Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 87

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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 87.
“Are there any difficulties in your work?”
“No, no, I’m doing fine. I’m learning a lot at Korea University Hospital.”
Da-eun answered brightly to Beom-jun’s question.
He’d known she’d answer that way. In Doctor X, she was the type who brightened the mood in front of others while quietly working behind the scenes.
— Sung-hyuk had been able to see patients so quickly in no small part because of Professor Da-eun’s efforts. She was like wood constantly fed into a blazing fire.
And whenever praise came, she always deflected the credit to Sung-hyuk. So Sung-hyuk spoke all the more loudly of Professor Da-eun’s contributions.
When he’d read Doctor X, he hadn’t understood her tendency to hide in the background. But looking at the Status Window’s description, it made sense now. She disliked standing out—she’d simply run away.
Instead, she genuinely cared for people.
“Oh, Professor Jeong is here! We’ve been waiting for you.”
“For me?”
“We got snacks today~ It tastes better when you share, doesn’t it?”
“Thank you so much. Mmm, this is delicious.”
She got along easily with everyone—Residents, Patients, nurses. She made no distinctions.
A person who preferred standing low rather than standing high. The woman before him was exactly as Beom-jun saw her: genuinely human and warm-hearted.
Beom-jun glanced at Da-eun before speaking.
“I’ve been hearing that the atmosphere in Eun-sung Hospital’s Thoracic Surgery Department is excellent. Now that I see you, I understand why. It must be thanks to you, Professor Jeong.”
At Beom-jun’s words, Da-eun blinked rapidly as she answered.
“Oh, thank you for saying so. Everyone works very hard there. They all came from Korea University Hospital because they wanted to. Only people who chose to come.”
True to form, she didn’t highlight herself but gave the credit to the Thoracic Surgery team.
To such a Da-eun, Beom-jun lowered his voice and spoke in a gentler tone than usual.
“You know, doctors from two hospitals working together suddenly—there’s bound to be friction.”
“Really?”
At Beom-jun’s words, Da-eun rolled her eyes and looked embarrassed.
“Of course. It’s difficult unless someone fills the gaps and connects things between them.”
But Beom-jun’s eyes saw through her completely.
Without any judgment,
gentle rather than sharp.
Da-eun, whom he’d expected to panic, remained quite composed.
The bright, bouncy woman who’d been speaking a moment ago now met his sincerity with a soft smile.
If the phrase “Gentle Exterior, Strong Interior” became human, it would look like this.
“That’s right. Not many people can handle the details.”
Woo-jin beside her chimed in as well, clearly aware that Beom-jun was speaking about Da-eun.
Well, as her partner, he’d naturally know all about her.
“I just happened to notice things and handled them bit by bit, that’s all.”
Da-eun felt shy about it. Both Professor Woo-jin and Professor Da-eun shared the same modesty.
“You could have overlooked it, but you paid attention. And since you can see the whole picture, you noticed the small details too.”
“It’s a bit embarrassing when you put it that way. Thank you.”
Woo-jin wrapped an arm around Da-eun’s shoulders, her ears already flushed red.
The two of them stuck together like a matched set, and a Status Window appeared before Beom-jun’s eyes.
[Da-eun’s Affinity has increased by 1.]
[Woo-jin’s Affinity has increased by 1.]
[Register Da-eun and Woo-jin as Talents? Yes / No]
Beom-jun rolled his eyes and registered both members of the couple as Talents simultaneously.
[Knowledge from the registered Talents will be absorbed.]
Then, specialized knowledge of the Anesthesiology Department that Woo-jin possessed was engraved into Beom-jun’s mind.
Anesthesia wasn’t simply putting a patient to sleep. If surgery wielded the scalpel, then Anesthesiology held the patient’s lifeline.
They controlled consciousness, pain, breathing, and circulation, serving as a control tower that never wavered in any crisis.
Anesthesiology actually had much work before and after surgery as well—evaluating whether the patient could tolerate anesthesia, and managing pain and complications even after consciousness returned.
Unlike Thoracic Surgery, which dug into the heart to its extreme, Anesthesiology dealt with the function of the entire body.
‘Ah, I see.’
Beom-jun, who’d been in Colorectal Surgery in his previous life, had points of contact with anesthesiologists, but learning the details revealed a different perspective entirely.
Seeing how they made patients breathe, made blood circulate, and controlled consciousness meant they had contact points with most medical departments.
Meanwhile, Da-eun’s specialized knowledge in Thoracic Surgery was a step below Im Sung-hyuk’s, so there wasn’t much merit to it.
But that didn’t matter. He’d obtained her as a Talent and cleared the quest anyway.
[Main Quest completed.]
[Main Quest: Recruit Talents from Eun-sung Hospital]
[Im Beom-jun’s Survival Probability has increased by 3%.]
[Current Survival Probability: 65%.]
Beom-jun closed the successive Status Windows.
Then, a picture of Eun-sung Hospital’s actual state, seen through Woo-jin and Da-eun, appeared in his mind. Doctors were used and worked like hospital attachments.
When Woo-jin woke to his phone ringing at dawn, one word—”Come up now”—sent him running from the dorm to the hospital.
But when he arrived, another doctor was often already there. They’d call multiple people, and whoever arrived first would see the patient.
There was no respect for individual expertise. The logic that any doctor could handle any patient permeated all of Eun-sung, and a good doctor at Eun-sung was one who processed large numbers of patients in short periods of time.
