Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 128

128. The Compression Machine and Severe Pain

While Tae-kyung left with Team Leader Choi for the medical volunteer site, Lee Chan-hee and Choi Mona remained in the emergency room.

“Choi, Nurse? The patient in bed 3 is asking if their prescription is ready?”

“Tell them the prescription for diarrhea is being sent out. It’s going out right now.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Ha!”

As Choi Mona reviewed patient-related tasks on the emergency room station monitor, Lee Chan-hee, who was right next to her, sighed dramatically.

“Don’t tell me you’re still waiting for a KakaoTalk [a popular Korean messaging app] reply?”

“Still? This is a pretty important issue regarding how much trust the professor has in me as his cherished right-hand man.”

Anyone listening would think it was a big deal, but he was just waiting for a KakaoTalk reply. Specifically, Tae-kyung’s reply.

Earlier, Lee Chan-hee had asked Tae-kyung, who was departing, ‘Professor, don’t you trust me?’ but he hadn’t received an answer.

It might not seem like a big deal to not get such a simple reply, but Lee Chan-hee, who was so devoted to Kim Tae-kyung at their hospital, was bothered by it.

‘If you’re so curious about the answer, why don’t you just send the professor a text or a KakaoTalk message?’

Eventually, Choi Mona, unable to watch him fret any longer, told him to send a message.

“But, Nurse Lee, are you really the professor’s right-hand man?”

“No, Nurse Soo, I’m a little hurt that you’d say that. Of course, I’m the right-hand man.”

“Then what is Nurse Choi? The left-hand?”

“Of course. Anyway, why isn’t he replying? Hasn’t he seen it yet?”

“Maybe he has seen it, but he doesn’t feel the need to reply.”

“Nurse Choi, if you point out the core issue like that, Nurse Lee will get hurt.”

“Not at all. I don’t get hurt by things like that.”

“Okay, hurt… Oh! The professor is calling.”

Nurse Im Jung-sook, who was speaking, looked at her vibrating phone and announced that Tae-kyung was calling.

“Yes, Professor. Have you arrived?”

-No, I stopped by the rest stop for a moment, but I’m calling because there’s something to pass on. The lab results for patient Lee Gi-woon in room 203 came out, right?

“Yes, I already adjusted it. Okay, I understand. Ah! Professor? Did you see the KakaoTalk message Nurse Lee sent?”

-Yes, I saw it.

“He’s waiting eagerly for a reply. Hehe! Okay. Drive safely.”

“What did the professor say?”

Lee Chan-hee asked Nurse Im Jung-sook, who had hung up the phone, curiously.

“He said he trusts you.”

“Right? See? I knew it.”

“New patient.”

“Okay, I’m going.”

Lee Chan-hee left the station with a very proud expression.

“Did the professor really say that?”

“No, not at all.”

Nurse Im Jung-sook replied without hesitation to Choi Mona’s question.

“He said, ‘Stop talking nonsense and tell him to take good care of the patients.'”

“Just as I expected. But why like that…”

“Why? If I told him the truth, Nurse Lee might think about it for a long time and become discouraged.”

“Nurse Soo, you are very wise.”

Choi Mona nodded in agreement to Im Jung-sook’s very persuasive words.

Feeling reassured by Tae-kyung’s trust (or rather, the *illusion* of it), Lee Chan-hee headed to the patient’s bed.

“Ugh! Ugh!”

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“It hurts. Ugh! It hurts a lot.”

“I told you to be careful. You can’t be distracted for even a second when you’re handling machinery.”

A middle-aged man in factory work clothes was worried about a young man in the same attire.

Clatter-

“Hello, patient.”

“Ugh!”

As Lee Chan-hee opened the curtain and approached the bedside, the young man with a cloth wrapped around his hand looked at him, grimacing.

“How did you get hurt?”

“Ugh! Ah…”

The young man was in so much pain that he couldn’t say anything and just groaned.

“It seems his hand got caught in the compression machine. Seok-hyun, are you okay?”

“I’ll take a look at the wound.”

Lee Chan-hee carefully unwrapped the cloth around the patient’s right hand.

“Fortunately, there are no external wounds.”

Since the patient’s hand was caught in the compression machine and he was in so much pain, he suspected a laceration or abrasion, but fortunately, there were none.

“I’ll take an X-ray right away.”

“Patient, please come this way.”

“Excuse me, doctor?”

As the patient left the bedside with the nurse, the guardian who came with him called Lee Chan-hee.

“I don’t know much about this. Is it a serious injury? Will he be able to move?”

“Fortunately, there are no visible external wounds, but with a compression machine, there’s a high probability of bone or nerve damage. We need to figure that out first to give you an accurate answer.”

“That’s right. I’m actually his father. He’s my youngest son. He’s full of vanity and doesn’t study, so I forced him to work, and this happened. Geez.”

The patient’s father was blaming himself, saying that his son got hurt while doing a job he didn’t want to do because of him.

“Doctor, I feel suffocated, can I go out for a bit?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

Watching the guardian leave, scratching the back of his head, Lee Chan-hee also felt bad.

‘With a compression machine, the bones must be damaged…’

Lee Chan-hee was thinking that if the test results showed a problem with the bones, he would need to call Tae-kyung for an emergency consultation or transfer him for orthopedic surgery.

“Nurse Lee, the X-ray is out.”

“Okay.”

Lee Chan-hee approached the station monitor to check the results.

“Huh!”

“Why? Is it bad?”

Choi Mona, who was at the next monitor, chimed in when Lee Chan-hee looked surprised at the X-ray results.

