Trauma Center : Golden Hour - Chapter 110

Baek Kang-hyuk looked briefly bewildered.

But he was a pro’s pro.

He knew exactly what was important and what to prioritize.

‘As long as we’re getting there fast and quietly, that’s all that matters.’

Of course, there was some shaking and swaying.

They were driving through downtown Seoul, after all—it wouldn’t make sense if there wasn’t.

‘I’m fine.’

He was someone who had performed complex surgery on a ship, in a helicopter, countless times in ambulances.

Since coming back to Korea, he hadn’t done it, but in war zones, the ambulance was the OR itself.

It was rare for an ambulance to be used *just* for transport.

“Geez.”

Meanwhile, Jaewon was struggling just to disinfect, swaying with every bump.

He just wasn’t used to doing things while being jostled.

You couldn’t blame him.

He’d never trained for this.

“You drunk? Why can’t you control your hands?”

Of course, just because it wasn’t his fault didn’t mean he was safe from blame—especially with Baek Kang-hyuk, who wanted him to become a fully-fledged trauma surgeon as fast as possible.

“No… Even the agent’s swaying, and he’s just sitting there…”

Jaewon pointed to the rescue agent, looking a bit wronged.

The agent, suddenly called out, stared wide-eyed at him.

Naturally, Baek Kang-hyuk’s curses continued.

“This guy never lets anything slide. Wanna die?”

“N-no…”

Jaewon barely stopped himself from saying, ‘Are you really saying that with a patient here?’

Especially since the needle in Baek Kang-hyuk’s hand looked particularly sharp just then.

“Just move. Looks like you’ve managed to splash betadine everywhere, so it’s probably disinfected by now.”

Baek Kang-hyuk looked at the betadine that Jaewon had managed to spill all over the floor.

With something as strong as betadine, it didn’t matter if you spilled it or wiped it—any germs there were as good as dead.

Thunk.

As soon as Jaewon moved aside, Baek Kang-hyuk plunged in the needle.

He quickly injected the local anesthetic.

As always, his technique was flawless.

“Oh…”

Even the rescue agent, watching from a distance, couldn’t help but be impressed.

It was that skillful—even a layperson could tell.

“Just hold steady. I’m not expecting miracles here.”

“Okay, okay.”

It was the kind of thing that might sting a doctor’s pride.

But Jaewon was honestly just relieved.

Trying to do anything in a moving car was stressful.

He couldn’t believe how Baek Kang-hyuk could keep operating in these conditions.

Ziiip.

While Jaewon held the disinfected scalp taut, Baek Kang-hyuk made the incision.

He’d already injected plenty of local anesthetic and [vasoconstrictor], so there wasn’t much bleeding.
(T/N: A substance or drug that causes blood vessels to narrow, which increases blood pressure and reduces blood flow to a particular area.)

What did come out was mostly the anesthetic.

“Have you reached the family?”

Baek Kang-hyuk deepened the incision slowly as he asked the rescue agent.

“Huh? Oh, yes. They’re coming to the hospital. But they’re at work, so it’ll take about an hour.”

“An hour… Gangster, how long left for us?”

Jang-mi, pressing the accelerator, replied.

“Fifteen minutes?”

“Perfect. Slave, when we get to the hospital, get any ER resident to get phone consent. For surgery.”

“Again?”

“Again, what? You want to do it? Or do you want to scrub in?”

“No, of course not. But seriously, when are we getting someone under me?”

How long would he have to keep asking other departments’ residents for help—not to slack off, but because he was *really* that busy?

Jaewon felt his complaint was justified.

Others probably did too.

But not Baek Kang-hyuk.

“Shut up. Incision’s done—why aren’t you holding the tools?”

“Oh.”

“You know I run things by skill. If a junior comes in and is better than you, they’re your senior.”

“What? No, come on…”

“Not confident? Afraid you’ll lose your spot?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then it’s skill first, for real.”

“Wait…”

Jaewon had no idea what tempo to follow.

“Pfft.”

The rescue agent stifled a laugh at the exchange.

But he didn’t laugh for long—Baek Kang-hyuk met his eyes.

“Uh…”

“If you’re done, get this guy an IV. Blood pressure’s too low. I should use a depressant for the intracranial pressure, but if I do that now, he’ll die.”

It was an ironic situation.

Systemic blood pressure was far too low, but [intracranial pressure] was skyrocketing.

The high intracranial pressure had wiped out the body’s ability to regulate BP.

To fix it, you’d need to lower the brain pressure—surgery was important, but so was medication.

But with his BP this low, he couldn’t tolerate any medication for the pressure.

“Ah, y-yes, sir!”

The agent got up immediately.

The car was shaking more than he’d thought, but he didn’t fall—he was too well trained for that.

He took the IV set Baek Kang-hyuk handed him and began connecting it at the patient’s ankle.

“Mmm…”

Standing firm in the moving ambulance was one thing, but threading a needle into a vein was another.

