Doctor Goes Back to Joseon

Chapter 106: Anatomy [2]

-Jeeek

Ganghyuk cut from the upper side of the navel to the right upper part of the pubis. And then he made a cross cut from the one side to the other side of waist.

As the blood had been removed, no blood came out with cutting.

“Let’s see this section.”

Ganghyuk showed the section he cut to the group.

At that moment, one of them went out quickly.

“Uppp”

It was Makbong.

He did hang the corpse and removed blood from the dead body.

But now he showed an unexpected thing.

Huk

The warehouse door moved and there was some sound of vomit.

Others felt the same vomiting feeling inside.

It disturbed the anatomy.

But Ganghyuk did not shout or be mad at him.

It was not the first time to experience it.

There were many people who did operate but could not stand the anatomy.

“Heum.”

Ganghyuk looked around the fellows.

‘Let’s see. Who are ok… Heo Jun, Heo Im, Yeoni… Oh, Dolseok?’

He looked placid, although he had a chicken heart.

It was a surprising thing compared to Makbong who fled away.

Dolseok was smiling. Ganghyuk thought he might use this incident to pull Makbong’s legs later.

‘Yeoju manages to stand there. Yes. I need her. I need a painter.’

He would not repeat the anatomy from scratch like this.

For that purpose, there should be a record.

“I did not say in detail. It would smell. It may be grotesque. You may go out and vomit like Makbong. But I recommend turning your head away when you think you cannot handle the scene.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And… here are cotton balls. They will keep your nose from bad odor. It is the first time for me to do anatomy on the unprocessed body. I usually dissect a body processed with formalin. It smells a lot.”

Nobody knew formalin.

Who would know it? It was Joseon.

Formalin was invented in Germany.

But nobody asked what it was.

They were already accustomed to Ganghyuk’s strange comments and it was not important here.

“Eum. I feel better with the cotton balls.”

Heo Jun talked with two cotton balls in his nostrils.

They looked funny, but they could not help it.

The dead body started to decay, which made a terrible smell.

“Yes”

Ganghyuk answered.

He remembered when he did the same thing in the practice room.

“When I dissect a formalin processed body, I hated the formalin smell. But I know that it was far better than this smell.”

As a matter of fact, formalin was not a good material.

If we defined it in a word, it is a toxic material with pungent smell without color.

It was designated as a Grade 1 carcinogen.

Therefore, the smell was pungent.

Once the ventilator was out of order and they had to dissect with the smell throughout the process.

He cried a lot at that day because of pungent smell. It irritated his eyes.

‘But I was thrilled to do that.’

On the book, there were only pictures on the paper and it was really hard to understand.

In the practice room, everything was in three-dimensional and he could touch it.

He could not forget the feeling, so he wanted to let the fellows feel the same thrill.

When Ganghyuk confirmed that everybody had cotton balls in their nostrils, he reversed the section of the stomach.

“See. The surface is the skin. It is thinner than we think.”

“Yes”

“Then, you can see yellow layer. It is fat. This person has very thin because he did not eat well.”

“Then the red thing is muscle?”

“Yes, Yeoni is good. He also has very thin muscle. He did not have time to make a muscle and he is old, too.”

Ganghyuk left the flesh feeling sorry for the old man.

Then he picked up the scalpel again and opened his mouth.

“I will cut the peritoneum now. It will smell badly. Intestines decay very quickly.”

“Ok. I see.”

Heo Jun and Heo Im nodded their heads with their eyes wide open.

They showed their determination to learn in their eyes.

But Ganghyuk could not perform it further. He hesitated.

It was a first time for him to dissect the dead body which was not processed with formalin.

He was afraid of the smell.

‘How does it smell? I hope it is still good.’

Considering the time when Dolseok and Yeoni started artificial respiration, it has not more than an hour since he died.

‘Please…’

Ganghyuk pressed the scalpel on the skin of the dead body.

He cut it with one trial.

It was not to save a person but to see the content in the body.

-Jeeek

When the scalpel of Ganghyuk moved, the intestines in the body were shown.

The intestine showing the most conspicuous difference is the colon.

The germs in the intestine proliferated and made gas.

It became 1.5 times bigger than normal.

“Eum. It does not look like this in a living body. Anyway, you can see a big tube parallel to this.”

“Yes.”

“It is the rectum going to the anus… If you look at it closely, you can see the part which turns to the bottom. The stool moves in the direction that I point now.”

“Ah… then, this is the last digestion organ.”

“Yes, Dr. Heo. If we leave it here, it will decay very soon. So I will remove it.”

