They say you have experienced the worst thing in life when you see someone you love fighting for their life right in front of you and even worst when that person just died even for just a second

Karina Yoo- Neurosurgeon
Winter Kim- Lieutenant Firefighter
Aeri Uchinaga – Plastic Surgeon
Ning Yi Zuo- Trauma Surgeon
Kim Taeyeon – General Surgeon

Many medical terms, you have been warned

Being a surgeon has always been Karina’s dream, let alone a neurosurgeon, one of the hardest most ruthless specialties there is, two years of internship, six years of residency, and now an attending in one of the most prestigious hospitals in Korea. Doctor Yoo worked hard, meticulous, neat, and tidy; everyone in the hospital knows how hard she is when it comes to her patient’s safety. But not everyone knows about her personal life. Few people close to her heart, been her best friends since med school knew everything about her, and she wants to keep it that way. The lead plastic surgeon in this hospital, Uchinaga MD; the best trauma surgeon, Yi Zuo MD, and the famous general surgeon in the country known for her groundbreaking research, Kim Taeyeon MD. These are the people closest to her and the ones who pushed her to be what she is now, of course, the only ones who know about her partner. 

A day of doctor Yoo’s life starts off with visiting her post-op patients, monitoring complications then her morning coffee, black, has to be black coffee or else she won’t function for the entire day. Then she prepped for her surgery, today she is working on removing a massive hemorrhagic meningioma on a 42-year-old woman. She will work alongside another specialty to lessen the bleeding.

“Everything prepped and ready? Radiology Intervention, you ready?” Karina always assures her OR is ready for her, every utensil up to her scope.

“Always ready for you doctor Yoo.” An interventional radiologist who will work on embolizing the feeding arteries of the tumor prepared her own table; this procedure will make sure Karina won’t spend too much time cauterizing the arteries.

“Alright, we can’t afford any mishap, this tumor is huge. I want to be home for dinner, so let’s work our off.”

***

In the Emergency Room (ER),
“Morning! Beautiful morning today…” Doctor Yi Zuo/ Ning as her friends call her, enters the room with a spring in her steps, carrying a hot latte in her hand and a tablet in the other.

“Good morning, doc! At least one of us has a bright face this morning, two of our morning shift nurses are extending their shift since the shortage came.”

“Ah that’s too bad, I did my morning jog today, after a very long time I stopped. I hope today goes well for us. I’m such in a happy mood today.” Ning’s huge grin lifts her nurse’s mood. She opened her phone and scrolled to a group chat she shares with Karina and Giselle.

Ning      : Hey girls! Morning! :DD

Giselle  : God, you’re loud this morning, Ning. I’m running in between patients, ever since we launch that skin transplant campaign for burn victims, my ward has been flooded. Never realized there were so many burn accidents the past year.

Ning     : Oh! That’s why I didn’t see you for breakfast these couple of days. 

Giselle : Correct, I have to get out of our shared apartment by five in the morning, or else I won’t finish all of the patients for dressing change.

Ning    : Eh, where’s Karina unnie, she’s not answering or reading our chat.

Giselle : She is probably starting her surgery already; you know how she’s an early person.

Ning.   : Incoming trauma, gotta go, bye!

*ring ring*
“Seoul Center Hospital, how can I help you?” An ER nurse answered the phone line reserved for the Police and Fire Department of the city.

Incoming trauma, two firefighters with second-and third-degree burns were saved from an exploding candy factory, ETA five minutes.  

Responding to the call, “Doctor we have incoming firefighting accidents from an exploding candy factory, two fire-fighters with second-and third-degree burns.”

“Alright let’s prepare room one and two for them and make sure we have chilled saline at the ready.” Ning as an experienced trauma surgeon has many years before her with these kinds of events.

On the phone with Giselle,
Hello? 
Unnie, we have incoming burn accidents in the ER.

Ning, why are you calling me privately?
Okay, burn guys got it.

They are firefighters, unnie.

Firefighters, huh?
Hm, I hope it’s not her.

Me too, I’ll keep you posted
Be ready for my page

The siren can be heard, Ning and her nurses are ready to welcome the firefighters. First aid car arrived, an officer pushed the door open, and then...

“We got a 34-year-old male with second-degree burn to the face, chest, palms, blood pressure 120/80, heart rate steady at the 80s, saturation 90% with a face mask.” 
“This one is not so bad. Okay we got you Sir, get him to room one.” Ning pushed the gurney towards one of her senior nurses.
“I agree with you, this one is not so bad. You should see the other one, she covered his body protecting him from the explosion.”

Another siren, another aid car arrived.
“A 25-year-old female with third-degree burn to the left side of her body, blood pressure 140/90 heart rate 90s but rising and weak, saturation steady at 86% with a face mask. We already pushed 2Litres saline bolus on the way, but her heart rate is still weak.”
“My God, it’s her. We got you, alright room two. Go!"

Inside the rooms, both patients got the same initial treatment plan, vitals, blood gas, high Oxygen concentrate flow, pushing boluses of cold Saline to lower their body temperature.

The patient in room one, second-degree burn tends to have good outcomes if treated quickly and initial assessment shows there were no complications regarding the man. 

The patient in room two however, third-degree burn equals blisters and with her vitals being unstable, risks for shock have to be monitored close by. Just as Ning examines the patient’s heart sound and lungs,

“Doctor, I can’t find another line for saline bolus.” One of the nurses told her, Saline boluses in burn traumas are needed more than one line so that the body temperature can drop faster. If not…

“Damn it, she’s in hypovolemic shock, page dr. Aeri, now!” Ning shouted since the patient is in shock, heart rate’s rising, blood pressure was thankfully still normal, but the patient is seizing. Normally, the seizure will pass on its own but, “This seizure took longer than I suspected…”

Doctor Aeri arrived in room 2, “Push Lorazepam and morphine, quickly!”

As the nurses push the medication into the patient’s IV, the seizure subsides, heart rate’s normal but still unstable.

“Her breathing is still rapid; her temperature has not gone any lower than when she came.” Ning told Giselle.

“I really don’t want to bore to her limb for a bolus line. How about we wrap her in cold towels? or dump her in ice?”

“That should do it. Okay people, we need cold towels and ice. Move!” Ning commanded everyone available in the ER.

“Do you think we should tell Karina unnie now?”

“Nah, later. Just when she’s stable.”

An hour had gone by, the cold towels and ice used to cover the firefighter’s body did not reduce her temperature as it should be.

“We already covered the basics, but still her symptoms are the same. Let’s review, shall we Ning?”

“Her heart rate is higher than it should be, blood pressure is good, saturation quite well, her cardiac exam looks good, no pulmonary edema detected, her urine output is good too, what are we missing unnie? Wait…” Ning opened the patient's uniform on her abdomen and there it was.

“She got an abdominal bruise. We have to page Taeyeon unnie.”

“I agree. Somebody page dr.Kim!” Ning shouted to her nurse.

In the meantime, Taeyeon has just finished her elective surgery when she got the page.
“Doctor Kim, you are paged to the ER for a burn trauma patient.”
Scrubbing out from her surgery, “Burn patient? This is random. I’ll be there in five.”

Arriving in room two of the emergency room, Taeyeon entered the room.
“Hey, I’m here. What is this about?”

“Abdominal bruise from a burn trauma, and Taeyeon unnie… It’s her. I haven’t told Karina unnie yet. She’s still in surgery.” 

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