That Spring When Hydrangeas Bloom

01

"We've already performed angiography[1] many times on this patient but we can't seem to find the vessel involved. Her CT shows SAH[2] with thick hematoma[3] in the cisterna magna[4] and it looks like it has already spread into the ventricles[5]." Professor Kwon Jun Woo stared intently on the screen, who seemed to be in deep thought about this patient we were discussing on. All of us in the neurosurgery department were gathered in the conference room to tackle about a patient whose case was rare that it was our first time coming across it.

"We performed another cerebral angiography yesterday. We found an irregularity of a small artery over here which was perhaps due to the dissection of the artery." Professor Kwon continued to discuss the patient's CT while the rest of us listened, preparing for questions he might throw.

Finally, he turned to me. "Dr. Kang, what further treatment measures can you suggest for this patient?"

I took a deep breath and tried to extract all the knowledge I had to come up with a suitable answer. "Considering the interventions done on this patient for the last three days, I think we need to perform exploratory surgery[6] to locate the vessel because it seems small to be seen on angiography."

Professor Ahn Do Yun was the one who spoke this time. He turned to Dr. Choi Junghae, my co-resident. "Do you agree with Dr. Kang?"

"No, doc. I think we should perform endovascular surgery[7]," he answered.

Professor Ahn put his fingers on his chin, looking at Dr. Choi for a few seconds before turning back his attention to the screen. "Really? I think she's right, though. Did you even read on this patient? You've only been here for less than a week. Are you slacking off now?"

Professor Ahn was known as the notorious one for being harsh on the residents with his words. For him, there was no room for mistakes. We had to be right all the time or else, he would feel the need to embarrass us in front of everyone. I understood the part of having no room for mistakes because we handled lives, but shaming a doctor wasn't really necessary.

"I apologize, Professor." Dr. Choi turned his head down in apology and the look on his face can't be painted. It wasn't even a week yet into residency and things seemed to be more stressful than they already were. Nonetheless, people in our department were still super helpful. We were lucky enough to work under doctors who were more than patient to teach us in things we were lacking on. Well, except for Professor Ahn. We only got to see him during case discussions. He was very picky as well with doctors who did surgeries with him.

"It's okay, Dr. Choi. Dr. Jeong, get this patient's consent later and prepare to assist me on her surgery on Monday. Dr. Kang and Dr. Choi will be observing. That ends today's discussion." Dr. Jeong Ha Jun was our chief resident.

It was a relief for everyone that Professor Kwon was this patient's doctor because that meant everyone will get the chance to work on her rare case. He liked to get everyone involved because according to him, we were the ones who will follow his footsteps so he wanted to teach us everything he can.

My 24-hour shift ended with lots of hospital rounds and outpatient visits with Professor Kwon that I was dead tired when I arrived home at 4PM that day. I planned on sleeping until 7, have dinner and go to a coffee shop to work on the case we were observing on Monday.

Grandma woke me up just in time for dinner. When I arrived at the dinner table, it was just my brother and I.

"Where are they?" I asked upon taking a seat and setting up my utensils.