Queen of the Scalpel - Chapter 23 - Apprentice

Chapter 23: Apprentice

“…”

“Honestly, there’s no need to treat them, but according to the will of the former Marquess of the Clarence family, all the funds are being sponsored by the Marquis family.”

Grayam spoke in a respectful tone about the Clarence family.

“This Teresa Hospital is running from support from the Clarence family. During your stay here, I hope you respect the Clarence family as well.”

The daughter of the respected Clarence family nodded her head.

“Yes, sir.”

“Anyways, what you’re going to do now is take care of these patients.”

He thought she was going to look at them with disgust. However…

“Yes, I understand. But what exactly would you like me to care for?”

She replied without even a change in expression. Rather, it was filled with slight pity. Grayam was surprised, but Elise asked again.

“Do I need to treat everything, or stop at conservative management so that the patients are comfortable?”

“…!”

A question that hit right on the spot. It was a question a fellow doctor would ask. Grayam was shocked.

“…just conservative management. They’re patients that we’ve completely given up on curing. Take care of their pressure sores.”

He thought she might not know what pressure sores were. But the reply that came was even more shocking.

“I understand. If the pressure sore is bad and I see necrotic change, shall I take care of it?”

“…!”

Grayam with at her with surprise in his eyes.

‘Take care of it? She’s not talking about debridement, is she?’ Debridement was cutting away the dead skin of a wound. If it wasn’t cut away, it would lead to a worse condition, and the patient could die. ‘No way.’ He thought to himself.

“Do what you can. But don’t touch what you don’t know.”

“I understand.”

He gave her a few more directions, and asked her a question before he headed back to his office.

“Rose, is it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“If you’re tired halfway, let me know. I don’t plan on forcing you into it.”

She understood his hidden meaning. It was to quit right away if she was tired.

“I’ll do my best.”

Grayam looked at her with a strange face. ‘How long will she last?’ Her behavior here wasn’t strange. He thought she would quit right away after seeing the patients, but she was quite calm. But he didn’t think she would last that long. Since he had almost run away after seeing this place as well. ‘It won’t be too long.’ And that’s what he thought.

***

But unlike his expectations, she wasn’t planning on giving up. ‘It’s been a while since I saw patients like this.’

She didn’t say anything, but she knew what Grayam was thinking. ‘I’m probably annoying to him.’

She wasn’t stupid. She had experienced death two times, and she could clearly tell what Grayam was thinking. ‘He’s hoping I quit.’ But she definitely wasn’t going to. No, why would she quit just because of this?

As a girl, she didn’t like the horrid scent and the dirty appearances either. However, weren’t these patients? On Earth, she had met a lot of malnutritioned patients as well. Her alma mater made their students work at rural hospitals too. ‘Working with patients, you end up seeing everything…this is nothing.’ People were animals that quickly adapted to their situations. Even after trembling at the sight of blood, they would stitch up a liver that was almost split into two and calmly go eat blood sausages right after that. ‘Let’s just work hard and get my license.’

Her first mission was to become an official doctor! There was only one way to do that, and that was to pass the test. To take the test, she needed to be recommended by the hospital. Normally, she would need to work as a disciple for a few years and be acknowledged, but she didn’t have the time.

Also, to win the bet, she needed to get the license as quickly as possible. She decided to get the license as fast as she could. ‘Let’s start.’ She pulled up her sleeves.

First, Elise began to clean. ‘In a place like this, even a healthy person would get sick.’ She swept away the dust, and washed the patients’ bodies. It wasn’t something a Marquis’s daughter would do. No, how many girls would willingly do this? But she didn’t even have a change in her expression as she worked.

‘I’ve done worse things before.’ She thought of her first anatomy class. Corpses that were stiffened with formalin. The first day, she had to strip on the skin with her scalpel, and after scraping away the lipids, she isolated the muscles.

It was horrible. She went home that day and cried. For the first time ever, she regretted pursuing her profession. And it wasn’t just that day. Until she became a doctor, she had to go through other unpleasant experiences like that. ‘Compared to that…this is way better.’

Of course, she didn’t do everything by herself. It wasn’t something she could do by herself, and she didn’t need to.