Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 38

38. Dr. Choi Mona, the Disease Ignoramus

“They’re talking about Dr. Choi.”

Choi Mona, who was about to flush the toilet and leave, paused when she heard her name.

“I heard she caused a stir as soon as she got to work?”

“Yes. I went to the emergency room earlier for some paperwork, and there was a bit of an argument with a guardian.”

“It’s not my place as an employee to say this, but you can’t work like that.”

“Dr. Choi?”

“Yeah. Doctors are service providers, too. Frankly, it’s one thing if it’s her own hospital, but it’s not okay for a salaried doctor to work like that while getting paid.”

“Well, Dr. Choi is a bit too businesslike.”

Choi Mona, who was inside the toilet stall, changed her mind about leaving.

‘Should I go out? No, I’ll just stay here.’

She didn’t care whether the employees gossiped or not. However, she knew that if she went outside pretending nothing was wrong, an even more tiring situation would arise.

Having had similar experiences before, Choi Mona decided to wait a little longer.

“What are you talking about? She always has a sullen expression, and her tone is so stiff. We get the most complaints about her.”

“I also found it difficult to talk to her.”

“Why is she doing things that could make our hospital close while getting paid? I don’t know what she’s thinking.”

Once the gossip started, it didn’t seem like it would end easily.

“That’s right! She ignored my greeting the other day.”

“By the way, did you know that Dr. Choi moved hospitals a lot before coming to our hospital?”

“Really? No wonder. How long has she been at our hospital?”

“About three months, I think.”

“Now, once they find something to pick on, she’ll have to move again.”

“Oh, come on, really?”

“You don’t know how the world works these days. If you work like that, you won’t be welcomed anywhere.”

Click-

As the employees left the restroom, Choi Mona came out and washed her hands.

-Dr. Choi Mona, Our Hospital

Choi Mona stared intently at the hospital logo and her name on the gown in the mirror and muttered to herself.

“Am I getting fired? Should I start looking for another hospital in advance?”

* * *

Tae-kyung, who had been going around the operating room, emergency room, examination room, and wards, finally sat down at his desk at dawn.

-October x, 2021

-The ward is the same as yesterday.

-No change in smell.

-Hemorrhoids, stage 2.

-Appendicitis, stage 3 smell in pregnant women.

-The inflammation was severe, so the smell was strong.

-There is a difference in smell depending on the stage of progression of all diseases.

-Even at the same stage, the smell can be close to the patient or spread in the air and be smelled from a distance.”

As always, there was no smell stronger than stage 4 formalin [a solution of formaldehyde in water, used as a disinfectant or to preserve biological specimens].

“Well, cardiac arrest was also stage 4. Up to the golden time, it’s stage 4…”

Tae-kyung meticulously recorded the fifth vital signs of all patients he had seen today, starting with the patients he had treated, in a detailed file.

“Phew, finally done.”

The sound of the keyboard, which had been ringing for a long time, stopped. After sending the hospital news to Kim Cheol-gi via email, his gaze shifted from the monitor to the complaint cards.

-Patients go to heaven and hell with a single word from a doctor. Dr. Choi Mona seems to lack the qualifications to be a doctor.

The patient’s last sentence lingered in his mind.

Working at a hospital, your name can appear on a complaint card once. But this wasn’t the first time for Choi Mona.

‘There was at least one or two opinions about Dr. Choi Mona every week. It’s a bit much to say, but she was a regular on the complaint cards.’

According to Nurse Im Jeong-suk earlier, Choi Mona was a regular on the complaint cards.

Tae-kyung is currently the head of our hospital.

Taking good care of patients is a given, and leading hospital staff well is also the job of the head.

Moreover, he was naturally concerned about a junior colleague he had to work with directly.

“Lee Chan-hee, I did some basic construction on that guy, but now Choi Mona is causing trouble.”

While doing his rounds today, Tae-kyung carefully observed Choi Mona.

“Her skills are okay.”

Technical skills can be learned and experienced in the future to grow into a good doctor, but there was another problem.

“Zero empathy. Zero communication.”

