Chapter 18: The Blade [2] The scalpel drew a long line along the side of the calf.
As it did, bright red blood streamed out.
"It doesn't hurt, does it?"
There should not have been pain even from the skin incision.
Fortunately, the man looked as though he felt little of anything.
"That is so."
"If it starts hurting while I'm working, you must tell me."
One of doctors' stock phrases.
Tell me if it hurts.
Even if the patient did say it hurt, all the doctor could really do was tell him to endure it.
Of course, the man did not know that.
"I will."
He answered with the same calm face as before.
Perhaps because of the narcotic painkiller, the man's eyes were gradually drooping shut.
Before long, he slipped into a light doze with a peaceful expression.
Even with the painkiller, it was an absurdly fearless heart.
Dolseok, meanwhile, looked worse and worse.
He had grown somewhat used to assisting by now, but this was the first time he had seen such a major operation.
"Ugh."
"Be quiet and wipe away the blood with the gauze."
"Yes… young master."
Dolseok wiped away the blood with a face like death.
"Can you wipe a little faster?"
"Yes, yes."
Because the area was already inflamed and badly swollen, there was a lot of minor bleeding.
Even from the yellow fat tissue, red blood kept running down in streams.
Naturally, that was irritating from the surgeon's point of view, and Dolseok took the brunt of it.
"Hey. If you wipe with blood-soaked gauze, is that cleaning it? You're just smearing it around."
"S-sorry…"
"How much gauze do you think we have, using it in great clumps like that? Use it sparingly."
"What? Ah, yes."
How exactly was he supposed to keep up with all that?
Dolseok stuck out his lips beneath the mask.
Fortunately, for all the irritation, the operation itself was not going badly.
By now the skin had been fully opened, and the red muscle beneath was visible.
Ah, the blood is really annoying.
In an operating room, he could have simply cauterized it all with electricity.
Here, he had no choice but to press on it with gauze or inject vasoconstrictors.
And even those were not plentiful.
I've already used a third of the gauze. And I don't have much vasoconstrictor either.
But he could not close it back up.
He had already had a rough sense before opening it.
Now that he had opened it, the condition was indeed quite bad.
So those thick muscles are a disadvantage too.
Because they had pulled so hard on the fractured bone, they had only caused further damage.
"First, let's get the blood out. Dolseok, spread it open here now."
"Spread it?"
It was already horrifying enough, and now he was being told to pull the wound open.
Dolseok shuddered and asked again.
"How else am I supposed to do anything if you don't spread it? Can you see anything right now?"
"The cut-open leg?"
"You idiot. Don't say cut-open leg. The patient might hear."
"He's sleeping just fine. He's even snoring."
Just as Dolseok said, the man was sleeping soundly.
There is some sedative effect in narcotic painkillers… but not usually to this extent.
The man's nerve was such that even Kanghyeok, who had seen all kinds of things, found it absurd.
Well, that's for the best.
It was a hundred times better than having him awake and making a scene.
Kanghyeok scolded poor Dolseok instead.
"The patient is calmer than you are, so what are you so scared of?"
"But you're cutting open a man's leg, so of course…"
"Are you going to keep saying ominous things? If I say spread it, then spread it."
"Ugh. Understood."
Dolseok made a face, but he still pulled the wound open.
—Gush.
The instant space opened up, the clotted blood pooled inside spilled out.
"Ugh."
Dolseok recoiled and turned his head away.
Kanghyeok instead began probing deeper inside.
Among the old dark blood, fresh bright-red blood was still mixed in.
Whatever else, it was certain that a vessel had been damaged.
If left this way, the man would clearly bleed to death.
I need to hurry.
If he did not locate the bleeding point now, it would be much harder later.
Where is it, where is it?
Judging by the direction of the break and the place where the bone had driven in, there were not many vessels likely to be injured.
Of those, there were only two—no, one—that could cause bleeding of this extent.
The posterior tibial vein, most likely.
If it had been an artery, the man would not have lived this long.
Not that an artery is likely to be injured.
