Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 299

299. The Guardian’s Choice

The grandmother, looking determined, touched the screen of her phone, which seemed like it would keep ringing until she answered.

“Hello.”

-I’m sorry to call so late, but this is the hospital. Are you Kim Gil-ja, the grandmother?

“Yes, that’s me. I’m Kim Gil-ja.”

-Is Go Chae-ryang your granddaughter?

“…….”

Upon hearing the name ‘Go Chae-ryang’ over the phone, the grandmother paused for a moment.

-Hello? Can you hear me, ma’am? Do you know Go Chae-ryang?

“I know her. I know her. Is that why you’re calling?”

-Yes? Ah, yes. Your granddaughter is at our hospital, so we contacted you.

Kim Gil-ja was the only guardian of the woman lying in the hospital due to poisoning.

“Where is the hospital located?”

-I’ll send you the address and phone number in a text message.

“Okay.”

After hanging up, the grandmother hastily put on her clothes, opened the door to the main room, and checked that her husband was asleep.

“Where did I put the digestive medicine?”

Having barely eaten a few spoonfuls of her late dinner, the grandmother took some digestive medicine and stood there for a while.

“I thought no news was good news, but she couldn’t wait… Honestly!”

Muttering to herself, the grandmother gathered her wallet and belongings and left the house.

* * *

“Lee, Teacher?” [In Korean hospitals, it’s common to address doctors as “Teacher” as a sign of respect.]

Nurse Lim Jeong-suk called out to Lee Chan-hee, who was putting down the phone at the station and tilting his head.

“Did you get in touch with the guardian?”

“…….”

“Lee, Teacher? Did you contact the guardian?”

“Ah, yes. I did.”

“They answered the phone?”

“They didn’t answer the phone earlier, but this time they answered right away.”

Lee Chan-hee desperately wanted to contact the guardian of the patient lying in the bed.

He didn’t want to leave that patient, who was spending the last moments of her life, alone.

He remembered something a colleague had said during his residency.

It was about a patient who had been hospitalized for a long time and was receiving life-sustaining treatment, but the patient’s treatment was no longer effective.

The professor was the one giving the actual orders, so the colleague wanted to give the patient even a small amount of help and told the patient to say anything they needed.

‘Patient, if there’s anything you need or want, please tell me.’

‘Then, if it’s not too much to ask, can I ask you for a favor?’

‘Of course. Tell me.’

‘Please contact my family.’

‘Family…?’

‘Yes, I miss them.’

The patient, who had been living alone since divorcing his wife a long time ago, said he missed his family, and the colleague went to great lengths to contact them.

And the day before the patient passed away, he sincerely thanked the colleague.

‘Thanks to you, doctor, I was able to see my family before I died. Strangely, I don’t regret anything else, but I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to see my family’s faces. Thank you so much.’

Lee Chan-hee kept thinking about what that patient had said to his colleague back then, and that’s why he tried so hard to contact Go Chae-ryang’s family.

“I was worried about what to do if I couldn’t get in touch with the guardian, but I’m glad I did.”

“It’s a relief, but… Su, Teacher? I think something’s a little strange.”

“Strange? What is?”

“Usually, when a family member is in the hospital, they’re shocked, right?”

“That’s right. You can’t help but be shocked when a family member is in the hospital.”

“That’s what I mean. But the grandmother’s reaction was… how should I put it… indifferent, or calm?”

There’s usually a saying that a child is so lovely that you wouldn’t even want to put them in your eyes, and grandchildren are even more lovely and precious than that. But the grandmother, who was the patient’s guardian, didn’t seem to feel that way at all.

“Anyway, something’s strange.”

“Maybe the grandmother is just shocked. Sometimes when I contact guardians, some people are just stunned. And if they’re older, they might be even more so.”

“Maybe…”

“That’s right. But Lee, Teacher, are you going to be okay?”

Nurse Lim Jeong-suk asked with a worried tone. Lee Chan-hee, who had seen the young woman who had poisoned herself, seemed a little different from usual, so she wondered if he would be able to convey the information well to the guardian.

“I don’t feel good, but I’m okay. This is our job, and we have to tell the guardian the truth.”

A little later-

Kim Gil-ja, who had been contacted by Lee Chan-hee, arrived at the hospital sooner than expected.

“I came after receiving a call that my granddaughter is here. Her name is Go Chae-ryang, and she’s 19 years old.”

“That’s me. I’m the one who contacted you.”

The grandmother, with her striking white hair, small frame, and sharp features, entered the emergency room with hurried steps, but she didn’t cry or panic.

Her expression and gait suggested that her life had been full of twists and turns.

“You must have been surprised to receive a call from the hospital so suddenly.”

“Anyway, what happened?”

“The motel owner found your granddaughter collapsed in the motel where she was staying and brought her to the hospital. She ingested a pesticide called Gramoxone, which is very harmful to the body. As a result, your granddaughter’s condition is very poor.”

Lee Chan-hee spoke as carefully as possible, watching the grandmother’s emotions.

He told her the truth without adding or subtracting anything.

He was careful with his word choice, afraid that the grandmother would be shocked and collapse.

“So, I think you should prepare yourself. It will be difficult for her to make it through tonight or tomorrow morning.”

“I see.”

