It has been five days since Taehyung came back to Korea. Ashley couldn't wait to see him again. But she decided to wait for him to finish his final concert. She still has no idea how and when she would tell him that she was here. But she was all excited about the concert today.

Ashley went around the ward with Yuri, she helped her with translation and with everything she needed. Ashley was trying to learn Korean but seemed like its a long way before she can speak fluently and understanding them.

"You should go now. We can handle the rest," said Eun Jang, a resident of her team.

Ashley didn't reply, she knew they could handle the rest, but being national Foundation day today, most of the doctors were on a national holiday and the hospital only had the emergency doctors and the residents. They will have their turn next time when others fill in for them.

She was staying a bit longer hoping to help as long as she could before leaving though her shift was over long ago. She planned to go to the concert directly from here.

"You are looking different today," commented Park Aera entering the ward, "Going somewhere?"

"The concert." Smiled Ashley.

"Korea got you good then!" smiled the older one.

" No, BTS got her good," Yuri giggled,
" She was binge-watching their concerts in the break room I saw."

Ashley slapped her back playfully,
"And who gave you permission to sneak in behind my back?"

"And she has V's photo on her desk. So you can tell the rest."Winked Eun Jang.

"Not like I am the only one here who likes them!" pouted Ashley.

"No no no no....No matter how much you try, you  could never beat Aera unnie at it." Yuri smiled, "she is the biggest fan out there."

"Really, who gave you the permission to sneak behind my back?" now was park Aera's turn.

"It's no secret! Everyone knows about it. Even your husband whines every time he comes over!"

"He loves them more than I do!" Park Aera protested.

"And your boy. Crazy family!" Commented Eun Jang.

"All right, enough of BTS talk. Is it your first time watching them live?" Park Aera asked Ashley.

"Concert? Yes." Ashley agreed.

" Wait a minute, did you see them other than the concert?" Yuri picked up the word instantly.

" How can she? She has been staying in Korea while they were away," Eun Jang gave the solution. " And there is no way she could see them abroad apart from the concert."

"Ok, wrap it up. I am going out now. I know we are short on hand today, don't hesitate to page me if you need me. Ok?? I'd be glad to help out." Ashley bowed to park Aera, "bye unnie."

"Bye kid. Have fun." She waved at her.

Ashley took her backpack and headed straight to the elevator.
She decided to go around the E.R to have a last look there if they needed any help. She still had some time to kill.

"Dr. Ruth," greeted Dr. Choi. He was the director of E.R. They made a good relation last time when Ashley helped the E.R during an emergency rush after a car pilling up in a tunnel last month.

"Dr. Choi," Ashley bowed to him respectfully.

"What made you come here?"

"Just wanted to know if you need any sort of help here. I know we are short today," Ashley replied.

"Don't worry, we got it under control. But thank you for stopping by."

"Ok," Ashley smiled.

"Going for a stroll around the E.R. Join me if you want," The director offered.

"Gladly," Ashley agreed.

They were casually walking through the E.R.  Luckily the patient rush was very mild this time.

"I still remember starting as a resident here," Dr. Choi was reminiscing, "Those old days!"

"You worked here from the beginning? Thats cool!"

"Yes, saw a lot of dramas, deaths, miracles. It gets on your nerve if you can't focus on the brighter side," He smiled a little.
"Here I saw someone with punctured lungs and double kidney damage and massive spleen rupture in a car accident to get stable just in few hours. He had an inhumane will to survive!" Dr. Choi indicated the trauma unit as they passed it by.

"And here I witnessed the extreme miracle of surviving of a foreigner with irreversible DIC caused from appendicitis," the director pointed towards the ESI 1 unit. "We even made arrangements to bring his family here for him to see them for the last time. He managed to survive till they got there after two days when he couldn't make it to the next hour even.  Guess what? He recovered. As if he was waiting for his little son to touch him again. Thats the biggest miracle I've ever seen in my life!" He smiled nostalgically.

"Life indeed is a miracle," Ashley agreed.

"We never know what is there for us to the next step," he nodded.

"Here, director. It's the scan result you wanted to see," A nurse handed him some papers interrupting his trails of words.

Ashley took a look from her side and walked with him into ESI 1, which means the top priority unit.

"Looks like we are still in the window of administering TPA," said a doctor to the director.

There was a person on the gurney. He was in his early fifties. There was an astrayed look on his unfocused eyes and he was trying hard but saying gibberish.
Ashley could tell instantly, he was having a stroke and it affected the speech area in his brain.

