"Uwaaaaah!"
"P-please, save me!"
"I-I'm not! I'm not a patient!"
"Come here! You are a patient!"
The luxurious carriage prepared by my senior's father dropped me off at the entrance of a hospital.
Joseph and Alfred were still students and had to attend lectures, but I was practically recognized as Dr. Pyeong, so it was different for me.
In fact, these two also felt like my personal assistants, and under the pretext that necessary lectures were handled by Dr. Liston or Blundell, they were being put to work here.
"Another peaceful day in the ward, huh."
I passed through the patients who were running around, clearly in pain from treatments I didn't want to fully understand, heading toward where Dr. Liston would be.
Well, more accurately, I was trying to.
It wasn't like I had an appointment or anything…
But anyway, mirror therapy was being conducted in that examination room.
I was also thinking of mentioning the term "phantom pain" sometime today or tomorrow.
"Ugh, uwaaaaah!"
However, one patient caught my eye.
Honestly, almost everyone here was screaming in pain, so it wasn't an exaggeration to say that.
But this person's scream had a certain attention-grabbing quality.
There wasn't any particular reason.
It just looked like they were in the most pain.
'That… that's the real deal, isn't it?'
Frankly, unless you were in serious pain, you wouldn't come to the hospital.
In Korea, if you go to the countryside, a doctor might ask, "Why didn't you come yesterday?" and the answer would be, "I was in pain yesterday."
But here, unless you were a doctor, no one came every day.
Among them, this patient was in such pain that it felt genuine.
"Wait a second."
"Huh?"
"Hey! We're still students…"
"Shut up, you idiot. We're in the middle of treating someone here, man!"
"Ah, yeah, yeah. But still, Pyeong is over there… that's a new patient, right?"
So, I headed toward the patient without really asking for their permission.
In cases like this, unless it's something else, it's usually a condition that requires surgery, right?
If that's the case, if another doctor got to them, they'd definitely mess it up.
I'm not sure if it's a problem with sterilization or what…
But anyway, they don't operate on the abdomen and just draw blood.
These lunatics…
Why are they drawing blood from someone who's already in pain?
If you draw blood from someone who's already suffering, they'll die, not survive!
"Patient."
Anyway, I spoke to the patient.
"Ugh, uwaaaaah!"
Of course, I didn't get a proper response.
I didn't expect one either.
They're in pain, after all.
Instead, I decided observing them closely would be enough.
'The lower back… slightly behind. Ah… with this kind of pain…'
The answer came to me immediately.
It wasn't a particularly difficult condition to diagnose.
Even if you weren't a specialist, after a month in the emergency room, you'd be able to diagnose it like a pro.
At the same time, it was also an excruciatingly painful condition.
Namely…
A urinary stone.
"Patient, it hurts more when you urinate, right?"
Normally, the first step would be to give them a cup and tell them to go urinate.
Once they brought back the urine sample, you'd give them painkillers and simultaneously check for hematuria.
Next?
Next…
I'm not really sure.
Usually, you'd refer them to urology and forget about it.
'They'd probably do lithotripsy… but there's no way that exists here.'
Ultrasound lithotripsy.
If such a thing existed, they'd already be using it, right?
Given the era, it might be hidden in some mad scientist's underground lab, but it wouldn't become mainstream until the 1900s.
"Uh, ugh! It hurts! Uwaaaaah!"
Anyway, the patient answered my question with great enthusiasm.
They were much more intense than the stone patients I usually saw, and I thought I knew why.
They probably tried to solve it on their own before coming to the hospital, right?
No matter the era, people know that stones can pass through urine, don't they?
"I-Is it a stone? No way? A stone?"
"Huh?"
While I was thinking that, surprisingly, the patient mentioned the diagnosis.
Not some outdated term for the era, but the correct diagnosis.
"It seems like a stone."
"No, no! Ugh! No!"
Even though it was just words, I almost collapsed on the spot.
It was that shocking.
Anyway, the patient started screaming that it couldn't be, as if they knew something more than I did.
Was that the signal?
A group of people came rushing out.
"A stone?"
"It's definitely a stone."
"Come this way!"
It was a group I'd seen a few times before.
But since I was more on Dr. Robert Liston's side, I didn't know them well.
It seemed like they handled stones over there…
"Ugh, no! Save… save me!"
As soon as they saw them, the patient started having a fit.
Then they started shouting.
"We'll anesthetize you, so it won't hurt!"
"Yeah, we have anesthesia now!"
The anesthetic I discovered had become their excuse.
Damn it…
I felt a twinge of responsibility.
So, I mustered up the courage to step forward.
Honestly, it was thanks to Dr. Liston, who appeared behind me.
Even though the hospital was a noisy place, today was particularly chaotic.
"Wait, wait a second. This patient… I saw them first, didn't I?"
"Huh?"
"What are you talking about? It's definitely a stone! Stones are our domain."
"More importantly, who's this kid?"
The three of them looked at me with displeasure.
