Chapter 82
After dinner at home, Suhyuk was ready to return to the hospital.
Of course, there was nothing special about going back.
There was nothing really in particular for him to pack, and everything he needed was at the lodging already.
“Do not leave… Will you take a break during the next weekend?”
At his mother’s asking, Suhyuk smiled bitterly. Of course his parents could not notice it.
“I do not know, I’ll call you when I’m next off.”
When Suhyuk went out, the couple followed after.
As soon as Suhyuk was about to open his mouth, his mother said first, “The weather is so good that I want to take a walk with your dad.”
At her words, Suhyuk was no longer able to discourage them. Their walking course was exactly up to the bus stop.
The bus arrived and Suhyuk got on, and as he was looking back at his mother and father he said,
“I’ll give you a call.”
His mom, with an arm wrapped around her husband’s, waved her hand.
“Suhyuk, I hope you get used to the knack of the trade when you work. When something happens, call me right away.”
His father was only looking at him without saying anything.
“Bye for now!”
The bus that carried the Suhyuk left right away.
The bus was not crowded when he got on, but the more it went through the bus stops, the more people got on, and the more crowded it became. The previously empty seats were all occupied, and it was further crowded with standing people.
When he looked out the window, people’s voices flowed into his ears.
A man was bragging about his salary increase, and there were some talking about their recent dates.
Sometimes people were talking about how hurt they were after failed dates, sometimes they were talking about it with little bit of happiness in their voices.
At that moment, a woman frowned at a loud voice. It was because the elderly man behind Suhyuk blowing his nose.
“Grandpa, here you go.”
Did he use up all the tissues? The woman who had frowned her face gave him a disposable tissue.
“Thanks, student.”
Suhyuk’s head swung back toward him.
A grandfather, head down, kept blowing his nose constantly.
Suhyuk opened his mouth, “Grandpa, it’s not good to blow your nose so often.”
When one blows his nose hard, the eustachian tube connecting the nose and the ears ceases to function, which could cause pain in the ear or ear canal. The mucous membrane can also weaken, which can lead to nosebleeds.
After blowing his nose, the old man lifted his head.
At the same time, Suhyuk’s eyes grew bigger.
‘Epistaxis’
The reason why the girl gave him the tissue paper was because he was pouring with a nosebleed. When the grandfather slipped his head backward, Suhyuk opened his mouth to ask, “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay. It will go away.”
“Grandpa, do not lean back. Just tilt your head forward.”
If the head was tilted backward, blood could enter the respiratory tract and cause aspiration pneumonia. Fortunately, the grandfather followed Suhyuk’s words well.
When he tilted his head forward, blood dropped from his nose.
Though he blocked it with toilet paper, the blood was still flowing over his hand.
“Grandfather, hold your nose with two fingers and push it hard.”
“Then will the bleeding stop?”
While he was blocking his nose with a tissue, he followed his words.
Suhyuk looked at him quietly. About five minutes passed.
Suhyuk knitted his brows slightly.
Though he thought it was not a big deal, the bleeding did not stop.
The amount of blood coming out was quite significant.
Suhyuk, now stood up from his seat, and elbowed his way to the old man.
“Did you get hit somewhere or did something sudden happen?”
“No, suddenly it came out like this.”
It was not easy to see this amount of bleeding without a facial impact.
“Do you usually get a bloody nose like this?”
The old man shook his head, saying, “I’ve had no problem like this for years. Perhaps because I worked all night?”
He was a plastering worker at construction sites.
“I think you should go to the hospital.”
At his words, the old man shook his head.
“It will get better over time,” he said.
“No, it won’t get better,” said Suhyuk.
At his words, the old man smiled bitterly because he did not feel it necessary to pay the enormous medical fee once he got treatment at the hospital.
As the old man did not reply, Suhyuk opened his mouth again, “Grandpa, do you not think that there’s a lot of blood coming out? It could damage your body. Going into shock. Or worse. It could cause you an even greater medical cost.”
Suhyuk continued to persuade him.
The blood did not stop and the amount of bleeding was too much.
And finally Suhyuk decided to frighten him.
“I know some who died because they shed too much blood from a nosebleed.”
It was a lie. He had never seen it before for himself, but it was also a rare occurrence that did happen.
Loss of consciousness due to excessive bleeding, which caused the patient’s death during transportation to hospital.
At his words, the grandfather’s wrinkled eyes grew bigger.
There was a stir in his mind.
“Really?”
Suhyuk nodded his head.
“Yes, it’s true. Get off with me at the next stop.”
The hesitant old man nodded.
At that moment, there was a recorded announcement saying the next stop was the entrance to Daehan Hospital.
***
Suhyuk and the grandfather visited the emergency room.
“A patient with epistaxis.”
Oh Byungchul, who was looking at the patients’ charts, shook his head dumbfoundedly.
Now Suhyuk even began to bring in a patient from outside, not content with taking care of most of the usual emergency patients.
Suhyuk put the grandfather right on bed.
“Were you a doctor?”
At his asking, Suhyuk laughed and nodded his head.
