"What are you still waiting for? Insert the catheter. Hurry up, I will give her a blood transfusion." Lisa ordered.
"Um, but do you know the patient's blood type?" Wonyoung asked, not knowing what to do. Deep down, she felt vacant, because this operation was just too risky. Not a lot of places would even perform an operation like this, because they may as well kill themselves if something goes wrong.
"I've already checked, she's AB-type blood. I already took out some blood bags from the blood bank," Lisa said calmly.
"Unnie, tell me something you don't know. How do you know everything?"
Wonyoung was so overwhelmed that she wanted to cry. She had known Lisa for a little over half a year now, but during a moment like this, Lisa turned into someone capable of anything, like Wonder Woman.
"Don't be nervous. It's fine. Just do what you always do, and I will take care of the rest," seeing how anxious Wonyoung was, Lisa assured her.
After hearing what she said, Wonyoung put her foot down and bravely decided to assist this surgeon, who had no prior experience in this type of surgery.
Wonyoung followed Lisa's instructions and immediately inserted the patient's catheter, all while monitoring her vitals.
Lisa completed the blood transfusion, covered the patient's face with an oxygen mask and began the process of homeostasis, one action after the other.
Her lightning-quick speed left Wonyoung speechless...
The pregnant woman lied on the operating table completely naked, slowly losing consciousness.
Lisa made the decision to administer general anesthesia on the patient since there was no longer any meaning in using local anesthesia on an unconscious patient. Local anesthesia only worked if the patient was conscious.
However, the risk and side effects of general anesthesia were much higher, and it could potentially have a negative impact on the newborn's brain. So general anesthesia is not typically recommended unless the circumstances were special.
Of course, the situation that Lisa and Wonyoung were in was considered one of those special circumstances.
"Won, give me her stats."
"BP 150 over 90, Heart rate 135. Her pulse is a little weak, could be due to the loss of blood."
"Her blood pressure is a little high. We will have to control that first, and then I will proceed with the C-Section." Lisa carefully examined the patient's abdomen with gloves on, checking to see if there had been previous c-section scars.
If this was her first born, she would be able to perform a C-Section right away. However, if this was her second child, then she would need to operate on the same spot as the first surgery to avoid secondary traumatization.
Lisa found a light scar on the patient's abdomen, confirming that she had had a C-section before.
This complicates the surgery, because the previous wound had already healed, and the scar was very light.
This surely increased the difficulty of the surgery...
"Unnie, what's wrong?"
"This is her second child, I need to operate on the previous wound. Pass me the scalpel." Lisa reached out her hand.
Wonyoung shook in fear as she passed Lisa the scalpel.
Lisa then calmly but accurately cut open the patient's abdomen.
Wonyoung was too nervous to look...
"It's a breech baby, no wonder she's been bleeding so much. Her family's so careless. They should have noticed that the baby was in breech position through an ultrasound. She should have had a C-Section much earlier. Why did they wait until now?" Lisa frowned as she blamed the ignorance of the patient's family.
"Breech position? Oh my god, it's dystocia!" Wonyoung exclaimed..
It was already a very complicated surgery to perform, not to mention that there were only two people in the OR, whom were both nurses.
Lisa wasn't given the permission by those above to operate, which means she had already violated hospital policy.
But Lisa thought, in the eyes of life and death, all rules and regulations were useless because, in the end, lives mattered the most.
She was confident in her medical skills and was positive that she could keep the patient safe. Therefore, she couldn't think too much of the possible troubles that may lay ahead.
She would bravely face what was waiting for her in the future. That was her choice today.
*
By the time Jungkook was done with work, it was already late in the night. Without Lisa's presence at home, the condo felt extra empty.
He knew that she wasn't allowed to sleep since she was working a night shift, so he sent her a WeChat message.
He waited for a while but got no response. Jungkook thought perhaps Lisa was still upset about what happened during the day.
He then decided to give her a call, but after many rings, no one answered. This further supported his theory that she must be upset.
So, he put on his jacket and drove to the Asan medical center. He even bought some take-out and warm bubble tea as he passed by a restaurant.
"Hello, I am looking for Lisa from the OB/GYN department," Jungkook asked politely.
"Oh yes, please wait! I will immediately contact her for you." Very rarely did the receptionist get to see such a handsome man. She answered him enthusiastically as she looked into his eyes, her face blushing.
After a couple of seconds, the receptionist put down the phone and said apologetically, "I've called the office line, but no one picked up. Perhaps they're in surgery."
"Okay, thank you," Jungkook thanked the nurse politely and went straight to the OB/GYN Emergency Room on the fourth floor.
Jungkook wore a pair of casual dress pants with a custom-made dark navy dress shirt. In his hand was a bag of take-out.
He was contemplating how he should coax Lisa, but he realized that the door to the OB/GYN office was wide open, with no one inside.
Lisa probably went to check on patients if she's not in the office at this hour.
Jungkook thought to himself as he lit a cigarette and leaned against a wall in the hallway as he waited.
