Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 147

147. Academic Conference Presentation

“You’re still half-asleep. Go wash your face and head out to the yard.”

“Why the yard all of a sudden?”

“Someone’s looking for Dr. Lee.”

“Looking for me?”

“Yeah. You’ll see when you get there, so hurry up and go.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Upon hearing Tae-kyung’s words, Lee Chan-hee quickly left the medical office.

“Who could it be?”

Lee Chan-hee, having come out to the yard in front of the hospital’s main gate, looked around.

“No one’s here?”

However, only inpatients and their family members who had come out for some fresh air were visible; the person who was supposedly looking for him was nowhere to be seen.

“Maybe he misheard who they were looking for? Let’s go get some Thai food.”

“Dr. Lee?”

As Lee Chan-hee was about to turn around and go back inside the hospital after looking around a few times, Jang Deuk-chil called out to him.

“Agent Jang, is there someone here looking for me?”

“Yes, there is. He was waiting here until a little while ago, but where did he go?”

“Who is it?”

“Oh! There he comes. Over here!”

Jang Deuk-chil waved his hand at a man and woman in their 30s who were entering through the hospital’s main gate and shouted.

“This is Dr. Lee Chan-hee.”

“Dr. Lee, what are you standing around for? Go quickly.”

“Ah, yes.”

Lee Chan-hee approached the man and woman that Jang Deuk-chil had pointed out.

“Are you Dr. Lee Chan-hee?”

The woman, who had her hair tied up tightly and swollen eyes, spoke first.

“Yes, I am Lee Chan-hee. Excuse me, but who are you?”

“I’m the daughter of Kim Soo-jung, the patient you treated at the nursing hospital yesterday. This is my husband.”

“Hello.”

The people who had come to find Lee Chan-hee were the daughter and son-in-law of the patient he had helped with the transfer issue the day before.

“I really don’t know how to express my gratitude…”

The woman, still with swollen eyes, suddenly teared up and couldn’t continue speaking easily. The man next to her wrapped his arm around his wife’s shoulders and comforted her.

“We rushed down yesterday after hearing about my mother-in-law and came back to Seoul a little while ago. My wife and I came to pack our things to stay by her side, but we thought it was only right to stop by and say hello before leaving.”

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that. Is your mother doing better?”

“Yes, thanks to you, she started rehabilitation today. The person who came as her guardian yesterday was her aunt. She said she was too flustered to properly thank you and asked me to be sure to express her gratitude to you.”

“My mother-in-law has been struggling emotionally since my father-in-law passed away last year. Then she had a traffic accident and entered a nursing hospital for rehabilitation. Yesterday’s incident really shocked our family. We heard that you worked very hard.”

“The professor who performed the procedure yesterday said it was fortunate that the medication was administered well in the early stages. He said if it had been any later, it would have been a really big problem. You saved my mom’s life. Thank you so much.”

The woman wiped away her tears and bowed her head 90 degrees, expressing her heartfelt gratitude.

To the woman, Lee Chan-hee was a savior who had saved her mother.

She felt endlessly grateful that he had prevented a situation where she might never have seen her mother again, no matter how many times she expressed it.

Lee Chan-hee, who was watching the couple, also felt a lump in his throat, and his eyes became moist as he saw how warmly they expressed their gratitude.

“Please accept this.”

The woman handed Lee Chan-hee a plain box that her husband was holding.

“No, you don’t have to give me something like this.”

“Please accept it. Please think of it as a token of our appreciation.”

“We run a small mill. My wife wanted to give her mother-in-law some rice cakes before going to see her, so we made them early this morning in a hurry.”

“I don’t know if they’ll taste good since we made them in such a rush.”

“Thank you so much.”

The box containing the rice cakes was still warm.

“Please share them with your colleagues. We’ll be going now.”

“Thank you, I’ll enjoy them. And I’ll pray for your mother’s speedy recovery. Please be careful on your way.”

Perhaps it was because of the box of rice cakes, but Lee Chan-hee’s chest gradually warmed, and tears streamed down his face without him even realizing it.

The chaotic time he had spent with the patient the day before felt fully compensated for by this moment.

“I didn’t even do anything…”

When he thought about it, it was something he had naturally done as a doctor, but it came back to him as such a great emotion, and the sense of pride was indescribable.