The expected problem was anterior bleeding. It was a frequent problem that occurred when the mucosa weakened to seniors, but it is a bit different this time. Even bleeding from the front often stops. He had not seen such excessive bleeding like this before. What caused it?
Stopping himself from thinking of questions like that, Suhyuk decided to stop the bleeding first.
“Grandpa, please wait a moment.”
Suhyuk moved to the emergency room.
“A patient with epistaxis?”
Oh Byungchul came to Suhyuk who was taking all the necessary stuff to deal with the bleeding.
“Yes, the bleeding will not stop. I think we should stopper the blood first.”
After saying that, Suhyuk looked at Oh. He was asking for his consent.
“Can you even do nasal packing?”
Suhyuk nodded, and Oh shook his head. Is there any first aid this guy cannot do anyway?
“Yeah, go for it.”
As soon as Oh said that, Suhyuk approached the old man. So did Oh, who was worried that he might make a mistake.
“Grandpa, I’m going to give you first aid, You may be a bit uncomfortable when I do the nasal packing.”
Nasal packing is a technique that compresses bleeding sites by inserting gauze coated with Vaseline into the nostrils of the nose. However, it was the thin compression sponge that he brought in his hand. He used it instead of gauze. It was a compression sponge that inflated while sucking in water or blood, and was able to compress the bleeding site and the nasal cavity.
“Hold on a second.”
The grandfather nodded, and Suhyuk’s hands moved.
The compressed sponge caught in a thin tweezer went into his nostrils. His face was getting thicker and wrinkled due to the pain.
“Be patient a bit more. it’ll be over soon.”
As soon as he said that, the procedure was finished, and the blood running down from the nose stopped.
Oh Byungchul, who watched over him from behind, shook his head.
It seemed a completely natural procedure, as if Suhyuk had spent years packing the nostrils. ‘Master of nose packing?’
When Oh thought about it, Suhyuk asked, “Do you feel the blood passing through your neck?”
If so, that meant that the packing was not fit properly.
That’s occurs because the sponge did not properly compress the nasal passages, so bleeding is still left ongoing. Fortunately, the grandfather shook his head,
“I do not think there is such a feeling.”
Suhyuk smiled at that. Now the constant bleeding was cured and stopped.
Next, he had to find out why the excessive bleeding occurred in the first place.
“Why?”
He asked himself the question.
At the same time, the names of various diseases passed through his head.
At that moment Oh Byungchul opened his mouth,
“Maybe, isn’t it something like thrombocytopenia?”
He could not understand why he asked about it, because he found that he himself was discussing the issue with an intern… He just could not help but doubt his capabilities that he had cultivated while working at the emergency room so long.
Suhyuk shook his head though. It is not that kind of disease is what he thought.
“If you take a test, the results will come out. So do the blood test first.”
Instructing Suhyuk like that, Oh moved again to take care of a man walking in with a limp to the emergency room.
“Grandpa, I’ll try some tests for you to see why there was so much bleeding.”
He just opened his mouth, “Does that cost a lot of money?”
Suhyuk took a deep breath. Was this the reason why he hesitated to go to the hospital?
Suhyuk, wearing a blank expression a moment ago, made a smile now.
He decided to get some clues on the cause without having him go through the tests.
It would not be too late to do the test when my stupid head can hardly figure it out.
“Grandpa, do you have any such aspirin or warfarin?”
“Aspirin? And what the hell is warfarin?”
“Have you been to a hospital recently?”
“I went to the hospital last week.”
Suhyuk’s eyes shone.
“What did they say at the hospital?”
“Oh, I don’t know…”
He shook his head after he had been thinking for a while.
“I know what the doctor told me… I got an injection and was given some medicine to take.”
“What is the name of the hospital?”
“True Hospital.”
Suhyuk smiled at that.
“What is your age and your name?”
“I’m 69 years old and I’m Lee Byungchul.”
“Okay, stay here for a while.”
Suhyuk moved while leaving the grandfather back in the emergency room.
Oh, who was seeing a bruised patient, said to Suhyuk, “Hey, where are you going instead of doing the test?”
“I’ll come back after I make a call.”
Oh knitted his brows. Making a phone call in the presence of a patient he has to take care of?
“Hey, you…”
“Ooops…” Oh’s head rushed back to the moaning of the patient.
“Sorry.”
After peering at Suhyuk once again, Oh started to see the patient again.
“Please give me the number of True Hospital.”
At Suhyuk’s request, the 114 operator gave him the number.
Suhyuk dialed directly.
“Yes, this is True Hospital.”
“Hello, this is the emergency medicine department of Daehan Hospital. Age 69, the patient’s name is Lee Byungchul. He had a medical treatment prescription there a few days ago.”
“If it’s urgent…”
Suhyuk cut out the reply deliberately to get the information quickly.
“It’s an emergency. I’m in a hurry.”
“Just a moment.”
It did not take a long time. Soon there came out a voice from the other end.
“He was diagnosed with angina pectoris.”
“Of course he has received a prescription drug?”
“Absolutely.”
“Thank you.”
Suhyuk, who hung up the phone, looked at the grandfather sitting down and laughed to himself.
He found out the reason why.