“Yes, I see.”

Ganghyuk did not cut it right away. Instead, he cut both ends of the colon with thick thread.

If he cut without tying, all the facets and gases inside the body would go out through the colon.

‘That will make a chaos… then I cannot continue anatomy.’

It is the body that they could have with much effort.

He did not want to make it useless.

While tying two ends, he could see a thing that looked like a pig tail.

It was the appendix.

“Dolseok, this is the one that I cut from Okseok.”

“Oh… this one is very small. The one you removed from Okseok was very big and thick.”

“Okseok’s was swollen because the entry was blocked. It should look like this. This is the normal size.”

“Ah…”

Dolseok was amazed.

He did not feel fear or disgust.

Others suppressed their disgust using their curiosity. Dolseok was totally different from the others.

‘Dolseok may be able to be a good doctor.’

Ganghyuk nodded his head and removed the colon completely.

Then they could see the small intestine.

It looked like a snake.

“This is thinner and longer than the one you looked before. It is the small intestine. It absorbs nutrition that we had in the form of food. It can be divided into three… But it is not really important clinically. Therefore, I will pass it.”

Ganghyuk removed the intestine with the simple explanation.

He continued the anatomy giving a brief explanation. He showed the stomach, spleen, liver, kidney and pancreas and explained their functions.

“Ok, now we go to the right side of the top. You see this big thing, right?”

Ganghyuk pointed a big triangular organ.

It should have looked red, but it became pale because it lost blood.

“This is a liver. It stores the energy that our body will use. It also detoxes toxins.”

Ganghyuk was explaining touching the liver but he suddenly stopped his hand.

“Why, scholar Baik?”

Heo Jun asked with a surprise.

He was accustomed to the anatomy in a short time and he did not show any disgusted face.

Furthermore, as Ganghyuk removed intestines, the body did not smell much.

“See. This person has got problem in his liver. If you see here… Do you see something round here?”

“Ah, yes, it should not be there?”

“Right. The liver should be neat and smooth.”

“Aha”

Yeoju moved her hand quickly.

When there was an abnormal thing, it should be recorded.

Ganghyuk removed the liver and left it on the chest of the body.

‘We cannot dream of it, if he is alive.’

If the liver was removed from the body, the patient would be a dead body.

Ganghyuk looked around the fellows.

They all looked at the liver.

“The round protrusion here. It is called cancer.”

“Cancer?”

Dolseok asked back.

He showed enthusiasm.

“Yes, cancer. The name itself sounds unlucky.”

“How could it go in?”

Dolseok recalled the process of anatomy.

There was no hole before Ganghyuk started the anatomy.

This lump called cancer was as big as a fist.

Dolseok shouted as if he had found something.

“Did it go in through the throat?”

“Yes, it may be.”

“There is no entry than the throat.”

Heo Jun and Heo Im agreed on Dolseok’s idea.

‘Yes, there was the time when everything in the body is good and perfect.’

Ganghyuk did not talk for a while because of that funny misunderstanding.

As Ganghyuk did not say anything, they came to realize that there was something wrong.

“Maybe not.”

Heo Jun realized their misunderstanding first.

Ganghyuk nodded his head and explained.

“It is interesting theory but it is not correct.”

“Ah..”

“The cancer does not come from outside. It was the liver but it became changed when he got old.”

“Aha, then this used to be a normal liver.”

“Yes. It was changed into bad thing. This person might die of this cancer.”

“Heo… Really?”

It was too difficult to make them understand.

Cancer was a difficult concept if they don’t know about the cells.

He must start from the cells and then go to mutation.

‘It may not be important in Joseon.’

Cancer came to attract people’s attention and became an issue in the middle of the 20th century.

In other words, people paid attention to cancer because their life span lengthened.

In Joseon, many people died before 50 and there were too many other causes driving people to death.

He did not feel that it should be explained to them.

‘Ok, pass this.’

Ganghyuk put the liver in the basket quickly.

“It is very rare. Let’s set it aside. We have many things to see.”

“Yes”

“Let’s go to the chest. Eum”

When Ganghyuk tried to pick up the scalpel again, someone tapped the window.

“Sir, sir!”

“Why? Makbong. Why are you doing that?”

“The people who came from other places and found a place near Bojewon have problems. They had diarrhea and vomiting. All other people with them, too. Dongpa is going there but I think we should not let him go alone.”

Dongpa is the quack.

If he goes there alone, he will kill all of them.

“No, that should not happen. Ok. I will wrap it up quickly. Let’s go there.”