Strings & Stitches

Chapter 13

The operation room seemed bigger and scarier once you were the one standing right by the operating table and not on the other side of the room with other interns. Yoohyeon had already sterilized her hands and had the full surgery equipment on, only her eyes showing fully as her hair and most of her face were covered, just like the others of the group. Her heart was beating faster than it should, because this was her first serious operation, she couldn't mess this up.

And this time, she was the main surgeon. So all the attention would be on her, and all the important stuff to do would also be done by her.

Like they planned, the other interns and some of Minji's usual team were in the room with her. Minji herself was on the side, only being an observer in this operation... unless something was going horribly wrong. "Ready for the patient to be brought in?" She asked, having her pager ready. As soon as he got inside, the timer would start and anaesthesia had to get ready.

The first person to start working was Minjeong, which got the anesthesiologist role. Yoohyeon watched as she was the most focused she had ever seen, doing everything step by step and once she was done with her main work and the patient was fully unconscious, she sat closer to the monitor to start ultrasound.

Minji asked for the detailed steps now that anaesthesia was done, and her eyes landed on Yoohyeon, demanding an answer.

Yoohyeon cleared her throat, trying not to avoid eye contact which seemed kind of impossible. Minji's eyes seemed so intense, and a lot more scary than Yoohyeon remembers them being.

"Hepatectomy. First step already done, now we need to do Laparoscopy, after the exposure of the muscles I will remove the gallbladder" She paused, looking beside her at the other surgeons. If she didn't satisfy them with the answer, it could play a big role in her internship. So she continued telling the details to not only Minji but everyone in the room, finishing with a big exhale and her heart beating a little bit faster again.

Yoohyeon's role here required a lot of communication, needing everyone to be on the same line. So after letting Minjeong work for a bit, she asked for a status update.

After about forty-five minutes, almost everyone was doing their job, including Minji, whose work was to monitor everyone's actions. So far, everything was going well, but hepatectomy needs at least two hours to be done, and it sometimes can go up to four, so it was nerve-wracking, especially for Yoohyeon, who was about to do the main part of the surgery.

Her hands were a little shaky which wasn't really something she could have going into this part. She couldn't risk possibly causing an injury. Anxiety was something that has been following her for her entire life, and if she wanted to success in this profession, she somehow had to work on it more.

She closed her eyes for a second, taking a breather, concentration on her hands, and upon reopening them, they briefly locked with Minji.

Just the look of confidence she was giving her gave her the right amount of calm that she needed as her hands swiftly steadied.

She knew that she was there for a reason. And she had to live up to the expectations that the chief put in her, so she tried to do her best, her full concentration on the patient this time. She has watched many liver resection operations, she knew everything that needed to be done, so she balanced the scalpel in her right hand and a retractor in another one and got to work.

During the entire part, Yoohyeon's mind was basically blank. Her focus was on what she was doing, not even allowing space to think.

If anything there was to learn during her internship, Yoohyeon knew that the liver is one of the easily damaged organs, so she had to be as careful as possible. Removing the gallbladder was the easy part, not damaging anything around it was a struggle.