It was late at night with barely anyone at the hospital, so no one would have a problem with him smoking.
Inside the OR, Lisa skillfully took the baby out and snipped its umbilical cord. Then, she finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Won, weigh the newborn, show the baby to the father, and then take it to the newborn clinic."
"Okay, is it a boy or girl?" Wonyoung was very excited when she heard the newborn cry.
"She's a baby girl."
"Girls are good. They are like their mothers' little warm blankets. This mother is very lucky," said Wonyoung as she took the newborn. She cleaned up the baby and put her on an electronic scale for weighing.
"52 centimeters in height, and 9.4 pounds," Wonyoung said happily.
"9.4 pounds is not a small baby." Lisa smiled as she wiped the beads of sweat off her forehead.
"Yeah, she's a big baby who was in the breech position! No wonder her mother couldn't go through natural labor," Wonyoung muttered.
"Unnie, I'm taking the baby out now, are you okay by yourself in here?"
"I'm fine, you can go." Lisa began carefully sewing up the patient's wound. She was fast and accurate and finished within twenty minutes.
After the surgery, Lisa looked at the patient's vitals. She let out a sigh of relief when all her stats pointed towards normalcy.
She then walked out of the OR in hopes of finding the patient's husband to help her push the patient into the recovery room.
But the hallway was empty, without a soul in sight...
"Unnie, are you done? How's the patient?" Wonyoung walked over.
"Don't worry, everything's fine. Where's the patient's family?"
"Oh, him. He left in anger as soon as I told him the baby was a girl."
"He left? How can he leave?" Lisa asked in disbelief. His wife just gave birth. She's still in the OR, and he left?
"Did he pay before he left?" Wonyoung asked fearfully.
Last year, around this time, it was said that a patient's family left without paying. So, the patient secretly ran away as well. In the end, the surgical fee was split between the nurses and doctors. This caused quite a bit of trauma to the health care providers. So, the OB/GYN department's chief, made a decision that patients' families had to pay before an operation, regardless of how serious the situation was. Or else, the hospital would not perform the surgery.
"Yes, I saw his deposit slit before operating on his wife." Lisa was smart, so she wouldn't have allowed a loophole like that to happen.
Wonyoung let out a sigh of relief as soon as she heard that the fees had been paid.
"So what do we do now?" Clueless, Wonyoung looked at Lisa.
"Let's take the patient to her room, be careful of her wound."
"Okay."
It took a lot of effort for Wonyoung and Lisa to carry the patient off the surgical bed.
They then pushed her into the ICU for a 24-hour-period of monitoring. After everything was done, Lisa returned to the clinic feeling extremely tired.
From afar, she saw a familiar shadow leaning against the wall in front of the clinic. It was a man whose side view made you forget how to breathe.
"Who is that? He's so hot!" Wonyoung mumbled.
At the same time, Jungkook heard footsteps. The aloofness in his eyes became tender the moment he saw Lisa.
"Why are you here at the hospital?" Lisa walked over towards Jungkook, her face full of surprise.
"Midnight snack." Jungkook didn't answer Lisa's question directly but instead showed her the bag of take-out in his hand.
Now that he mentioned it, Lisa felt a little hungry. She had been busy at work for a while and had tired herself out.
"Thanks." Rejection became acceptance after some contemplation.
Lisa immediately gave away half of the takeout to Wonyoung when she realized Jungkook had purchased a very large portion.
"Thanks, unnie," Wonyoung said, and then murmured to Lisa, "Unnie, who is he? He's so handsome."
"A friend," Lisa lowered her voice and whispered back.
"I don't believe you. Would a friend deliver snacks in the middle of the night? Ha, I won't disturb you guys, bye!" Wonyoung took some food and walked into the office.
Only Jungkook and Lisa were left in the hallway...
Lisa took a seat on one of the benches on the side, opened the takeout box and took a big bite of the dumpling. Those dumplings were huge but she finished one in less than three bites and immediately picked up another.
"How hungry are you?" Jungkook stared at Lisa, who ate with no grace.
"Very," Lisa answered truthfully.
"Are you still angry about what happened in the afternoon?" Jungkook asked.
"Afternoon? What happened this afternoon?" Lisa looked surprised, it seemed like she had already forgotten about what had happened.
"Oh, never mind," said Jungkook. He didn't need to mention it anymore since the concerned party didn't even remember.
"You look really tired. Were you checking on patients?"
"No, I was performing surgery."
"You performed surgery?" Jungkook glanced at Lisa in surprise.
"That's right. I did."
"Is this a hospital feature?"
"What do you mean?" Lisa looked confused, as she didn't understand what Jungkook meant.
"Not using a doctor, but instead asking a nurse to perform surgery." Jungkook glanced at Lisa with his hands in his pockets.
"The doctor ditched work half-way through her shift, and then came this pregnant woman who was experiencing difficult labor. It was an emergency, so I went ahead and did it," Lisa explained casually to Jungkook what happened.
Jungkook stared at Lisa for a while, and said, "Interesting."
