episode_0122

Episode 122. The Black Death Incident Ends

****

Oh, those bastards.

I glanced at the priests of the temple.

Even though the temple was so busy with the piling up of plague patients that it had no time to breathe, isn’t this a bit too much? If you were going to cut off your arms, you should have done it last night.

You should have asked me earlier. What were you going to do if the patient died like this?

The healers at the temple simply had complicated expressions, but the patient who was actually faced with the situation of having to amputate his arm looked determined.

“Will it hurt?”

“I’m going to put you under anesthesia.”

I couldn’t answer the patient’s question with certainty. I don’t know how much it will hurt.

It may not be that it didn’t hurt at all, but since the nerves in my arm were already pretty dead… … I didn’t think I would be in extreme pain though.

As I mumbled the words, the patient grabbed my arm and asked me again.

“Does the surgery hurt or not?”

I scratched my head. I thought about it for a long time, but it was still difficult to say anything definitively.

“I don’t know how much it will hurt. It might not hurt much because it’s dead tissue, or it might have to go through the living part to completely remove the dead part… … . Ah. The saw touching the bone will definitely hurt.”

If you were to amputate an arm, you might be opposed to it, but this patient seemed completely resigned. Or perhaps you could say determined.

As it is now, the tips of your fingers will be cold, numb, and you will not be able to move the muscles in your palm. The patient will know best.

This needs to be cut out.

“Lastly, you have to decide on one thing. It’s a bit more risky, but you can try cutting off only the hand, leaving the upper arm.”

“What’s different?”

“The possibility of your arm rotting after surgery will increase somewhat, and the possibility of dying from bleeding will decrease.”

The patient frowned briefly.

“Then cut it off from my lower arm. But it would be much better if I could use a prosthetic hand… … .”

After thinking about it again, I think it might be better to cut it off at the forearm. It would be easier to attach a prosthetic arm, and there would be no risk of splitting a large bone.

I nodded.

Preparations for surgery are almost complete.

It wasn’t a complicated surgery.

Compared to surgeries like spleen removal or bone realignment that I’ve had in the past, it won’t be a painful surgery.

I drew a very thin incision line on the patient’s arm with a ballpoint pen. In the Middle Ages, limb amputations were often done by simply sawing wood.

That’s kind of horrible.

I didn’t mean to do that.

“We’re going to cut the skin this way so we can fold the skin over and sew it up while covering the wound.”

Istina nodded.

“The arms originally have a redundant blood supply, so there is no need for blood vessels to be connected. The ulna and radius will be sewn together to keep the two bones from moving.”

The final explanation is also finished. This was an explanation to the medical staff rather than the patient.

“Then let’s begin.”

Anesthesia and disinfection were done earlier. I took the scalpel and opened the skin along the incision line I drew earlier. The patient squinted, but didn’t seem to be in pain.

The anesthesia seems to have worked well. This is just my guess, but it seems that people like knights and wizards don’t respond well to anesthesia. Ordinary people like this patient respond well to anesthesia.

“Do you feel any pain?”

“No. Not really.”

That’s fortunate.

Now that I’ve cut the skin, it’s time to cut the muscle. I’m afraid I might accidentally cut a blood vessel if I just cut it, so I slowly cut the ligaments and muscles of my arm one by one.

It was a horrible feeling to cut the muscle, but it had to be done for healing. I cut away the black, rotten tissue.

end.

The patient’s arm muscles were almost completely cut off. I took a deep breath and started sawing the radius and ulna bones of the arm.

There is no direct pain sensation in the bone. The vibration will be transmitted as is. My arm was sore for no reason, but the patient was indifferent.

Looks like the anesthesia is working well.

“Ugh… ….”

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“No. I just feel weird.”

After a while.

The patient’s forearm was cleanly cut off.

I finished the cut surface so that no sharp bone fragments were left on the patient’s forearm.

There was no necrotic tissue at all on the inside of the arm. At this point, it was completely removed.

I took a silk thread and sewed the patient’s femur and ulna together to fix them. All the complicated stuff was done, and now all that was left to do was finish it.

“It’s all over. Just hold on a little longer.”

“Yes.”

I folded the muscles and blood vessels. I also blocked two large blood vessels. Finally, I trimmed the subcutaneous fat on the arm and finished the cut surface of the arm.

