Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 53

Fifth Vital Sign – Episode 53 (53/502)

53. Work Gloves and Socks

“I’m so… I’m so scared. Would you mind going with me? I want to see him… but I can’t bring myself to go alone.”

“Yes, I will go with you.”

The mother desperately wanted to see her son one last time but couldn’t find the strength. Understanding her feelings, Tae-kyung decided to accompany her.

“I’ll go to the morgue with the guardian. It won’t take long. Call me immediately if a patient comes in.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

Strangely, the usual stream of patients was unusually calm that day.

* * *

“This way.”

Tae-kyung led her down the cold, concrete stairs and opened the door to the morgue.

“Please, go in.”

The morgue was chilly, with a cool draft.

In stark contrast to the sounds of patients fighting to live—pleas for help, the ramblings of drunks, the cries of children—the floor below, separated by a single wall, was utterly silent.

“Our Seok-ho is in here…”

The mother still seemed unable to accept her son’s death.

“He’s in this compartment.”

The two stopped in front of a body storage compartment in the wall of the morgue.

Clack-

With the dull sound of stainless steel interlocking, the compartment door opened, revealing the deceased covered in a clean sheet.

“D-Doctor… is that really my son lying there?”

“Yes, it is.”

After confirming it was indeed her son, the mother slowly reached out and lowered the white sheet.

“Seok-ho, Mom… is here. I’m sorry I’m late.”

The mother greeted her son, who lay peacefully with his eyes closed, trying hard to hold back her tears.

“Doctor?”

“Yes, Guardian.”

“Can I pull this sheet down all the way?”

“I’ll help you.”

Tae-kyung approached the mother from the opposite side. Together, they slowly rolled the white sheet down completely, revealing the body.

“Haa!”

The mother gasped as she saw her son’s hands and feet.

“This… did you do this, Doctor?”

The mother asked, her voice barely a whisper, as she looked at the rough work gloves and clean socks covering her son’s hands and feet.

“Yes.”

“Ah… *sob*!”

At Tae-kyung’s simple answer, the deceased’s mother covered her mouth and began to weep.

“Ah… *sniff*! Sob!”

The mother sobbed for ten minutes, as if all the energy was draining from her body, before finally composing herself.

“As you might have guessed, our Seok-ho had CRPS [Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a chronic pain condition]. Even a gentle spring breeze felt like a knife to him.”

Tae-kyung had suspected as much. Earlier, the deceased’s father had kept repeating the same words as he looked at his son lying lifelessly.

‘His hands and feet must have been so painful… They must have been terribly cold.’

Watching the father massage his son’s hands and feet and blow warm air onto them, he guessed that his son had suffered from CRPS, a rare disease, during his life.

‘Team Leader, do you happen to have any gloves?’

‘I don’t have gloves, but there might be work gloves in the cleaning supplies storage.’

Tae-kyung took the work gloves from Team Leader Choi and put them on Lee Seok-ho’s hands and feet, along with his own spare pair of new socks that he carried with him.

Tae-kyung wanted to offer a small comfort to the guardian, who was heartbroken to see her deceased son’s bare hands and legs.

CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome) is a chronic pain condition where patients experience pain beyond imagination.

The cause of the disease is still unclear. Some people develop it after a minor injury, while others develop it after a bump or fall.

Patients experience extreme pain from even a light breeze or a small stimulus. Sometimes, the pain starts for no reason.

The pain is unimaginable; experts say that patients feel as if they are being cut with a knife.

Once the pain starts, they suffer agony that feels like death. Therefore, patients often seek fentanyl patches [a strong opioid pain medication] or go to the emergency room for narcotic painkillers.

“Our Seok-ho wasn’t just my son; he was a really good kid. But he was bullied in high school.”

The mother held her son’s gloved hand tightly and began to tell his story.

“One day, he came home after being beaten, and after that, he started to feel pain in the area where he was hit. He’s been living in pain ever since. The perpetrator and his parents came and apologized countless times, but I couldn’t forgive them. They ruined our Seok-ho’s life.”

The pain led to depression and panic disorder, and as the days went by, the depression became unspeakably severe.

“Seeing our son suffering from pain in his body and mind, my husband and I prayed that we could take his place.”

The mother smoothed her son’s long hair and continued.

“I couldn’t even touch his hands and feet easily, but now I can finally touch them without worry.”

The mother gently massaged and stroked her son’s hands and feet.

“I was just about to text my husband to bring gloves and socks… Thanks to you, Doctor, our Seok-ho won’t be in pain on his final journey.”

The deceased’s mother looked a little relieved. Perhaps she wanted to share the pain that had been building up in her heart with someone other than her family.

Understanding the guardian’s feelings, Tae-kyung listened quietly, knowing that sometimes just listening could be a comfort.

“Thank you so much, Doctor.”

“You’re welcome. And… just a moment.”

Rrrrrrrrrr

Just as Tae-kyung was about to say something, his cell phone rang.

“Yes, I understand. I’ll be right up.”

It was a call saying a patient had arrived. Tae-kyung hung up and quickly conveyed what he wanted to say.

