Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 85

85. Rape Victim

His gaze, which had been moving across the results on the monitor, stopped at one place.

“……!”

An unexpected result caught Tae-kyung’s attention.

“This HCG [Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, a hormone indicating pregnancy] level is too high.”

The urine test, which is closely related to pregnancy, showed a very high HCG level. Tae-kyung, feeling puzzled, immediately headed to the patient.

*Rustle*

As he closed the curtain and stepped inside the bedside, the patient looked at Tae-kyung as if she had been waiting.

“The blood test results are out, and there’s nothing particularly unusual.”

“Then why does my stomach hurt like this? I’m so uncomfortable.”

The patient continued to emphasize her condition.

“I really hate hospitals. But it’s so uncomfortable that I came to the emergency room. Why else would I come here on my own accord?”

“Of course, just because the test results are normal doesn’t mean you’re not experiencing real symptoms or that the pain is meaningless. The most important thing is what you’re feeling.”

“Exactly. That’s exactly what I mean.”

“I understand that. However, I have one question.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Are you pregnant?”

“What?! Pregnant?”

At the word ‘pregnant,’ the patient, who had been lying on the bed, was startled and reacted strongly.

“What are you talking about? I haven’t had any sexual relations, so how could I be pregnant? Do you know how embarrassing that question is for me?”

“One of the tests you took earlier showed a high level related to pregnancy.”

“That’s impossible. You’re not lying to me, are you?”

The patient strongly denied Tae-kyung’s words, as if she couldn’t believe them.

“I wouldn’t give you false test results. Let’s do an ultrasound to be sure. Please call Doctor Jung.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“No!”

As Nurse Im Jung-sook was about to leave, the patient grabbed the curtain and stopped her.

“You don’t have to do it. There’s no way I’m pregnant.”

“Excuse me, patient…….”

“No, I’m not stupid. How could I not know if I was pregnant? Huh? Have you ever seen someone like that? And I’m very sensitive to my body. How could I not know if I was pregnant?”

Tae-kyung and Nurse Im Jung-sook were slightly taken aback by the patient’s strong denial.

“Above all, I haven’t had any sexual relations. I’m telling you, I haven’t.”

The patient was not just denying it, but almost declaring it as a certainty. However, as medical professionals, they needed to confirm whether she was pregnant.

The tests that can and cannot be done during pregnancy, and the choice of medications, are vastly different.

The problem was that the patient was refusing the ultrasound.

“We can call a female doctor for you. So…….”

“No, I won’t. I won’t do that ultrasound thing.”

After a considerable amount of time, the two tried their best to persuade her, but they couldn’t achieve any results and came out of the curtain.

“What should we do, Doctor?”

“Since the patient is currently adamant, we’ll have to observe and try to persuade her again. I’ll look for a solution too.”

“Excuse me……?”

As Tae-kyung and Nurse Im Jung-sook were talking and heading to the station, someone grabbed Tae-kyung’s gown.

“Doctor?”

It was her mother, who had been silently listening to her daughter’s conversation with the two of them from inside the bed.

“Yes, guardian.”

“That’s…….”

“Do you have something to tell me?”

“Yes. I have something to tell you.”

At Tae-kyung’s words, the patient’s mother raised a hand to cover her mouth and spoke quietly.

“I’m afraid my daughter might hear.”

The guardian spoke so softly that it was almost a whisper. Nevertheless, the guardian turned her head to look at the bed where her daughter was and whispered again.

“Can we talk somewhere else for a moment?”

“Of course. Come this way. Nurse Im, please keep an eye on the patient.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

Sensing something from the guardian’s words, Tae-kyung led her to his office.

“You can speak comfortably here.”

“Yes, I don’t think my daughter will hear us.”

“Would you like to tell me now?”

“Ha! That’s…… well. Hah!”

Even though they had come to the office, which was far from the emergency room, the guardian seemed quite cautious. She wrung her hands into fists, then clasped them together, twisting and fidgeting.

“Guardian, please sit here for a moment.”

Tae-kyung sat the guardian down on a chair and handed her a paper cup filled with water from the water purifier.

“It’s warm water. Take a sip and speak comfortably.”

“Thank you.”

The guardian gulped down the warm water in the paper cup in one go. And as if she was ready, she cautiously revealed the secret she had been so careful about.

“Doctor. Actually, my daughter experienced something terrible about two months ago.”

“Something terrible?”

“Yes…….”

“May I ask what happened?”

“She was a victim of sexual assault.”

The woman who had stubbornly refused the ultrasound and strongly insisted that she couldn’t be pregnant was a rape victim.

“Ah…….”

Tae-kyung, at a loss for words of comfort, paused for a moment, feeling a bit puzzled.

“But guardian? Earlier, the patient clearly said she had never had any relations.”

“That’s because the incident was so painful for my daughter that she couldn’t even remember the fact itself. Honestly, I didn’t want to remind her since there was no point in remembering it.”

Now everything seemed to make sense.

‘Dissociative amnesia [a memory disorder characterized by sudden retrograde autobiographical memory loss, said to occur for a period of time ranging from hours to years].’