If she were to mention what happened to another person, their first instinct would have been, "Are you crazy? How can you perform a C-Section on a patient? You're a nurse, for god's sake!"
However, Jungkook was not your average person. After all these years, he knew Lisa's personality too well. It was typical for Lisa to do something earth-shattering.
Most importantly, Lisa always knew exactly what she was doing. Forget C-Sections, she wouldn't be bogged down even if she had to perform a coronary bypass. He could tell, based on how calm Lisa was during that brain surgery as his assistant.
"Technically, you did save the patient. But, what you did could be very troublesome. Both the patient and hospital might give you a hard time," Jungkook reminded her kindly.
Lisa nodded and swallowed the dumpling in her mouth, "I know. But, I didn't have any other choice. I couldn't watch the mother and her baby die in front of me."
Jungkook's eyes shimmered a little after hearing what she said.
Lisa always looked extremely calm, sometimes even aloof. But deep down, she was a very kind and tender person. Regardless of how tough she appeared to be or how smart she was, she was still a woman.
Lisa broke the rules to save a patient. Her not making a big deal out of what happened wasn't her attempt to be the hero. All she wanted to do was save lives.
Jungkook took out a bottle of water he just purchased, turned open the cap, and passed it to Lisa.
He slowly sat down beside her, "Lisa, remember when you asked me why I went abroad for seven years and studied medicine when I was supposed to inherit the family business? "
Lisa thought about it for a second and looked Jungkook in the eye. She was waiting for an answer.
She really wanted to know why Jungkook spent seven years doing something that had nothing to do with his current career.
"Because your dream is to study medicine," Jungkook said, word for word.
Lisa was completely taken aback by what she heard…
She never imagined that Jungkook spent the last seven years studying medicine in the United States only to fulfill her dream.
This meant that even when they were broken up, he still did things that were related to her.
He did it for seven years… Was it really worth it?
Lisa was at a loss for words, but tears shone in her eyes…
She still remembered that seven years ago when they were still together, the topic for one of the their classes they had was "Ten Years Later".
The teacher asked all the students to go up to the podium and imagine what their profession would be in ten years.
Apparently, doing so would inspire teens to pursue their dreams and work hard for ten years to achieve them.
A teacher in the United States once conducted the same experiment; in ten years, when he went to check up on his subjects, he noticed that 80% of them chose to do what they said they were going to do.
Therefore, their homeroom teacher, decided to do the same thing.
Jungkook didn't remember what the others said, but he would always remember what Lisa said, as she stepped onto the podium, with her hair flowing gracefully off her back.
"In ten years, I want to become a doctor, because I think that the best thing in this world is to understand the human body, find ways to cure all sorts of diseases, and prolong life."
Some of their classmates laughed at her. "It's just a doctor, why would you make it sound so complicated?"
At that time, Lisa replied coldly, "So, you look down on doctors? Can you promise that you'll never get sick and will never go to a hospital?"
The student was left speechless, and their homeroom teacher even complimented Lisa's aspirations.
Then, when Jungkook got onto the podium, the teacher asked him, "What is your dream?"
He looked around, and, with a proud expression on his face, he answered, "My dream is to make Lisa's dream come true."
As soon as he finished this sentence, the entire classroom erupted. All their classmates knew they were in a relationship, but wow did he have guts, blurting it out in front of the whole class and their teacher.
Lisa, incredibly embarrassed, covered her face and refused to look up.
Their teacher also coughed awkwardly, at a loss for words.
It had been so long since then, and Lisa thought that he was just joking around. After all, they were young and stupid.
However, after seven years have passed, Lisa was only a nurse, still so far away from her dream.
Yet Jungkook quietly helped her achieve it…
Her brain was pulled back into reality. She stared into Jungkook's eyes with her own red eyes.
"Hey, are you stupid? What does my dream have to do with you?" Lisa asked as she choked back tears.
"Everything about you has something to do with me," Jungkook answered stubbornly.
Lisa fell silent because she didn't know what to say next.
They sat there, side by side, under the quiet moonlight.
"Stop saying things like this, I might think that you still like me," Lisa said shyly.
"I don't."
"Thanks for being so direct." Lisa was actually a bit upset when she heard Jungkook’s rejection.
"I never liked you," Jungkook repeated.
"I know." Lisa nodded sadly.
Jungkook looked at Lisa's profile, and he reached out his arm to hug her shoulder.
There were some things that he thought were better left unsaid. Loving someone didn't mean that they had to profess that love all the time.
Actions spoke so much louder than words. They had a lot of time left; he knew that one day, Lisa will understand how he felt about her.
Lisa felt the heat of Jungkook's palm, as warmth began to spread from her shoulders. She felt peaceful and safe.
She leaned her head gently on Jungkook's shoulder. She suddenly felt like she finally found someone she could lean on.
"Jungkook."
"Yes?"
"The midnight snack you bought me tonight must've been expensive, right?" Just as Jungkook thought that Lisa was going to say something romantic and cheesy, she said something completely irrelevant. Jungkook was at a loss for words.