Wiping away his tears with the back of his hand, Lee Chan-hee took out his cell phone from his gown pocket and called Gu Dong-gyun.

“Hey, Dong-gyun.”

-Chan-hee, I was just about to call you.

“The daughter and her husband of that patient from yesterday just came by. Did you give them the hospital’s address?”

-Yeah. They said they really wanted to express their gratitude in person, so I told them. I was so embarrassed by how grateful they were to me.

“It’s not a big deal, but I’m even more grateful. Dong-gyun, you worked hard yesterday too.”

-Hey, let’s be clear. You did all the hard work. And honestly, you were really cool yesterday.”

“What are you talking about? Let’s see each other soon. I’ll buy you a drink. I’m hanging up now.”

-Chan-hee!

Gu Dong-gyun urgently called out to Lee Chan-hee, who was about to hang up.

“What?”

-I’ve decided to redo my internship next year. I’m going to do another year as an intern and try to become a specialist.

“What! Is that for real?”

-Yeah. After experiencing yesterday’s events and seeing you, I realized that I’m really lacking as a doctor.

“It won’t be easy, are you sure you’ll be okay?”

-Even if it’s not easy and it hurts my pride, I’m going to grit my teeth and endure it.

“Are you confident you won’t regret it?”

-Even if I regret it later, I’m going to try to face it head-on and go all the way.

“You’ve thought it through well. Tell me if there’s anything I can help you with.”

-Okay.

“Oh, right! And you can’t forget about the blind date.”

-Ah, you little punk, you don’t forget anything. I’ll set it up. Take care.”

“You too.”

Lee Chan-hee felt the most proud he had felt in the past few days as he entered the hospital.

“Oh my, Dr. Lee, what’s that?”

“These are rice cakes. The patient’s family gave them to me.”

“Really? How grateful.”

“They said they made them themselves.”

The box was filled with individually wrapped honey rice cakes.

“Oh my gosh, look how warm they still are.”

“Dr. Lee. I’ll enjoy them.”

“Me too.”

“Doctor, have some rice cakes.”

Lee Chan-hee, who was handing out rice cakes to the hospital staff, held up a rice cake to Tae-kyung, who came out of the examination room.

“What’s with the rice cakes?”

“The family of the stroke patient from yesterday gave them to me.”

“Is the patient okay?”

“Fortunately, they received the procedure in time and started rehabilitation.”

“That’s good. But Dr. Lee, it looks like you’ve been crying?”

“Oh my, Dr. Lee, have you been crying?”

At Tae-kyung’s words, nurse Lim Jung-sook stared intently at Lee Chan-hee’s face.

“I guess so. Looking at your eyes, you’ve been crying.”

“No, who’s been crying? The weather is so nice that I yawned and teared up a little. Team leader, please share these with everyone.”

“Dr. Lee, stay right there.”

As Lee Chan-hee handed the box of rice cakes to team leader Choi and started to walk away, Tae-kyung followed him and called out.

“Isn’t there something you’ve forgotten?”

“Huh? What is it?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know because it won’t work.”

“Well, actually…”

“Don’t tell me you haven’t done it?”

Tae-kyung was asking about the Thai practice [likely refers to a specific exercise or routine].

“I did do it, sir. But I couldn’t complete all 100. I only did 80. If you could give me a little more time, I’ll definitely finish it by this afternoon…”

“Really? Then complete 70 by this afternoon. Got it?”

“Huh? Sir, that’s not fair, is it? Why are you suddenly adding 50 more?”

“We agreed to add 50 if you couldn’t do it.”

“50 is a bit much, isn’t it?”

“Be quiet and go see patients without following me.”

“I saved a patient yesterday, can’t you reduce it a little? Please grant this earnest request from your junior.”

“Yeah. No.”

“It’s unfair. Where is there a law like this?”

“If it’s unfair, Dr. Lee, you become the hospital director.”

That day, Lee Chan-hee pleaded with Tae-kyung to reduce the Thai practice every time he saw him, but Tae-kyung didn’t even bat an eye.

In the end, Lee Chan-hee was able to grudgingly complete and submit 70 by the afternoon.

* * *

A few days later-

“I thought you were going on a blind date, not to an academic conference.”