“Istina. Look at this.”

“Yes.”

“See how the bone cut-off is finished? Now we need to finish the arm cut-off. We’re going to fold the fat layer over to cover the cut-off at the end of the arm.”

Istina nodded.

It’s almost over.

“When suturing, the layers are important. Muscle layer, subcutaneous fat layer, skin layer. There are many cases where you have to sew each layer separately. This time, I fixed the bone, folded the muscle layer, and sewed the subcutaneous fat layer-”

The patient looked at me.

“Teacher. Can you finish the surgery first and leave the class for later?”

“Oh, yeah.”

There’s nothing I can do.

Since all that was left was to suture the skin, I pulled the skin to cover the wound, then sutured it with silk thread. It didn’t take long.

“Yes, it’s really all over.”

Now all that was left was to recover. I took a step back and put the extension down.

The nurses cleaned the wound with saline solution and then wrapped gauze and a bandage around the patient’s arm.

Although it was a difficult process, the surgery was ultimately successful. The patient was still alive and well. The patient’s rotten arm was placed in a bucket like a piece of wood.

I looked at the patient’s face. The patient had a frown on his face, but it didn’t seem like anything was wrong with him other than having his arm amputated.

Well, it’s hard to laugh after cutting off my arm, but I think it’s a good ending. I looked at the bucket containing my rotten arm.

“Burn that and come back.”

“Oh, yes.”

Istina carried the bucket and moved somewhere. The patient just stared at me blankly.

“Are you feeling better, patient?”

“My right arm is gone.”

Oh, you must remember. Did the anesthesia damage your memory? Or did you have a cerebral infarction due to fat embolism? I’m starting to get worried.

“That. Remember? The one where I cut off my rotten arm.”

“Yes, I remember it well.”

I thought the patient was going into a state of delirium. There are many cases where people lose consciousness after the anesthesia wears off. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“What happens now?”

“You will be hospitalized for a few days. Once the wound on your arm has healed, you will be discharged.”

****

The affairs of the ward were being settled.

All the patients who had no hope of survival died, and no new patients came in for a while. Mr. Chris recovered and returned to home isolation.

The spread of the plague has ended. Everyone has gathered in the conference room of Winia Castle to report on the situation.

The lord of Winia Castle, the lord’s officials, Commander Lin, the Archbishop, Istina, Hedwig. It seems like practically everyone who came and saw us is here.

“First, let’s hear what the professor has to say.”

I walked to the front of the conference room.

Fortunately, Winia’s lord uncle looked much better than the last time I saw him.

Looks like you slept well last night.

From the blood rushing to his face. I thought he was some kind of zombie the last time I saw him. It looks like he heard the news that the plague was caught.

All eyes in the conference room were on me.

I opened my mouth.

“Here’s what we found out. Most of the patients are thought to have contracted the plague from flea bites. Fleas come from rats.”

“Yes.”

“We administered the cure to the patients and killed all the rats in the city to stop the spread of the Black Death. Only 15 patients remain in the temple.”

I looked around the conference room. I had summoned all the rats living in the city with magic and killed them all. Director Lin nodded triumphantly.

“Did it work?”

“Yes. We went from house to house and investigated, and found that human-to-human transmission was not occurring except for a few close contacts who lived together. So the plague was caught.”

I raised my hand again.

“But, Your Majesty. If it’s not too much trouble, could I say a few more words?”

“You are the benefactor who saved the city… … . If you ask me, I will do my best to make it happen.”

What should I say to make a sale without sounding like a salesman? I pondered the choice of words for a moment.

“I am currently working with the royal family to create a company that mass-produces medicine.”

“Yes.”

“If people like you cooperate in the research, development, and distribution of medicine, I think we can help more people.”

The lord of Winia looked at me.

“Is that what you were asking for?”

“Yes.”

“You’re so humble.”

I bowed my head. The Lord of Winia nodded and opened his mouth.

“Teacher, do you think the medicine you were making would have been effective against the Black Death or not?”

“There is a high probability that it will not exist.”

“Are you saying there is a chance that it will work?”

“It should have a small effect.”

It was something I said without thinking, but the conference room started to murmur. No, I said it wouldn’t work, so why is this the reaction?