“Is a picture of perfectly normal bones that surprising?”

“No. It’s *too* normal.”

That’s exactly what it was. There was no difference from a normal person’s hand.

‘That’s a relief.’

While he was relieved that the patient wasn’t seriously injured, Lee Chan-hee was also a bit dumbfounded. At this point, he had a reasonable suspicion about whether he was really injured by the compression machine at all.

“Where is the patient?”

“Bed 18.”

Now it was time to confirm whether that reasonable suspicion was true.

“How are you feeling, patient?”

“It hurts so much. Doctor, what are the results?”

The patient said it hurt, but he didn’t grimace as much as before or groan as loudly.

Even if the bones were normal, there could still be nerve damage, so Lee Chan-hee decided to do a physical examination.

“Patient, where does it hurt the most right now?”

“My hand. My whole hand hurts.”

Lee Chan-hee carefully touched the patient’s hand. The patient didn’t say it hurt right away.

“Agh!”

Then suddenly, he raised his voice.

“Doctor, it hurts so much.”

The sound was so sudden that Lee Chan-hee was taken aback.

Usually, when you touch a painful area, the patient reacts immediately, like a sound coming from pressing a piano key. But not this time.

In other words, it was like the key was pressed but the sound came out late; the patient’s cry of pain was out of sync.

‘This isn’t right.’

No matter how he looked at it, none of the patient’s pain symptoms matched anatomically.

“Doctor, is it very bad?”

The guardian, who had gone out for a while, asked with worried eyes.

“Guardian, you must be very worried, but could you go to the accounting office for a moment? I’ll explain in detail when you come back.”

“Yes, I understand.”

As the guardian left, Lee Chan-hee switched hands and palpated again. But he was only changing the position of his hand, palpating the same muscles and nerve bundle areas.

“Patient, does it not hurt?”

“It hurts less than before.”

Lee Chan-hee was convinced at this point. The reasonable suspicion that kept popping up in his head was no longer a suspicion.

The patient was suffering from a condition that he had probably encountered once in his training. The patient’s diagnosis was ‘malingering’ [faking an illness].

Surprisingly, people sometimes came to the emergency room with feigned illnesses.

He didn’t know why the young man was doing this, but he decided to use a rather radical method.

“Patient?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure exactly what’s causing the pain in your hand right now. So, I think we need to anesthetize you and check your hand for abnormalities through surgery.”

“What? Surgery?”

The patient’s eyes widened at the word surgery.

“Yes, I don’t know the cause, but the pain is too severe.”

“No, doctor, it’s okay. Just admit me for a few days.”

“You just want to be admitted and don’t want surgery?”

“Yes, no surgery. I think the pain will go away soon.”

“How do you know the pain will go away?”

“Oh, that’s… I’ve had similar pain like this before.”

“You’ve had painful experiences before.”

“Yes. So, just give me a painkiller or an anesthetic shot.”

“Doctor, I went to the accounting office, but they said there’s nothing to do because the treatment isn’t finished yet.”

The guardian, who had left the emergency room, returned.

“Anyway, is my son okay?”

“He’s still complaining of pain, so we’re treating him.”

“Does it still hurt a lot?”

“Of course, it hurts!”

“Then, patient, this is an anesthetic. The shot won’t sting or hurt. You’re in so much pain, so I’ll inject this and touch it. Is that okay?”

“Yes, doctor, that would be good.”

Lee Chan-hee grabbed the patient’s hand and injected a small amount of liquid into the painful area.

“Is it done?”

“Yes, the anesthesia is done, so it won’t hurt anymore.”

Lee Chan-hee palpated the area where the patient said it hurt, just like before. But this time, the patient’s reaction was completely different.

“How is it?”

“Oh! Wow. Doctor, you’re amazing. I got a shot and it really doesn’t hurt.”

“It doesn’t hurt?”

“No. Not at all. It doesn’t hurt at all.”

“That’s a relief. Thank you, doctor. But what’s my son’s diagnosis?”

“The diagnosis is malingering. The patient is perfectly normal.”

“Excuse me!? Malingering?”

“No, it’s not. It’s not malingering!”

At the word ‘malingering,’ the guardian was greatly surprised, and the patient waved his hands and denied it.

“I palpated the same area when the guardian was here and when he wasn’t, but the pain response was different. And the injection I just gave was not an anesthetic but saline [a simple salt water solution]. If the patient’s pain was real, he would still be complaining of the same pain. The patient is exactly normal.”

“Ha…”

When Lee Chan-hee finished speaking, the patient’s face turned red.

“Oh my! You rascal!”

The guardian scolded his son with a pathetic expression.

“When are you going to become a real person? Huh! I’m sorry to your mother who ate seaweed soup [a traditional Korean dish eaten by women after giving birth] after giving birth to you. Why are you living like this?”

“I told you I didn’t want to work at the factory. My father forced me to work…”

“You shut your mouth. Huh! As if you did something good. You should be ashamed of yourself!”

“Ah! Ah, Father. Let go of this.”

“I’m sorry for causing trouble to the doctors who are busy seeing patients because of my son. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

The guardian grabbed his son’s ear and headed to the accounting office.

“Father? It hurts.”

“You, shut up and follow me.”

The young man, who seemed to have just graduated from high school, seemed to have used a trick because he didn’t want to work at the factory.

If such a patient had come when the emergency room was busy, he would have been angry, but since it wasn’t that busy yet, he was able to laugh it off.

“It’s good if there’s no pain.”

Anyway, Lee Chan-hee was glad that the patient wasn’t really hurt.