Upon hearing those words, the grandmother slightly lowered her head, which had been held up straight.

But there were no other actions. She didn’t shed tears or stomp her feet.

The feeling Lee Chan-hee had was right. She was surprisingly calm, composed, and didn’t seem to lose her composure.

In most cases like this, the guardians’ reactions were mostly what anyone could expect.

‘What? What did you just say? Are you saying my [child/loved one] is going to die?’

‘That can’t be. That can’t be true. Something must be wrong.’

‘Die? Who’s dying? Huh? Who’s dying! Are you even a doctor?’

‘Ha! How could this happen… How could this unbelievable thing happen? I’m going to die. I’m going to die….’

People who get angry, people who plead, people who can’t believe it, people who burst into uncontrollable tears, people who faint from shock.

It was natural for most families to react like this.

But the reaction of this grandmother, who was the only guardian and family member, was something Lee Chan-hee had never experienced in his medical career, so he was a little taken aback.

‘Well, she must be shocked.’

As Nurse Lim Jeong-suk had said earlier, he thought that the grandmother was old and her granddaughter’s condition was so bad that she was very shocked.

But then he heard the grandmother’s shocking words.

“Poor thing, unlucky thing. She was trying to die like that, and she finally went….”

Upon hearing those words, Lee Chan-hee doubted his ears for a moment. And the medical staff around him couldn’t help but be quite surprised, doubting their own ears as well.

“……!”

There were still things to tell the guardian, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak. At that moment, Tae-kyung, who had come from the intensive care unit, approached.

“Lee, Teacher, I’ll take over. You’ve done a good job.”

While comforting Lee Chan-hee, who was making a surprised face with his mouth open, Tae-kyung faced the grandmother.

“Hello. I’m Kim Tae-kyung, the director of this hospital.”

“Ah, yes. You’re working hard.”

“I’m sure you’re very surprised, but the patient’s condition is…”

“That’s enough. Don’t say it.”

The grandmother cut off Tae-kyung’s words as if refusing to listen, as he was about to give a more detailed explanation.

“I’ve heard enough from that teacher just now. I don’t need to hear any more.”

“Then, you need to decide whether to continue the patient’s treatment. What would you like to do?”

“What’s the point of treating a dying child? It’ll only make her and me suffer more.”

“Are you saying you don’t want to treat her?”

“Yes, I don’t want to treat her. Why is she in such a hurry to go before she’s even 20 years old….”

“If you need time to think, I can give you some time.”

“No. There’s no need for that.”

Tae-kyung asked the grandmother again, as he always did.

She had suddenly heard this shocking news, so her mind couldn’t be clear.

So, when families who had just heard about an accident had to make a decision, Tae-kyung always asked if they needed time to think.

But the grandmother’s answer remained unchanged.

The grandmother, who was the guardian, refused her granddaughter’s treatment. Tae-kyung was a little surprised by her firm answer.

Honestly, even if there was no hope and nothing could be done, he thought that the grandmother would say that she wanted treatment or something similar, because she was her granddaughter and family.

But that wasn’t the case.

Tae-kyung didn’t ask any further.

He decided to respect her choice because he knew the patient’s condition better than anyone else and because the grandmother was the patient’s guardian and family.

“Hey!”

Suddenly, Lee Chan-hee raised his voice and approached the grandmother.

“Guardian? You said the patient, no, your granddaughter is 19 years old? And you’re going to let her go like this?”

Even for medical staff who deal with death a lot, the most difficult deaths to witness were those of young patients.

That’s not to say that the deaths of adult patients were insignificant, but the younger the patient, the more cruel and heartbreaking the death that had befallen them.

The reason Lee Chan-hee raised his voice was that the patient was still a student who hadn’t even graduated from high school.

When the grandmother said the patient’s age as she entered the emergency room, Lee Chan-hee was quite surprised inside.

He thought she was a college student because her hair was dyed and she was wearing makeup, but she was still a student. When he thought about it, the patient’s youthful face looked like a young student.

“Are you okay with letting her go like this? How can you let your young granddaughter…”

“Lee Chan-hee!”

“Then I’ll ask the young teacher.”

While Tae-kyung was stopping Lee Chan-hee, who had raised his voice again, the grandmother quietly opened her mouth.

“If I say I’ll treat her, can you save her?”

“Yes?”

“I’m asking if you can medically save someone who drank Gramoxone [a highly toxic herbicide]. I’m a city person now, but I used to farm in the old days, so I know more about what kind of pesticide it is than you do.”

The grandmother seemed to already know how poisonous and terrible the pesticide her granddaughter had ingested was.

“You can’t save her either, can you? Then why are you getting angry at me for not treating her? Weren’t you just angry at my words that I wouldn’t treat her?”

That was true.

Lee Chan-hee knew very well that there was nothing medically that could be done.

He was just angry at the grandmother’s composure, which showed no trace of sadness.

“Lee Chan-hee, stop it.”

“Lee, Teacher, let’s go for a moment.”

When Tae-kyung gave a serious warning again, Choi Mona grabbed Lee Chan-hee’s hand and left the scene.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Can I see my granddaughter now?”

“Of course. You can stay by her side. Please stay by the patient’s side.”

“Thank you.”

The grandmother bowed slightly to Tae-kyung and slowly walked to the bed where her granddaughter was lying.