She doesn’t understand the patient and doesn’t empathize with the pain the patient feels at all. As a result, her stiff tone is more pronounced, and she often clashes with patients or guardians.

“That’s right! There was that?”

Tae-kyung, who was thinking hard, remembered the staff information that Kim Cheol-gi had left behind and quickly took out the external hard drive.

-Lee Chan-hee is a repairman. Choi Mona is a disease ignoramus.

“I know what a repairman is now, but what is a disease ignoramus?”

Knock knock-

“Doctor? Are you here?”

“Yes, come in.”

While he was thinking hard, Nurse Im Jeong-suk came to the examination room.

“Patient Lee Soon-hak in room 205?”

“Looking for PCA [patient-controlled analgesia, a device that allows patients to self-administer pain medication intravenously] ?”

“Yes, he said he didn’t need it before the surgery because it would cost money, but I guess it’s hard now that the anesthesia has worn off.”

“It’s hard. He endured hemorrhoids for 10 years and had surgery, so it will hurt. I’ll call Dr. Jung.”

“Aren’t you tired, doctor?”

“Huh?”

Usually, medical staff take naps and rest as skillfully as possible whenever they have time. But not Tae-kyung.

Somehow, no one has ever seen him rest. He’s practically a fixture at the hospital.

“Take naps whenever you have time. You’ll hurt yourself if you keep doing that.”

Nurse Im Jeong-suk said worriedly, as if an older sister was talking to her younger brother.

“I’m healthy. And I wasn’t working just now, I was solving a quiz.”

“A quiz?”

“I’m trying to solve the quiz that Director Kim Cheol-gi gave me about the disease ignoramus, but I can’t get a good grasp of it.”

“Disease ignoramus? Are you talking about Dr. Choi?”

“That’s right. How did you know?”

“I gave her that nickname.”

“You did?”

“Yes. Director Kim Cheol-gi was very worried after seeing Dr. Choi treat patients.”

Nurse Im Jeong-suk said that Director Kim Cheol-gi was worried about Choi Mona, who couldn’t empathize with the patient’s pain.

So, she said that these days, they call such people ‘zero empathy,’ but since we are a hospital, she called her a ‘disease ignoramus.’

“I just said it in passing, but I didn’t know he would write it down like that.”

“A disease ignoramus because she doesn’t empathize with the disease. That’s a really fitting nickname.”

“Dr. Choi moved around to several hospitals before coming to our hospital.”

Tae-kyung also knew this because he had seen her personnel records a little while ago. Choi Mona transferred hospitals almost every three months.

He felt like he knew exactly why without asking her.

“Actually, there was some talk about letting Dr. Choi go right before you came to the hospital, doctor. I thought you should know.”

“The team leader told me that while we were eating dinner. He asked if we were going to keep Dr. Choi.”

Currently, the hospital was just starting to see an increase in patients.

The team leader said that in this situation, it was not right to keep an employee who continued to receive complaints.

That opinion is not wrong.

Hospitals need to make a profit from doctors.

“Are you worried?”

“Very much so.”

“Actually, I feel like the director will do something about it.”

“Like what?”

“Like with Dr. Lee, I feel like there will be some way this time, too.”

“I don’t know…”

Choi Mona’s case was a little different from Lee Chan-hee’s.

He couldn’t ignore the past personnel records or the continued complaints.

After watching Choi Mona all day today, there were also problems. However, he didn’t feel like firing her.

Because he knows how that feels.

Tae-kyung, the head of the hospital, had a lot on his mind.

“But why did you suddenly call me director a little while ago?”

“To make you feel burdened, doctor.”

“Wow, I feel a surge of pressure.”

“Do you have any good ideas?”

“I’m going to watch her for a while.”

“Watch what?”

“Whether she has the will to change.”

“If she doesn’t show any will?”

“She doesn’t have the qualifications to be a doctor, so I have to let her go.”

Tae-kyung answered with a firm expression.

Nurse Im Jeong-suk flinched at the firm expression she saw for the first time.

“That’s right. I told the team leader to post a security guard recruitment notice.”

“Really? It’s good news, but it’s best not to have high expectations.”

“Why?”

Our hospital operates mainly on night care and emergency rooms.

