Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 257

Five Vital Signs – Episode 257 (257/502)

257. Infection

Seeing Nattimi smiling brightly, the child’s father shared an unbelievable story.

‘What brings you here?’

Euijin asked through the interpreter.

‘Euijin, sister? I’m okay now.’

‘I’ve decided not to do it.’

‘Pardon? Not do it…’

‘The wedding, I mean. I’ve decided not to let my daughter get married, the wedding you tried so hard to stop.’

‘Are you, really?’

‘Yes. Really, sister.’

‘Oh my goodness! Sir, thank you so much.’

Standing in front of her real father, Euijin hugged the child and expressed her gratitude.

‘Did you come all this way just to tell me that?’

‘No. I came for a check-up.’

The child’s father said he had come to get Nattimi checked. He felt he had been neglecting her and wanted to make sure she wasn’t in any pain.

Fortunately, apart from the circumcision issue, Nattimi was generally healthy. Euijin was truly grateful for the child’s health.

‘Excuse me, sir?’

As Nattimi and her father headed home after the check-up, Euijin thanked him once again.

‘With your decision, Nattimi will be able to live a happier life from now on.’

‘Yes. She will live happily from tomorrow.’

It didn’t take long for Euijin to understand what the child’s father meant by saying she would be happy from tomorrow.

The next day, Euijin finished her rounds and visited Nattimi’s house with a light heart. But something felt off.

She looked around the house, which was visible at a glance, and searched the neighborhood, but the child was nowhere to be found.

The feeling grew increasingly strange.

Nattimi’s mother was in a corner, looking around nervously with a face as gloomy as the overcast sky.

‘What happened? Why isn’t Nattimi here?’

When she asked through the interpreter, the woman responded with a shocking revelation.

‘This morning, my daughter… my daughter got married.’

‘That can’t be. Her father clearly said yesterday that he wouldn’t let her get married, and so did Nattimi. How could this…’

‘Her husband lied. I’m so sorry, teacher.’

‘How could you do this? How! She’s just a ten-year-old child.’

The reason Nattimi’s father lied about not going through with the wedding was because the man she was to marry had asked him to confirm that there was nothing wrong with her body.

And even more shockingly, the wedding, which was originally scheduled for two months later, was rushed because Nattimi had started her period.

In this country, daughters were not married off because they had fallen in love or had reached marriageable age.

It was simply because the start of menstruation was a reason for marriage. Since she was now capable of becoming pregnant, they forced the child into marriage.

This was the case for most families living here.

‘Madam! This isn’t right. You can’t just let Nattimi go like this.’

Euijin raised her voice, pleading and begging.

Seeing Euijin, Nattimi’s mother took off her clothes and showed her back.

There was a large scar on her small back.

Without needing an explanation, Euijin knew immediately who had done it.

‘Teacher, you saw my back, right? My husband did that. I got married at a young age too. I wanted to run away, and I resented my parents. But after living a hard life day after day, worrying about finding water to drink today became a bigger concern than resentment.’

Tearfully, she revealed her innermost thoughts, which she had never told anyone before.

‘Once we had enough food for the family, I started worrying about my children’s future, especially my daughters. I was afraid they might end up walking the same path as me.

So, I asked my husband… no, I begged him. I told him I would do better in the future, so please don’t force our daughters into early marriages. My husband said he understood, and I believed him.’

But her husband did not grant her earnest request.

The goats and cows he could receive through the marriage were far more important than his young daughter’s well-being.

For the people here, this kind of life, this kind of culture, was normal.

‘My husband secretly prepared for the wedding, even deceiving me. I felt like my insides were turning upside down. But teacher, are you curious why I put up with it?’

‘……Yes. I just thought you accepted it because it’s the culture here and you couldn’t do anything about it.’

‘No. I’m enduring it for Nattimi’s sake. Teacher, I’m also a mother. I can endure getting hurt and feeling pain, but I don’t want my children to suffer. My husband said that if I told you, he wouldn’t leave Nattimi alone.’

