Queen of the Scalpel - Chapter 24 - Apprentice

Chapter 24: Apprentice

She looked for the staff in charge of the room.

“You want help with bathing the patients and cleaning?”

“Yes.”

“But…why?”

“The condition of the room is so bad, I don’t think it’s good for the patients.”

The staff were two ladies in their 40s. Bathing the patients and cleaning were their duty, but no one cared about these patients, so they just skipped over it.

“But you.are?”

“Rose. I’m teacher Grayam’s apprentice.”

The staff were definitely higher than Elise, because apprentices were treated as interns in the empire. They looked at Elise. She was wearing simple clothes, but she was obviously a lady from a well-off household. They nodded their heads.

“Al…right.”

So they finished everything with Elise. They cleaned the dirty things, wiped things down, and washed the patients. As the room became cleaner, Elise’s body became dirtier but she didn’t care. ‘I can just wash it off.’ She knew too well about the importance of cleanliness because of her knowledge from Earth. According to the esteemed Nightingale’s research, just by cleaning, death rates could go down. ‘Cleaning can be more impactful and easier than any medicine.’ To be able to lower death rates just with cleaning! How could she not clean?

And so it was while she was absorbed in the work. The staff, who had been working timidly, spoke up.

“Uh….lady. We’ll do that.”

“Pardon?”

“Because it’s originally our work….”

They had embarrassed faces. At first, they just followed her here because she asked them to, but seeing her work hard, they felt guilty. Such a young and frail-looking girl was doing tiring things for the hopeless patients.

Elise just smiled and replied.

“Ok, thank you. Let’s do it together.”

And as the three of them worked together, the job that seemed endless was finished. The room was considerably cleaner than before.

“T-Thank you.”

“Thank you so much.”

The patients expressed hope towards Elise. It was a hospital, but because they had diseases that couldn’t be cured, they were neglected. But a lady that seemed to be from a high noble family did these things for them without any hesitation! They were all greatly touched.

But Elise just kindly smiled and shook her head. ‘This is just the beginning.’ Sanitation was just the foundation. She started to officially observe the patients.

“Where is it uncomfortable for you?”

“My back….”

As she walked around the room, she checked each and every patient. ‘This patient sprained his back after an accident. It can’t be fished. Then what I can do…is to supply nutrients. Disinfection.’ She did the best of her ability.

“We need to disinfect him, so please bring disinfecting medicine.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“There’s a lot of patients in bad conditions, so please bring a lot. Also, please bring anesthetics and a knife.”

“Why a knife?”

As a small girl asked for a knife, the staff member was surprised. But Elise calmly replied.

“To remove the dead skin. It may bleed a lot, so please bring a lot of gauze too.”

“Y-You yourself? With a knife?”

She was going to cut skin with a knife? The staff member had a pale face just thinking about it.

“Yes, I will do it.”

Elise nodded her head. In her past life, she had led surgeries. Removing dead skin was so simple it wasn’t even considered a surgery. The staff member had a haggard face as she brought the disinfectant, anesthetic, and a disinfected knife.

“Here.”

“Please hold the patient.”

“Y-You’re going to do it here?”

“Yes, the injury is so bad that we need to do it right away.”

Elise looked at the numbed back of the patient and spoke. She put on her gloves. ‘They won’t be mad that I did this, right?’ It was a simple ‘surgery’ for doctor Song Jihyun, but she was just an intern that entered the hospital today. She might be punished for doing something she shouldn’t.

But she shook her head. ‘It’s not even that dangerous. And if left alone, it’ll get worse.’ The infection was bad. It was filled with pus, and it might worsen to sepsis if left alone. She needed to work right away.

“Sir, I’m going to disinfect your wound and take off the dead section. It’ll be done after anesthetics, so it won’t hurt.”

“Alright.”

She relaxed the patient with calm words. After he was in position, she began with the debridement.

“Please give me the anesthetic first.”

But while inserting the anesthetic, she had a thought. ‘How did the great alchemist Fleming come up with this medicine?’ Everything she was using was created by Fleming. And there were other creations of his. ‘Even if he’s a genius, how could he have done this? And he did more than just disinfectants and anesthesia. Did Fleming experience life on Earth like I did?’