Due to these characteristics, security guards are essential personnel. However, no matter how many recruitment notices were posted, no one ever got paid.

“Everyone runs away in less than a month because the day and night are switched and it’s harder than other hospitals.”

“Let’s wait and see.”

He hoped that a security guard would be found quickly, but right now, Tae-kyung’s mind was only on the disease ignoramus.

* * *

Click-

“Cola cola. Ah, so refreshing.”

Lee Chan-hee, who came into the medical office, nodded to Choi Mona and took out a zero cola from the refrigerator and drank it.

“Are you okay?”

“About what?”

“It was loud in the emergency room earlier…”

“Yeah. I’m okay.”

Choi Mona answered cynically and focused on eating gummy worms.

Her favorite gummy worms were worms, a habit she had of eating jelly without realizing it when she was stressed.

“You have a steel mentality. Hey, Dr. Choi?”

“What?”

“Are you fighting with the jelly? Why are you eating jelly so aggressively?”

Choi Mona was biting off the head of the gummy worm with her front teeth and chewing on the tail part.

“Don’t you know that you’re always aggressive when you eat?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is it because you’re from a military family? You don’t eat rice on a mess kit [a metal container used for serving food in the military] at home, do you?”

“That’s right. My family still serves food on mess kits.”

Lee Chan-hee quickly changed the subject when a serious answer came to a joke he threw to make her laugh.

“Oh, really? By the way, if you eat like that, you’ll get DM [diabetes mellitus]. Stop eating so much sweet stuff.”

“You’ll get DM if you eat sweets. Are you a doctor?”

“Listen to your only friend when he gives you advice.”

“I don’t want to hear it from a GS [General Surgery resident] who’s afraid of the operating room.”

“Hey, you… Choi Mona, you always have to say… I’m so happy I could die.”

Lee Chan-hee made a bitter expression at Choi Mona’s words that hit him with facts.

“Why is what I said wrong?”

“Yes. It’s wrong. I’m no longer the pathetic Lee Chan-hee from the past.”

“I didn’t say you were pathetic?”

“I’m doing special training these days.”

“Special training? What is it?”

“It’s a secret.”

Knock knock-

“You guys were here.”

Nurse Im Jeong-suk came to the medical office while the two were talking.

“Did a patient come?”

“Not that, but I’m going to order late-night snacks from Byeolnara Kantapia. Do you want some?”

“Oh, Kantapia is a famous restaurant. I’m in.”

“Dr. Choi?”

“Is it okay if I order a hot dog?”

“Of course. Dr. Choi is one hot dog.”

“Please two instead of one.”

“Okay. Two. That’s right! Mr. Kim was looking for you…”

“Me! Why is he looking for me?”

Lee Chan-hee was about to get up from his seat after pouring the remaining cola into his mouth when he heard that Tae-kyung was looking for him.

“No. Not Dr. Lee, Dr. Choi.”

“Me?”

“Yes, go see him.”

“Okay.”

Choi Mona left the medical office calmly with an expression that said the time had come.

“Why is Mr. Kim looking for Dr. Choi?”

As soon as Choi Mona left, Lee Chan-hee asked with eyes full of curiosity.

“I don’t know.”

“Oh, come on, how can there be anything that Dr. Su doesn’t know in our hospital?”

“How would I know Mr. Kim’s deep intentions? Well, I’m going to call Byeolnara Kantapia.”

* * *

She was a little surprised by the sudden call, but in fact, Choi Mona knew why Tae-kyung had called her.

“There’s still quite a bit left this month… Next week, or is it only until this week?”

It would be about a notice of dismissal or a warning.

‘Doctor. I’m sorry to say this, but the director told me not to come to work starting next week.’

‘You don’t fit in with our hospital.’

‘Is that all you can do for treatment?’

‘If a salaried doctor works like that while getting paid, you’ll be criticized wherever you go.’

‘Hey! Dr. Choi Mona, are you trying to ruin my hospital?’

Every time she took a step, the words she had heard from the hospitals she had worked at came to mind like a panorama.

“Still, the salary is good here… Should I go to the job search site again?”