I'm Asian, and I'm saying something they don't like.
I'd feel the same way in their shoes.
"Who am I? The person who discovered the anesthetic you mentioned is none other than Dr. Pyeong."
I didn't even need to go to Dr. Liston; Joseph stepped in for me.
He was big and had once knocked someone out with a single punch at Upton, so they were intimidated.
Plus, the person who discovered the anesthetic, right?
They probably only knew that there was an Asian doctor, but was there anyone else like me here?
"Ugh, ugh."
"Still, stones are our professor's…"
"What's going on here?"
Just as the slightly cowed group and I were about to get into a scuffle, Dr. Liston intervened.
He didn't say much, just asked what was going on, but they started backing away slowly.
I understood.
"No, it's just…"
"I asked what's going on."
"Uh… sorry!"
But running away like that was a bit… strange.
Anyway, it was good for the patient.
"Ugh. Ugh. No…"
Of course, the patient didn't see it that way.
In their eyes, it probably looked like an Asian monster and the Liston monster had captured them.
Death must have been looming in their mind, that's what it meant.
"Why are you running away when I asked what's going on? What's the matter?"
Dr. Liston watched them run away with their tails between their legs, then turned to me.
I explained the situation.
Dr. Liston tilted his head slightly.
"Hmm… stones are their domain, but… anyway, since it's come to this, let's take a look."
"Ugh."
"Why? Is there a problem?"
"No, no problem."
Dr. Liston said that and placed his hand on the patient's shoulder.
Surprisingly, the patient, perhaps forgetting the pain in their fear, shook their head hurriedly.
Normally, they would have just screamed in pain without answering…
Clunk.
When we entered the examination room and closed the door, the patient's face darkened even more.
It made sense.
Come to think of it, this was an era without painkillers.
How did they treat stones in hospitals back then?
'If only they didn't know that stones could pass through urine…'
Unfortunately, it seemed like they did know.
'Wow… what kind of… what kind of surgery did they do?'
Damn it…
I didn't even want to imagine.
It's too horrifying…
No matter how I thought about it, only the fear of death came to mind.
Perhaps sensing my expression, Dr. Liston spoke.
"As someone who mainly performs amputations, I'm not sure if I should say this… but in my opinion, stone surgery isn't surgery; it's a technique of murder. It's so horrifying that I've never even thought of attempting it."
"Ah…"
If even Liston finds it horrifying…
Isn't that saying enough?
"Even though anesthesia has been discovered… they're still performing the same surgeries. I'm not one to talk, since I'm not much better."
"Hmm."
"Ah, you don't know how they perform the surgery, do you? It's here somewhere. Ah, here. Take a look."
Liston handed me a booklet.
It wasn't very thick.
"Ah."
It was mostly filled with illustrations, so I could quickly grasp it.
In other words, I immediately realized that the so-called surgery was utterly insane.
'Are these people crazy…?'
Sure, stones are excruciatingly painful…
They're even considered one of the three most painful conditions among doctors…
But still, the stones themselves aren't that big, right?
No matter how big, they're about the size of a fingernail, and they're cutting this much?
No wonder the mortality rate is over 50%…
'Wait, but they're performing a surgery with a mortality rate over 50%…?'
As my doubts began to surface, the patient's pain was slowly overcoming their fear.
After a brief moment of silence, they started screaming again.
"Ugh, uwaaaaah!"
Seeing that, I understood the mortality rate.
'Well… if left untreated, they'll be in pain like that until they die.'
Wouldn't they rather try something and die than endure that?
It really hit me that this was the 19th century.
Feeling inexplicably sorry for the patients of this era, I realized I couldn't push them into such a surgery.
"Patient."
"Yes, yes!"
"I'll think of a way… can you wait just one day?"
"O-one day?"
Wow, damn.
Looking back, their eyes were bloodshot.
Even a murderer wouldn't glare that fiercely.
'Well… I get it.'
They're in excruciating pain, and I'm telling them to wait a whole day.
Even I thought it was a bit too much.
Think about the emergency room; people get beaten up for waiting just a few minutes.
Not to mention, I've been hit before too.
It was a drunk person, and at the time, medical laws didn't protect medical staff, so it was brushed off…
'It's worse here.'
If things went wrong, no one would help me even if I got stabbed.
Didn't some medical schools even teach horseback riding alongside surgery?
If things go bad, just hop on a horse and run.
"Then, by tonight. I'll find a better surgery than this."
"Ugh… ugh!"
The patient tried to say something but then fainted.
I took it as a consent.
"Shall we prepare, then?"
"What do you mean? After seeing that booklet, do you still want to do it? As a human, I don't think we should perform such surgeries on fellow humans."
"That's why. Let's change it."
"Surgical methods don't just pop up like that…"
Dr. Liston looked at me as if I were out of my mind.
Common sense would agree with him.
But I'm from the 21st century.
I knew how the most advanced forms of surgery were performed.
All I had to do was adapt it to this era.