Da-eun’s memories were similar. Seeing people labeled as overly sensitive when they raised concerns, and facing mistreatment until they quit, she too learned to keep silent.
Rather than worry long, it was better for mental health to decide quickly and move on. There were no particularly good doctors at Eun-sung Hospital—only ones tough enough to endure.
And in both their memories, a common figure came to mind: Eun Seo-young and Kim Mu-hyung.
Eun Seo-young, regarded as a VVIP at Eun-sung Hospital, had the demanding and sensitive personality Beom-jun had seen exactly in Doctor X. She had strict standards for service and desired to be treated specially.
Beom-jun compared the information that had entered his mind with the Eun Seo-young he’d actually met. Even if she seemed refined on the surface, in reality she was just a princess. She simply hadn’t shown her true nature yet since Korea University Hospital was still new to her.
And Kim Mu-hyung? The name sounded familiar because he was the one who’d orchestrated the dispatch to Eun-sung Hospital.
Toward him, Woo-jin and Da-eun harbored a common emotion. The kind of hostility Beom-jun had felt frequently after possessing Doctor X’s body.
Both of them held considerable hostility toward Kim Mu-hyung.
* * *
At that same moment, Eun Seo-young’s Holter Monitoring results came back from the ward.
Holter Monitoring was a test that recorded the heart’s rhythm over twenty-four hours.
If an EKG captured a single fleeting moment, a Holter recorded everything that happened over an entire day.
Machines were attached to various points on the upper body to read the electrical signals the heart produced, worn for an entire day. Nowadays, devices had become as small as massage devices.
“The QT Interval is prolonged. Given how wide it is with each heartbeat, there seems to be a functional problem.”
“So the EKG being ambiguous was accurate. Getting the Holter was the right call.”
Shin So-jung and Kang Se-ra discussed the test results.
It aligned perfectly with the abnormality Sung-hyuk had sensed.
Eun Seo-young’s heart took a long time to squeeze blood to her entire body and then relax and expand again.
The heart received an electrical signal, contracted to squeeze blood, then electrically reset to prepare for the next squeeze.
But Long QT Syndrome was, as its name suggested, a disease where the ventricles took a long time to recover.
When electrical signals became tangled, the heart suddenly beat wildly in an arrhythmia, which could cause fainting in severe cases, or cardiac arrest in worse ones.
The arrhythmia in Long QT Syndrome was especially called Torsades de Pointes, one of the most lethal arrhythmias where the heart twisted as it beat.
It was the reason Eun Seo-young had suffered episodes until now.
Rather than a brain problem, it happened because blood wasn’t supplied to the brain while the heart hesitated.
And this was identical to the diagnosis Sung-hyuk had heard from Beom-jun just days ago.
Shocked, Sung-hyuk found it difficult to concentrate on the meeting.
Sung-hyuk recalled the events from days before.
“Let me introduce you. This is patient Eun Seo-young. You know her, right?”
“It’s an honor to meet you. I’m Im Sung-hyuk.”
“I know who you are. But aren’t you a Thoracic Surgery professor? Why are you here?”
“Currently, professors from three departments are seeing this patient. In addition to Neurosurgery, she’s also being treated by Cardiology and Pediatrics.”
“You’ll be seeing Professor Im regularly from now on. Going forward, you’ll be addressing the structural problems of the heart with Professor Im.”
At the Hospital Director’s words, Eun Seo-young’s shoulders, which had been exuding composure bordering on arrogance, had stiffened.
That he’d be treating patient Eun Seo-young was news even to Sung-hyuk.
Though equally surprised, he’d bowed to Eun Seo-young at the Hospital Director’s glance and left the room.
That had been just days ago. Had the Hospital Director seen this coming?
‘Since he’s from Thoracic Surgery, he’d already finished patient screening. Rather than telling me what to do, he let me find the answer myself!’
While Shin So-jung and Kang Se-ra spoke, Sung-hyuk was inwardly astounded.
Though his composed face revealed little, he found himself newly impressed by Beom-jun.
Even Sung-hyuk had been uncertain after first seeing the EKG and had waited for additional test results, but the Hospital Director always seemed to be one step ahead. As if he knew the future.
‘The Hospital Director really is remarkable.’
Sung-hyuk felt both his previous misunderstanding and his admiration for Beom-jun rise simultaneously.
“Well then, will Professor Se-ra be the attending physician?”
Neurosurgery Professor Shin So-jung withdrew, saying it wasn’t her department, and when Cardiology Professor Kang Se-ra made an ambiguous expression, Im Sung-hyuk spoke up readily.
“No, I’ll take her case. Just put my name down as attending physician.”
As if it had always been the plan, Sung-hyuk didn’t shy away from difficult patients.
He was already fully prepared in his heart.
“Is that alright?”
“It’s good if Professor Im sees her.”
Sung-hyuk didn’t hear what Se-ra and So-jung were saying.
Only the words Beom-jun had spoken to Sung-hyuk after meeting with patient Eun Seo-young echoed repeatedly in his mind.
“Sung-hyuk, there’s something called Long QT Syndrome. It’d be good for you to know about it now.”
He’d definitely said Long QT Syndrome. Though it sounded like a rare condition he’d heard of once, Sung-hyuk was certain that disease was connected to Eun Seo-young.
“Yes, I’ll take care of it.”
And so Im Sung-hyuk became the attending physician for patient Eun Seo-young.

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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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