“There’s something I need to give you. Your son was holding it tightly in his hand.”

Tae-kyung handed the mother the folded, well-dried note that the deceased had been holding and left the morgue.

“It was wet from the rain, so I dried it a bit. Guardian, I have to go up because of a patient. Our staff will come down to help you.”

“Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much, Doctor.”

After Tae-kyung left, the mother unfolded the note.

-I left a video on my phone.

After reading the note, the mother took her son’s phone out of her small bag and played the video.

Watching the video, the mother silently shed tears and hugged her son’s face.

-I was happy to be born as Mom and Dad’s son and to be with you. I have one last request: Please don’t be too sad or have a hard time. I’ll be fine and comfortable up there without any pain. If there is such a thing as the next life, I hope we can meet again as my parents and as a family. Then, I’ll be by Mom and Dad’s side for a long, long time without any pain.

I loved you, I love you, and I will love you forever.

* * *

“…Me? Hey! Choi Mona!”

“Ah. What!”

Lee Chan-hee and Choi Mona, whose academic conference schedule had ended earlier than expected, were staring intently at the restaurant sign that read ‘Usimjeong’.

“What are we going to do?”

“About what?”

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“I am.”

Originally, they were supposed to eat at the restaurant during lunch, as Tae-kyung had suggested. But they wanted to savor the delicious meat properly, so they had a packed lunch and decided to eat there later.

“Don’t you want to eat there?”

“I do. What about you, Lee Chan-hee?”

“I want to eat there too.”

But there was a slight problem: the food was more expensive than they thought.

They had a meager lunch and were hungry, but they couldn’t bring themselves to go into a restaurant that cost 100,000 won [approximately $75 USD] per person.

“But Choi, if we eat here, won’t we feel too sorry for Teacher Kim?”

“I guess so? If it’s 100,000 won per person, it’s 200,000 won for the two of us… that’s a bit much.”

“That’s what I mean. Well, it’s a shame, but what can we do? Let’s just pretend we ate.”

“We can’t pretend we ate something we didn’t eat. We just didn’t eat it.”

“Anyway, you never let anything go, Choi Mona. Okay, if we go down a little further, there’s a chicken rib restaurant with good value for money. How about there?”

“Well, that’s fine. But who’s paying?”

“Who’s paying? Teacher’s card is paying. He gave us the card to buy food, so it’s a bit much to not eat anything.”

“Okay. I understand.”

“Still, we got a good whiff of the Korean beef.”

With that, they turned their backs on the meat restaurant with regret.

“Oh my, how can meat taste so good?”

“See! I told you I was right? I’m crazy about eating, so I’ve been to every restaurant in the country, but this place is by far the best for beef.”

A group of people were finishing their meal and leaving.

“That’s right. You’re right. The meat melts as soon as it touches your tongue.”

“That’s not all. And what about the juice and flavor that fill your mouth?”

“Anyway, I had the best Korean beef in my life today thanks to CEO Kim. Thank you.”

The two people who had been listening intently said at the same time, without either of them saying anything first.

“We.”

“Just.”

In a slightly embarrassing situation, Lee Chan-hee made a tempting offer.

“Choi, should we just taste it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Look over there. They have a lunch special until 5 o’clock. Let’s order one beef tartare bibimbap [Korean mixed rice with beef] and one serving of meat and share it. How about that?”

“Deal. Let’s go in.”

* * *

In the afternoon, Tae-kyung was making his rounds, checking on the patients in the ward.

“Are you feeling a little better?”

“I feel great. I feel like I’m getting better just by seeing you, Doctor.”

“It’s not just a feeling; you’re really getting better.”

“It’s all thanks to you doctors taking care of me. I’m terrible at judging people, but I chose the hospital well. Haha!”

Listening to the hearty laughter of a patient who was doing well, Tae-kyung finished his rounds.

It wasn’t easy to carefully check on all the patients, but Tae-kyung enjoyed making rounds.

‘Patient 310 has gone down from formalin to excrement today.’

That was because of the fifth vital sign. Every time the patients got better, the stage of the smell went down, and that was a good indicator.

“Doctor?”

Nurse Im Jeong-suk called Tae-kyung, who had come down from the ward. But she looked a little strange.

“Can I talk to you for a second?”

She looked like an angry bull about to charge. It wasn’t the usual Im Jeong-suk.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Yes. You did something wrong. Do you know why I’m like this?”

“No. I don’t know, no matter how much I think about it.”

“Are you really going to do this? What are you going to do tomorrow?”

Tae-kyung started turning toward the doctor’s office to avoid Im Jeong-suk, who was determined to speak.

“……!”

Suddenly, he flinched when he saw someone leaving the hospital and started running towards them.

“Doctor? Where are you going so suddenly?”

Nurse Im Jeong-suk asked, surprised by the sudden sprint, but Tae-kyung didn’t even answer.

“Doctor?”

He grabbed the woman’s shoulder as she was walking down the hospital front gate stairs and urgently called out to her.

“Excuse me!”