The latter was much harder.

Baek Kang-hyuk called out,

“Don’t rush. There’s another way besides using depressants, anyway.”

“Thank you.”

“But faster is still better.”

“Right…”

The agent looked even more nervous at Baek Kang-hyuk’s double-edged instructions.

Baek Kang-hyuk wished he could just do it himself, but there was no way—his body could only be in one place.

Crack.

At last, his scalpel touched the skull.

The chilling grind of bone made both him and Jaewon exhale in relief.

Cutting through the scalp and not hitting any major bleeders was a relief.

“Mayo scissors.”

“Uh… okay.”

Jaewon used one hand to tug at the incision while he rummaged through the patient’s chest.

Baek Kang-hyuk had laid a sterile drape and all the tools there.

Th𝐢𝐬 𝐜h𝕒p†ᥱr 𝖎𝙨 p𝟬ʂ𝕥𝕖𝘥 bყ 𝘬𝐢ƚє𝘯𝙤𝐯ℯ𝗅

It was a makeshift instrument table—cramped, but usable.

“Here you go.”

“Pull it up again.”

“Okay.”

Baek Kang-hyuk waited for Jaewon to hook and pull the incision again.

As soon as he did, Baek Kang-hyuk shoved the Mayo scissors between the scalp and the skull and pried it open.

Tudududuk.

With a tearing sound, the membrane inside opened up.

He grabbed the membrane with forceps and looked at Jaewon.

Jaewon, understanding the silent instruction, hooked the tool inside the membrane and pulled.

Now the skull underneath was laid bare.

“Alright. Now…”

Baek Kang-hyuk eyed the white skull and picked up the drill Jang-mi had packed.

The power had been on since they left—no fiddling needed.

Whiiiiir.

The voltage was strong enough, and the drill spun at full speed.

“Okay, let’s grind the bone. Pull hard—if the skin gets caught in the drill, it’ll be a pain.”

“Got it.”

It was surprisingly common for the drill to snag skin.

It rarely caused major injury, but Baek Kang-hyuk hated pointless damage.

Grgrgrgrg.

Soon he was grinding away at the skull.

“Holy…”

The agent couldn’t help but gasp.

He couldn’t even get an IV in—meanwhile, this guy was drilling into someone’s skull.

Was he a monster, or was the agent just hopeless?

It was his first time seeing anything like this, so it was understandable.

“Crazy.”

Even Jang-mi in the driver’s seat had a similar reaction.

She’d half-suspected when he asked her to pack the drill—but seeing him actually drilling into a skull in the ambulance was another story.

‘Hearing about it and seeing it are worlds apart…’

When Jaewon had raved about opening a skull in the helicopter, maybe she should’ve reacted more.

She’d wondered what the fuss was.

Now she saw Jaewon had actually kept it together.

He could’ve made three times the scene and it would’ve been justified.

‘Anyway… We’re almost there.’

They’d reach the ER entrance in ten minutes.

Traffic was light.

Jang-mi eased off the gas.

No point risking a disaster to save one extra minute.

If things shook and a hole ended up in the patient’s brain instead of the skull, this whole ordeal would be for nothing.

Worse—it would all backfire.

<Lost a life trying to operate on the move.>

Jang-mi could already imagine the headline and shivered.

Grgrgrgrg.

The unnerving sound continued from the back.

“Okay, almost done.”

Baek Kang-hyuk nodded at the nearly paper-thin skull.

He could see the reddish [meninges] through the translucent bone.
( T/N: “[meninges]” are the membranes covering the brain. )

He *could* drill further, but didn’t want to risk it in a moving ambulance.

He decided to remove the rest with forceps.

Snap.

Snap.

The bone was so thin he could just break it off with forceps.

“Definitely… Intracranial pressure’s sky-high.”

Jaewon muttered, looking at the brain, which now seemed to be bulging against the skull.

Normally, there should’ve been some space.

Now, there wasn’t.

“Yeah. This isn’t good.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“The bleeding… No, wait.”

Baek Kang-hyuk gently pressed the [meninges] with his finger, checking inside.

If there was bleeding, there’d be visible blood outside or inside the [meninges].

But he saw none.

“So…”

“The brain just swelled up from internal trauma. Damn it.”

If bleeding was the problem, draining it would make a dramatic difference.

But with the entire brain swollen, there was nothing you could do.

“Should I give a depressant?”

“No… It’s not enough with just IV fluids.”

Baek Kang-hyuk glanced at the IV the agent had managed to connect.

Pouring fluids in wasn’t going to cut it—his blood pressure was low not because he was dehydrated, but because his regulatory ability was shot.

Too much fluid could cause pulmonary edema.

‘Which means pneumonia…’

A head injury with pneumonia on top of it?

That was a death sentence.

“First, steroids.”

“Steroids?”

“Let’s make a hole in the [spinal cord].”

“Huh?”

“Are you deaf? I said make a hole in the [spinal cord].”