Arteries were taut, so when something sharp approached them, they tended to slip aside.
Flaccid veins, on the other hand, were often helplessly torn.
Just like now.
Kanghyeok found the damaged blood vessel, its side ripped open and hanging loose.
The moment he pinched it, the bright blood that had been pouring out stopped.
"Dolseok, give me the needle and thread. And keep pulling with one hand now."
"Yes, yes."
They said humans were creatures of adaptation.
Dolseok, perhaps now accustomed to the sea of blood, looked much steadier than before.
Kanghyeok himself felt pleased with the way he had identified the vessel in a single try.
"Good. Now you're doing well too."
"Thank you, young master."
"That's it. Pull it like that."
"Yes, yes."
While Dolseok held the wound open with one hand, Kanghyeok stitched the vessel.
The vessel itself was not especially thin, so the technique was not difficult.
The firelight was weak, and the posture was awful, but none of that was a serious problem for Kanghyeok.
Was he not, after all, the greatest surgeon in South Korea?
He ought to be able to overcome handicaps like this.
"Good. We've controlled the bleeding. Now it's time to set the bone."
"Do… do you think this is even possible?"
Even to Dolseok's eyes, the man's leg bones were far too badly displaced.
It was fortunate there were two bones in the lower leg.
If there had been only one, the condition would have been even worse.
"You'll have to use some strength."
"Me?"
"You're probably better at it than I am."
"Uh…"
Without realizing it, Dolseok looked Kanghyeok up and down.
Because they had taken off their outer clothes for the surgery, Kanghyeok's muscles were even more visible than usual.
Broad shoulders, thick biceps and triceps.
Prominent pectorals, and a massive back that showed even from the front.
The only thing Dolseok had more of than Kanghyeok was his belly.
Dolseok pointed back and forth between the two of them.
"Me? No matter how I look at it, this isn't exactly a fair comparison."
"I built mine through gym workouts, so unless I'm in a fixed posture, I can't use my strength well."
"Built through what?"
"They're show muscles. Yours are practical muscles."
"Show what? Young master, every time it doesn't suit you, you say strange things."
"Well now. Just who is the master here?"
"Wow…"
Grumbling all the while, Dolseok adjusted his stance on his own.
Once before, he had helped Kanghyeok set the broken arm of a servant.
So he roughly knew what needed to be done.
Though back then, the wound had not been this severe, nor had the patient been so massively built.
"At least it's fortunate the painkiller worked very well. If there's pain, the muscles naturally tense up."
"Then let's finish this quickly before he wakes up."
"Right. I'll hold here, so you grab the foot and pull."
"Yes."
Dolseok let out a grunt and pulled on the foot.
The sudden pain made the man's face tighten.
"Mm."
He even let out a brief groan.
With tension entering the muscles, no matter how hard Dolseok pulled, the leg would not lengthen.
At this rate, there would be no hope of setting the bone.
I should have told Makbong to stay behind.
Late regret was useless.
With urgency on his face, Kanghyeok shouted at the man.
"You have to endure the pain. Relax your whole body and…"
Even as he shouted it, he knew it was an unreasonable thing to ask.
Not only endure pain, but relax at the same time?
If someone had said that to Kanghyeok himself, he might have punched them in the mouth on the spot.
"Understood."
But this man was different.
He closed his eyes and began reciting something.
Listening closely, it seemed to be some kind of military text.
"Oh, it's working. Keep enduring it. Dolseok, you fool, what are you doing? Pull!"
"Yes, yes!"
Kanghyeok and Dolseok pulled on the leg with all their strength, while the man endured the pain with the whole of his mind.
"Alright, a little to the right. Yes, that's it."
"No, you fool, to the left. Yes."
"To the right. Don't you even know right from left?"
From Dolseok's point of view, it was enough to drive him mad.
Still, even to him, it did seem as though the leg bones were clearly sliding back into place.
—Thunk.
"That's it, that's it. Now we just have to fix it in place."
Kanghyeok picked up the plate he had taken out earlier.
Along with a sudden question.
Why is something like this in a house-call bag?
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