Golden Time (JungYong)

70

A series of pads connected with the monitor were patched onto the patient's body.

The patient was a man in his late 30s. 

Suhyuk checked his heart first. 

'It's beating.'

And then he looked at the vital signs.

His blood pressure was dropping markedly. It was natural because he shed a lot of blood.

The patient did not move at all. Even if he lifted his eyelid, there was no reaction from the pupil.

Suhyuk immediately checked the patient's injured area.

Head, shoulder, thigh, there were wounds all over his body.

"Please give me some dressings!"

A nurse handed him dressings, and then Suhyuk pressed the dressings against patient's head first.

"Suhyuk, let other doctors take care of him…"

Suhyuk's fellow residents of his year, who applied for the emergency medical department, said cautiously.

But nobody stopped him, who was only in his first year of residency.

Oh Byungchul did not stop him either. 

Oh was taking care of another patient who had been involved in a traffic accident like Suhyuk's patient.

She was in her 60s, with bleeding from her head, and she was mentally stable, but she was screaming at the patient next to her,

"Hey, Jinsu. Open your eyes!"

"Please calm down."

A nurse and Oh forcibly held her down. 

"Doctor! Please save my sons' life, my son. Jinsu, why can't you open your eyes? Mom is here right beside you. So, open your eyes, my baby!"

She did not stay calm, throwing a tantrum and crying as if she was a baby.

On such occasions her face was covered with blood.

"Hey, save my son! My son!" shouted the woman.

With her head wrapped with dressing, she was pounding a man, with a haggard mustache's heart. 

"Boohoo... Save my son, man!"

Whenever she moved her hands, the man's body shook.

The accident took place when he felt he was dozing off a bit. 

His truck allegedly drove over the centerline, crashing the passenger car driving toward him.

The man thought of his wife's nagging in the morning when he went out for work.

He felt it was a bad luck.

"I want to check the black box," said the man. 

At his words, the policemen who took him to the emergency room made a feigned smile.

Witnesses told the truck drove over the centerline first. 

Even if they open the black box, it would show the same outcome. 

That was not the point, though. 

The patient never showed any sign of repentance. 

Granted it was not his intention, he did not care at all about the patients who were taken into the resuscitation unit. He was thinking hard how to avoid his own responsibility in the accident.

"Patient Choi Changoh, please come here."

At the nurse's calling, the man moved toward her.

***