Lee Chan-hee gave Tae-kyung two thumbs up as he saw him dressed in a suit for the first time in a while to go to the conference presentation.

“How is it? Does it look okay?”

“I hate to admit it, but you look kind of cool.”

“Dr. Lee, would you like to join me on my next paper?”

“Huh? I didn’t hear you correctly.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t hear correctly. Lee Chan-hee was pretending not to hear on purpose. He already had a lot of work to do, and if he wrote a paper on top of that, it would only increase the amount of miscellaneous work.

“I guess so. It would be too much to do a paper on top of everything else right now.”

Tae-kyung knew that too, so he didn’t put pressure on Lee Chan-hee or Choi Mona to write papers.

“But sir, you’re busy seeing patients, when did you even do research?”

“No matter how busy I am, I can do it if I set my mind to it. And I did it as a hobby.”

“A paper as a hobby. I don’t think I’ll ever have such a hobby, even if I die and come back to life.”

It might sound like nonsense, but Tae-kyung was serious. Since he didn’t have any other hobbies, he naturally started to think about medical things, and that led him to write papers.

“But what’s the topic?”

“It’s about the treatment methods and prognosis according to the type of IPMN (intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm) [a type of pancreatic cyst]. Are you interested? How interested are you?”

“I don’t think I’ll even be able to understand it, let alone be interested.”

“I’ll tell you in detail later.”

“No, I’ll just accept your offer. Have a good trip.”

“Sir, when will you be back?”

nurse Lim Jung-sook said after Lee Chan-hee’s greeting.

“I’ll be back after the presentation. Call me if there are any urgent patients.”

“Yes, you’re dressed nicely today, so please give a great presentation.”

“I’ll be back.”

* * *

Tae-kyung arrived at a famous hotel with a large glass building where the conference was being held.

“The interior is very grand.”

The conference hall on the 14th floor, where famous celebrities often held press conferences, was the venue for today’s presentation.

“Just do as you’ve prepared.”

The conference is a place to share the results of one’s research and at the same time, a place where some power struggles take place.

Most doctors are not interested in these power struggles, but doctors who lead the conference at the forefront consider them very important.

Of course, Tae-kyung had no interest in such things. He purely researched the fields he was curious about. And the conference also requested a presentation because they judged Tae-kyung’s topic to be important, without any other reason.

As the presentation time approached, doctors began to fill the seats one by one, and soon Tae-kyung’s presentation began.

“Hello. I am Kim Tae-kyung, the director of our hospital.”

In the dark interior, only Tae-kyung, the presenter, was brightly lit by the spotlight.

“In surgical societies in Asia, including myself, there has been a movement to supplement the treatment guidelines for IPMN, which were established mainly in the United States, since the 1990s.”

Tae-kyung didn’t tremble at all. He even seemed a little excited.

It felt like he was having a great time playing on the stage that had been set up for him. It wasn’t something he was forced to do, but a study he did as a hobby, so he approached the presentation with a lighter and more enjoyable mindset.

“The following is a list of major hospitals that I have researched along with the cases I have done until the beginning of this year.”

He finished the presentation he had prepared so well.

“I would like to invite questions or comments. Thank you.”

The conference moderator, who was sitting next to the stage where Tae-kyung was standing, came over and grabbed the microphone.

“Yes, thank you for Dr. Kim Tae-kyung’s excellent presentation. Thank you.”

After that, a question-and-answer session followed, and the conference presentation ended successfully. After all the long presentations were over, people moved to the banquet hall.

‘I hope there’s nothing wrong at the hospital?’

Tae-kyung checked his cell phone to see if there were any urgent patients at the hospital, but fortunately, there were no calls.

“Dr. Kim? I enjoyed your presentation.”

“Dr. Go is here too.”

After meeting and talking with people he knew, Tae-kyung moved away for a moment to answer the phone when it rang.

“Yes, this is Kim Tae-kyung.”

“Dr. Kim?”

As soon as he answered the phone, he heard the same voice from both his cell phone and behind his back at the same time.

“I enjoyed your wonderful presentation.”

Tae-kyung, who had taken the cell phone he was holding to his ear and pressed the end button, slowly turned around.

“It’s been a while, Dr. Go Gye-deuk.”

The person wearing an expensive suit and smiling thinly from the front was Go Gye-deuk.