‘……!’

‘It sounds like a joke, right? This isn’t the same as where you lived. This isn’t a country where people listen and help when you speak up. If I do something wrong, my daughter could really die.’

Hearing those words, Euijin couldn’t say anything.

The next day, she quietly asked around about Nattimi, but no one knew or was willing to talk.

‘Teacher, please stop. You might end up harming the child.’

And more than anything, she was afraid that the child’s father would find out and the child would get hurt.

Furthermore, the man who had taken Nattimi didn’t like Euijin’s presence either.

‘I understand your feelings, but if you’re thinking about the child, please forget about it.’

In the end, Euijin focused on her daily life, hoping and praying that the married child would be healthy and well.

She saw more patients than before, extended her consultation hours, and volunteered to visit sick people in remote areas.

Occasionally, she wondered if Nattimi was doing well, but she tried to forget about her.

With the memory of the child locked deep in her heart, it was gradually fading away when one day…

After finishing her rounds with the delivery of twins, having dinner with her colleagues, she ended her day.

Knock- Knock-

It was the weekend, and she was trying to sleep in, but she heard someone banging on the door like crazy.

‘Dr. Jung?’

It happened from time to time, so she thought it was an emergency patient. Rubbing her eyes, she consciously got up and opened the door.

‘What’s wrong? Emergency patient…’

But beyond her fellow doctor, she saw Nattimi’s mother crying with her face covered in tears.

‘……!’

The moment she saw her, she was speechless and instinctively knew that something bad had happened to the child.

She could tell just by looking at her.

It was as if she was crying out with her whole body to save her daughter.

Still in her pajamas, Euijin ran into the operating room. And the moment she saw Nattimi lying on the operating table, she couldn’t help but be shocked.

‘The child’s belly… was full-term [meaning she was carrying a baby at the end of her pregnancy].’

Her pulse raced at the shocking sight.

Teenage pregnancy can lead to high-risk pregnancies and is bad for health.

Putting aside her troubled mind for the moment, she rushed into the delivery. But there was a serious problem.

Nattimi was infected with a disease from her husband, and the condition of the child, as well as the fetus, could not be guaranteed.

‘Teacher, please save at least my daughter.’

‘I can’t give up on the child.’

Outside, there was the mother begging to save at least her daughter, and the old husband making ridiculous demands to save the child rather than his young wife.

She wanted to go out there and sew up that mouth right away.

‘Nattimi, hang in there… please! Just a little bit…’

Euijin and all the medical staff made every effort to save the young life.

They focused on the child with all their might, struggling to save her.

But contrary to everyone’s wishes, Nattimi’s condition was much more serious, and the child eventually passed away.

The baby in her womb was already dead.

The cause of death was excessive bleeding and infection. And what shocked Euijin even more was that Nattimi’s organs were severely damaged.

It felt like her blood was running backwards.

She was so angry that she couldn’t express her feelings in words.

If this were Korea, there might have been a chance to save her. She felt sorry for the poor local situation.

‘How could this… how! This can’t be happening.’

‘Dr. Jung? What’s wrong?’

‘Everyone, quickly grab Dr. Jung!’

In a moment of overwhelming anger, Euijin, with her eyes glazed over, grabbed a scalpel and rushed at the bad guy standing outside the operating room, but was stopped by her colleagues.

Euijin was out of her mind. No one on the medical staff who saw the child’s condition could be in their right mind.

The old husband, that bastard, left without any change in expression, even after hearing that his young wife had died.

Euijin was held back by her colleagues and had to watch him leave. She felt like her heart was being torn to shreds.

She just prayed and prayed that they wouldn’t let that devil go.

‘Oh, my daughter, oh, Natti, my daughter… my poor daughter.’

The husband, who had been comforting Nattimi’s wailing mother, also shed tears of regret, but it was already too late.

Returning to the operating room, Euijin finally noticed the child’s emaciated and miserable appearance.