"Ma'am, we did some tests, and looks like your husband is in the window of administering TPA. If you give consent, we can proceed further," the doctor said to the lady standing with a panicked and confused face.

She was a beauty even in her that age. The lady was elegant, so was the man. Looked like they belonged to a rich family.

"What is that?" she said panicking but still trying to get herself composed.

"Your husband had a stroke, the test showed that it is an ischemic stroke, which means he has a blood clot in his blood vessel near his speech area of the brain affecting the blood flow. And the condition he is in is called expressive aphasia, which means he is trying to say something and he is saying it. But he doesn't have control over his speech here and that's why the words coming out are all jumbled up and meaningless. He is saying something meaningful but it's coming out gibberish," explained the doctor.

"And what is TPA?"

"It's a miracle drug to burst out blood clots within the blood vessel. If we are lucky, he'll be ok right away after we administer the drug."

"And if we don't, what will happen?" the lady was thorough.

"What you are seeing now, he will be like this forever. TPA has a short window, we have to administer it within that time, and your husband is still on it. You have to make the decision fast."

"What are the odds here?" though nervous, she was talking logically.

"Very little person experience the miracle. And TPA will only work if there is no actual active bleeding anywhere in the body. TPA prevents blood clotting. So if there is any active bleeding in the body, no clot will form and he'll bleed out and we may not be able to stop that in time," the Dr was being honest here.
"We need an answer, ma'am."

Ashley was guessing the whole conversation picking up the words she knows. It wasn't that hard to anticipate the whole sentence if you know keywords.

The woman held her husband's hand and looked into his eyes. He was trying to say something desperately. They looked at each other's eyes for some time. Then the woman looked at the doctor,
"Where do I sign?"

The nurse gave her a consent paper and she signed it. They were preparing for the TPA while Ashley asked the Director, "You personally wanted to see the test results. Is he an important person? Who is he?"

"I am sorry, but I was requested to not disclose his name. Yes, he is indeed a very important person."

"I see," Ashley looked again at the scan results on his hand. Something was bothering her, "Sorry director, can I have a look? " she indicated the papers in his hands.

"Sure," He gave those to her.

She took a glance at all the papers and again came back to the first page. And then she noticed it, very mild, an almost unnoticeable anomaly.

"Administering TPA," The attending doctor looked at the director and he nodded indicating him to proceed.

"Stop!" Ashley's sudden exclaims took everyone by shock.

"Please stop. Don't do that. You will kill him!" Ashley said hurriedly.

"What are you saying?" The director frowned at her.

"Here," Ashley showed him the first color doppler test which was showing the pattern of blood flow in his brain.

"See the dilation here, in this end artery? It's an aneurism.*  If you give him TPA, a sudden burst of the clot will make a high-pressure blood flow like removing the knot of a flowing hose pipe. And it will cause the aneurism to rupture. And due to TPA, the bleeding won't stop, repairing would require surgery, but he won't make it till then. You will turn an ischemic stroke into a hemorrhagic stroke," Ashley took a deep breath.
" He doesn't need TPA, he needs surgery, right now."

"My God!" the director mumbled,
"We didn't notice that!"

"It's ok. It's almost unnoticeable. It's my field of specialty, so I noticed it. You were doing right. Just, this case was a very rare one," assured Ashley.

"I need to page Dr. Han right now!" The director rushed towards the nurse station.

"What is happening?" The lady was clueless and dumbfounded.

The doctor explained the situation to her. She grabbed her hair nervously.

"Don't worry, ma'am," Ashley held her hand with assurance. "It's a complex surgery, but not impossible."

The director rushed back in. "Dr. Han, he is out of the town. I paged two available surgeons. They'll come within half an hour."

"If you don't mind director, He doesn't have that time, waiting that much time will cause major harm, maybe leave him paralyzed for the rest of his days." Ashley stated, "If you give permission, I can do the surgery. I have done it before."

"He is an important person, Dr. Ruth. If things get sideways, your carrier will be at risk. Think it again."

The nurse was translating the conversation to the Lady.
The lady suddenly barged in saying something to the director. The nurse translated it, "let her do that."

The lady looked at her eyes and held her hands in hers and said something.

"I trust you," the nurse translated from behind.

But Ashley didn't need translation this time. Some words never need a translation.

*So, an aneurism is dilation in arteries making artery walls getting thinner and weaker due to stretching, like blowing a balloon. And sudden high blood pressure can rupture the artery wall like dropping water drops on tissue paper. This is one of the main reasons for hemorrhagic stroke-causing intense internal bleeding if it happens in the brain.
An aneurism can happen to any part of the body.

Hope I didn't intimidate you with all this technical stuff.