast—hope intertwined with exhortations not to give up.
Fortunately the surgery succeeded, but had it failed, this would have been a medical malpractice suit. A doctor had essentially coerced surgery against the family’s wishes.
Beom Jun lowered his eyes, then lifted his chin.
If flattery doesn’t work, he’d have to play a different card.
There was one way to raise Seong Hyeok’s affection and save Lee Seo at once.
He picked up the phone and made a call.
“Hello, is this Lee Seo’s mother? This is Choi Beom Jun, director of Korean University Hospital.”
* * *
What do patients and families want to hear from medical staff? “I will definitely save you”? “Trust only me, don’t worry”?
But few doctors can make such bold promises. Perhaps only someone of Seong Hyeok’s caliber.
So most say instead: “I’ll do my best. Let’s do this well together.” A reminder that you’re being cared for, that you’re not alone in this grueling journey.
Perhaps this is the heart a doctor must carry toward patient and family—when they rail against the world, asking why such suffering has befallen them,
the doctor is the one who can tell them that’s not how the world works.
Beom Jun came to understand this only years after becoming a professor. After watching residents filled with passion move on, after his fellowship, after learning how hospitals truly operate.
By the time Beom Jun as a professor took full responsibility for patients from start to finish, he’d already wounded many.
“Um, may we ask what this is about?”
Lee Seo’s parents, hovering uncertainly at the director’s office threshold, spoke to the director. Beom Jun rose from his seat and guided them to the plush sofa.
“Please, have a seat. Would you like some warm tea?”
Fidgeting with the back of their necks, the couple exchanged wary glances.
Before the meeting, Beom Jun reviewed Lee Seo’s chart again. A sort of habit—a routine he performed before seeing any patient.
Lee Seo’s heart condition was congenital and discovered shortly after birth. From there he moved to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and then the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, so his time alive was also his length of hospital stay.
Beom Jun spoke first to the reluctant couple on the sofa.
“Lee Seo and Korean University Hospital share a deep connection. Thank you for entrusting us with your precious child.”
At the kind director’s words, Lee Seo’s mother’s eyes reddened immediately. As if suppressed emotions were surging up, she couldn’t continue speaking.
“No, we’re the grateful ones….”
There are few professors in the country capable of treating pediatric cardiac disease besides Seong Hyeok. That’s also why they couldn’t easily seek another hospital despite his somewhat unfriendly manner.
The guardians must be terrified about the revision surgery, and given Seong Hyeok’s personality, he likely hadn’t been particularly attentive to them either. It was troubles piling upon troubles.
Beom Jun pulled out tissues and handed them over; the husband accepted and attended to his wife.
“I hear you’ve been troubled about this upcoming surgery. It’s truly difficult. In every way.”
With his gaze lowered to his teacup, Beom Jun carefully guided them toward the main topic.
“Honestly, I wonder if we should force surgery. They say there are other options.”
“Exactly. Wouldn’t it be better to try medication first and see how things develop?”
The couple replied in unison at Beom Jun’s words, as if they’d been waiting for this. With no one to hear them out, their words must have accumulated inside.
“That option exists, certainly, but it won’t solve the root problem. In fact, missing the window could make things worse.”
Beom Jun began his explanation slowly, but Lee Seo’s father answered somewhat defensively.
“That’s exactly what Professor Seong said.”
Perhaps he thought all hospitals were in cahoots. Beom Jun, thinking this to himself, opened his mouth.
“That’s Professor Seong’s opinion, not mine.”
Beom Jun sipped the tea before him and then paused deliberately.
“I opposed the surgery too. I apologize, but from the hospital’s perspective, undertaking such high-risk surgery is a loss.”
Taking a subordinate position while treating costs credibility. One must maintain appropriate distance with the patient—neither too close nor too distant.
“A loss…? Then, you won’t treat our Lee Seo anymore?”
At his words, the couple panicked, unsure what to do.
“Of course not. If I did, Professor Seong wouldn’t leave me alone.”
Beom Jun smiled, praising Seong Hyeok. No matter what, he was the director. A bit of humility wouldn’t diminish his standing.
Beom Jun continued.
“Lee Seo absolutely must have surgery—that’s what Professor Seong told me. He said we can’t delay any longer.”
The surgery had been postponed repeatedly amid back-and-forth with the guardians. Most don’t realize that the burden falls not just on the patient.
“…The professor did?”
Again the couple looked startled. The professor who’d been so forceful before was apparently working behind the scenes to convince the director. It seemed almost touching.
“To be frank, it’s because it’s Professor Seong that I’m agreeing to operate. With anyone else, I’d have given up long ago.”
As Beom Jun spoke, he felt a twinge of guilt. That other doctor included himself.
No, perhaps not given up entirely—just unable to guarantee the outcome.
“But still, what if a complication develops?”
“They said this surgery is fifty-fifty. Should we really go ahead?”
The couple still spoke with uncertainty. Understandably so. Their decision changes nothing. The surgery’s outcome would ultimately rest in Seong Hyeok’s hands.
The couple still couldn’t commit fully, but the atmosphere had shifted slightly. Sensing this, Beom Jun produced his hidden trump card.
He hadn’t summoned them to the director’s office just to comfort them with words.
“What if we did this?”
Beom Jun leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. The couple, almost unconsciously, mirrored his posture.
“If the surgery goes wrong, Korean University Hospital will cover all of Lee Seo’s future medical expenses.”
At his words, both husband and wife froze in shocked surprise.
“Truly?”
“To go so far for Lee Seo….”
Beom Jun smiled quietly and finished his remaining tea. This was something only a hospital director could say.

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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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