Chapter 102
“Huuuuh… Huuuuuh…”
Taking a couple of deep breaths, Suhyuk pressed the woman’s chest hard, and then he blew air into her mouth.
“Open your eyes!”
Not even a slight reaction.
The crowd gathered there around her began uttering, “Is she dead?”
Hearing them, Suhyuk acted more urgently.
Her face was becoming more and more pale.
“Don’t you think it’s just so unfair if you die like this?”
Saying that, Suhyuk once again blew air into her mouth and took his locked arms to her chest.
At that moment, “Cough! cough!”
Some coughing came out of her mouth.
“Wow! She came back to life! She’s survived!”
“It’s true, he is a doctor!”
Suhyuk, breathing a relief of sigh, squatted on the ground as if he let go of all his strength.
It lasted for only a moment, though.
Straightening himself, Suhyuk checked her condition, who was breathing hard.
“Can you see me?’
Frowning at his asking, she moaned, saying, “I feel so much pain coming from my chest.”
As her ribs were broken, it’s only natural she felt like that.
“I called 911, so bear with the pain for a moment.”
Her breathing became weaker and weaker.
She was feeling pain from here fractured ribs as her chest became bigger and then smaller with each breath she took, and she was trying to breathe instinctively even with the pain.
“Even if you feel the pain, you have to breathe properly.”
She might have a problem if her breathing became weak.
For if the lungs that always have to be inflated with air become shrunken, complications such as atelectasis and pneumonia may arise.
At that moment they heard an ambulance’s siren.
The rescue crew checked her condition.
“She has rib fractures.”
One of the crew asked, blinking his eyes, “What did you say?”
Only then did they understand Suhyuk’s words, and hardened their look.
Multiple fractures could lead to serious organ damage.
“How did she get hurt?”
“It happened while I was applying CPR. That’s not the point. Please transport her as soon as possible.”
The crew moved her to the stretcher cautiously, and Suhyuk got on the ambulance.
Whenever the ambulance trembled a bit, she moaned.
“I find it hard to breathe…”
Suhyuk held her hand tightly, saying, “You’ll be alright. So, please bear it a moment. Please put an oxygen respirator on her.”
A crew member, seated face to face with her, put the respirator into her mouth, and looked at Suhyuk pitifully.
Rib fracture could happen anytime when CPR was applied properly, but that could also pose a problem.
Even though one saves a victim’s life by applying CPR, in many cases one is accused of causing injury because of the rib fracture. The injurer has to bear not only the treatment bill but also the legal cost.
Actually there were a lot of such cases in the past.
The rescue member was more worried about Suhyuk than the woman.
However, Suhyuk was only focused on the moaning woman.
“Please try to breathe a bit more. Yes, like that. You’re doing great.”
The ambulance drove to the hospital in no time. It was not Daehan Hospital.
They took her to a nearby hospital.
Suhyuk, who came to the emergency room along with the patient carried on a stretcher, shouted, “Rib fracture patient.”
A doctor on duty came, asking, “How did she get injured?”
“Ribs were fractured while I was applying CPR.”
“Did you do it by yourself?”
“Yes, I don’t think it’s multiple fracture. I think she needs a bone scan quickly to confirm it.”
The doctor’s eyes became wider at his words.
He looked like a college student. Not only had he applied CPR, but his way of speaking was professional.
Checking the patient’s condition, the doctor caught a beginning resident pa.s.sing by.
“Take a bone scan of this patient first!”
The resident came and pushed the stretcher with the patient.
Suhyuk went with him, when the doctor stopped Suhyuk and asked, “You must be her guardian, right?”
“No, I met her on the street.”
At his reply, the doctor shook his head, wearing an unpleasant look.
It was certain he, who applied CPR, would run into trouble if he met the patient’s guardian.
The doctor witnessed it several times.
“Uh? Where are you…”
The doctor could not stop him running to the emergency room.
Suhyuk could confirm the condition of the patient, who was taking bone scan, through a gla.s.s screen
“Not that serious. I don’t think there is any damage to the organs…”
Suhyuk fixed his eyes on the monitor when the doctor said that.
As he expected, it was not multiple rib fracture, but just a simple fracture.
Suhyuk looked at her who was lying in bed, with her head lifted up.
Only then could he make a smile.
She had no particular problem when she went through all the examinations.
Though she had to stay at the hospital for several days, she could get discharged after that, and it would take about four weeks for her to fully recover.
“I feel that it’s hard to breathe.”
At her words, a nurse said, “Can I put the oxygen respirator on you?”
“Yes…”
After the nurse disappeared, Suhyuk approached her.
Looking at the name label on the bed, he opened his mouth,
“Ms. Hemi, do you still feel a lot pain?”