‘Sob!’

Seeing that, she collapsed on the blood-soaked operating room floor and sobbed.

She was just a child.

A single, unfurled flower that had not yet bloomed was broken before it could even bud.

It was as if it was all her fault.

‘If I had taken Nattimi to a safe place back then, if I had strongly dissuaded her parents… I couldn’t shake the thought that this might not have happened for a while.’

‘It’s not your fault.’

‘Yes, I know. But it took me a long time to accept that.’

After that incident, Euijin could no longer practice obstetrics and gynecology.

Every time she met pregnant women, the image of the child that day came to her mind vividly.

This incident became a kind of trauma for Euijin.

‘It’s a sad and unfortunate reality. I hope the evil practice of child marriage disappears quickly.’

‘Yes, me too.’

After the incident, Euijin, who could not see patients, investigated circumcision and child marriage in the area. And she delivered the researched report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to inform the international community.

Even if it was like throwing an egg at a rock [a futile effort], she wanted to do something.

Fortunately, the relevant UN departments were also appealing to the international community and trying to provide assistance every year in connection with the matter.

Euijin still consistently donates every year for the victims of circumcision and child marriage.

‘I stayed in the United States for about a month, helping the staff and coming back to start studying anesthesiology.’

‘I didn’t know you had such a story. It must have been hard for you alone.’

Taekyung patted Euijin on the shoulder, comforting her.

‘I’m okay now. To be honest… um… the day you first came to our hospital, senior, the moment I saw you, I thought.’

‘What did you think?’

‘I wondered if Nattimi would have lived if you, not me, had been in that operating room back then.’

‘What are you talking about? Euijin, that’s absolutely not true. And I’m not an obstetrician or gynecologist.’

‘I know. I think it’s just because of the regret in my heart.’

‘I know. Every doctor has patients who touch their hearts and remain in their memories. I think I know what kind of patient that child was to you.’

‘Yes, Nattimi seems a bit special.’

‘But in the end, that bad guy didn’t get punished? I guess it’s not easy to punish him given the sentiments of that country?’

‘That’s the reality. But it’s amazing, isn’t it? You can’t live with sin. That bad guy died.’

‘He died?’

‘Yes.’

Some time after Nattimi became a star in the sky [passed away], she heard from the interpreter who was helping with the medical service that the man had died.

She had prayed that he would be punished, even if he couldn’t be judged or punished by the law in the local culture, but she didn’t know he would really die.

‘He drank milk and died suddenly.’

‘That’s a real punishment.’

‘I thought so too, but there was someone who gave the punishment.’

‘Who is it?’

‘Nattimi’s father.’

Before Euijin left the country, she visited Nattimi’s grave and then found her family with the interpreter. But when she greeted them, the child’s father said something.

‘If you harm my body or my family, I will repay you in the same way.’

‘Pardon?’

‘It’s an old saying that has been passed down in our village. This is a poisonous plant, and even if you extract the juice and drink just one drop, even a cow will collapse on the spot.’

The moment she heard those words, Euijin knew right away that the father had taken revenge for Nattimi.

He said that his daughter had been appearing in his dreams every day since the day she became a star in the sky, not resenting him, but smiling brightly.

Nattimi’s father said that he felt even more sorry and heartbroken for that appearance, and he couldn’t forgive himself.

Looking at his haggard face and eyes full of regret, she knew that his words were not a lie.

‘I’m sorry to you too, teacher. If I had listened to you back then, my daughter wouldn’t have died…’

Looking at the child’s father, who seemed sincere for the first time, Euijin had nothing to say to him.

All she could think about was the child she missed and wanted to see.

‘I heard that you worked hard to save my daughter that day. Thank you so much.’

‘Excuse me, sir?’

Looking at Nattimi’s father, who was bowing his head and turning away, Euijin wanted to muster her courage one last time.

She had to say it because it was a word that she felt she would never be able to say if she didn’t say it now.

‘Wait a minute!’