She nodded, with a frown, complaining in her heart, ‘It’s because of you…’
“Don’t worry too much. You’ll be able to get up soon. Excuse me for a minute.”
Getting out of the room, he went to the restroom, and took off the hospital sleeves to wash his bare feet. As he ran with bare feet, they were studded with tiny little stones.
But Suhyuk did not make any frown because he saved her life.
When he came back to the hospital, a middle-aged woman was stroking her face. She was her mother.
“She was fortunate enough.”
At Suhyuk’s words, the middle-aged woman turned her head to him, shouting “You!”
She came to him with big strides, and complained, “How could you make her injured like this? So, what would you do now?”
Suhyuk said in a calm voice, “If I had not applied CPR, her life might have been in danger.”
“Who told you to do that? Why did you break her normal ribs?”
“Rib fracture could happen frequently with CPR.”
“What are you talking about? You think you’re a doctor?”
“Yes, I am a doctor.”
The woman bullying Suhyuk now closed her mouth for a moment, but continued again,
“You are a doctor. So what? What if something went wrong with my daughter? Are you going to take responsibility for it? Yes, you should be responsible for it. How should you compensate?”
Suhyuk made a frown, but soon he was back to normal.
He could understand her who must have been surprised a lot at her daughter’s condition.
“So, what would you do with her?”
“Please calm down. Without his help, her life would have been in danger…”
The nurse standing behind her cut in.
“What? Don’t you see my daughter with an oxygen respirator right now? You’re in the same boat, right? Get ready. I’ll take action,” she threatened.
At that moment they heard a male voice outside the patient’s room.
“This is not a market. Shut your mouth!”
A man in his early 50s shouted to her.
In a suit, he seemed to have come, stopping his work at the office.
“Honey! This man broke our daughter’s ribs!”
The middle-aged man went up to his wife, and then raised his hand as if he was about to hit her.
But he did not hit her. Instead he threatened,
“What the heck are you making a fuss about here? Watching TV soap operas at home all the time, you must have gone crazy by now.”
Actually she brought in her friends everyday for a drinking party.
To make matters worse, she started gambling, losing the rent deposit.
“Honey…”
“Don’t call me honey. How should I deal with you…”
This time, too, he did not have the heart to hit her.
Briefly looking at his daughter in bed, the man turned to Suhyuk and bowed his head politely.
“Thank you, sir. I heard from the doctor that you save my daugther’s life…”
Suhyuk said with a smile, “I’m a doctor. I just did what I should have done.”
“Honey, why are you talking to him like that?”
The man, who was bowing his head, turned back and said, with a frown,
“Be quiet!”
At her husband’s rebuking, she became dumb as an oyster.
“Let me apologize on behalf of my wife. I’m sorry, sir.”
“It’s alright. Looks like she did that because she was surprised. I fully understand.”
Suhyuk left the place without hesitation after speaking to them, and the man was looking at him with blank eyes.
He turned around and looked at his wife. Then he said, “Why did you come out and make an exhibition of yourself like this? You should have stayed home watching TV soap operas. Come with me now.”
The patient’s room was clamorous for while.
—–
“The criminal suspect took her as hostage here. He ran away after he strangled her neck while he had been taking her as hostage. And the woman who stopped breathing…”
The alley was crowded with many people. Some of them were taking pictures, and some holding a microphone in front of the camera. They were all reporters.
And then one man shouted, “He’s that very person!”
It was the voice of a man who had seen Suhyuk applying CPR to the woman all along.
Reporters turned their heads to him suddenly.
Suhyuk was approaching, dragging his slippers.
At the slippers were large and stretched, Suhyuk found them very uncomfortable.
They scrambled to see him. Stunned, Suhyuk stepped back.
“It was a very urgent situation. Did you already know how to give CPR?”
“What is your occupation?”
They took dozens of microphones and cell phones to Suhyuk for comment.
Click! Click!
Camera flashes clicked ceaselessly.
“Please just one comment!”
“What is your occupation?”
With an embarra.s.sed look, Suhyuk opened his mouth before he knew it,
“I’m a doctor.”
Then he suddenly came to his senses, and elbowed his way out of the crowd.
Getting the media attention was the last thing he wanted.
They chased him to his villa.
“Are you Mr. Lee Suhyuk by any chance?”
Walking up the stairs quickly, Suhyuk stopped for a moment.
Click! Click!
He began walking up quickly again.
Bang!
Suhyuk closed the door quickly as soon as he arrived at the villa.
Nonetheless, they kept knocking on the door.
Shaking his head, he moved to the living room.
Then his cell phone buzzed.
Suhyuk went into the room to pick up the phone.
“This is Lee Suhyuk…”
“Suhyuk, it’s me, your sister. I just feel regretful…”
It was reporter Han Jihye.