Forgetting a part of one’s memory due to trauma, extreme stress, or shock is called dissociative amnesia.

‘Ha! My heart aches.’

He had seen a patient before who had completely forgotten only the painful parts.

That patient had also received such a severe wound that she couldn’t function in her daily life and couldn’t remember that incident at all.

The human heart is both strong and weak.

Tae-kyung had thought similarly before.

Perhaps this happened to protect oneself from a too great emotional wound.

“Guardian, would you like another cup of warm water?”

“No. I’m fine.”

“So, it’s still uncertain whether she will give birth to the child.”

“Yes, I never imagined she could be pregnant. No, it’s more accurate to say I couldn’t know.”

“Did you not go to the hospital after that?”

Tae-kyung, feeling how devastated and difficult the guardian must be, carefully continued the questions. But he doubted his ears at the guardian’s next words.

“……No. Not once.”

“Then you didn’t go to the police station either?”

“No…….”

What on earth was this all about?

“Why! Why didn’t you?”

Tae-kyung’s voice involuntarily rose. No, it couldn’t help but rise.

“Of course, you should have gone to both.”

“If we went to the hospital or investigated, my daughter would have to recall what she had lost. And above all…… above all, I was afraid of rumors.”

“What are you talking about right now? Huh!?”

“I didn’t want to reveal our family’s shame to the outside world.”

To a third party, the guardian’s words would sound absurd. But there were cases where people reacted like this when they actually experienced such things.

Like Koreans who quickly get up even when they fall badly and bleed, afraid of being seen by others, he thought this could happen.

But even so, this was not right. It was definitely not the right way. Especially since she was a rape victim.

‘This can’t be happening.’

As a medical professional, as a doctor who had to care for the patient, he couldn’t condone this.

“Mother!”

Tae-kyung changed his address to ‘Mother’ for the guardian.

“I understand why you did that, but it’s definitely not a good way.”

“I know…… I know.”

“You must protect the rights that have been violated. Those who sleep on their rights will not be protected. As a medical professional, I cannot condone this fact.”

“…….”

“After talking with you, I will report it to the police. I will ask for a female police officer to come. Please understand that I cannot legally condone this as a doctor.”

“No.”

The patient’s mother gradually teared up.

She and her family knew that her decision at the time was wrong. However, she was too afraid of Pandora’s box [a source of great and unexpected troubles] to open it.

“I’ve been agonizing over whether I should report it or not. Listening to you, I think I was foolish as a mother. Please do as you see fit.”

As if she were a sinner, the guardian hung her head.

“But I hope my daughter…… won’t be hurt any more. My daughter…….”

The patient’s mother couldn’t finish her words and burst into tears that she had been holding back.

The sound of her crying was so desperate.

“Sob!”

Not only the person who was the victim of the crime, but also the parents’ hearts would have been torn to pieces. Perhaps even the expression ‘torn to pieces’ was not enough.

It was impossible to even imagine.

Tae-kyung quietly waited for the crying to stop and handed the patient’s mother a tissue.

“Then what should I do now?”

The patient’s mother, who had regained some composure, wiped away her tears and looked up.

“Stay by your daughter’s side. It will be a long journey. And if there is a stage, a wound, or something that doesn’t seem right, don’t hesitate to contact our hospital. Look for Director Kim Tae-kyung. I will help you as much as I can.”

“Thank you so much for caring so much.”

“And these days, the government also has a dedicated department called the Sunflower Center [a support center for victims of sexual assault] for crime victims. When the police officer arrives, you will be moving there together.”

* * *

“Patient.”

After finishing the conversation with the guardian, Tae-kyung returned to the bed where the patient was.

“Doctor, haven’t you found the cause of my stomach pain yet?”

The patient, who had been waiting for Tae-kyung, asked anxiously.

The patient’s expression, still not remembering anything, weighed heavily on Tae-kyung’s heart.

The weight of the truth that the patient had to face was so great that even anger rose up.

If it were something he could directly help with, like treatment or surgery, he would have helped the patient without hesitation. But currently, the patient needed the help of the Sunflower Center more than this place, so he couldn’t help it.

“To find out more accurately about your continued stomach pain, I would like to help you transfer to a medical institution that can confirm it. Would that be okay?”

“Does transfer mean moving to another hospital?”

“Yes, if you go to the transfer, the medical staff there can help you.”

“Okay. I came out determined to find out the cause anyway, so I’ll go. That’s good.”

He wondered how he would persuade her if she refused, but fortunately, the patient accepted the transfer.

“And I’m sorry for raising my voice and getting annoyed earlier. I was just so sensitive because my stomach kept feeling uneasy.”

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

After a brief conversation with the patient, Tae-kyung received a call that the police had arrived and headed to the reception desk.

A female police officer visited the hospital with a colleague.

“Hello. Doctor. I’m Police Officer Lee Jung-hee from the OO Police Station, who came after receiving your call.”

“I’m Kim Tae-kyung, the person in charge of our hospital. I’ll explain the current situation.”

Tae-kyung explained the patient’s current condition to the two police officers as a doctor.

“Officer Lee, may I ask you one thing?”

“Of course, please tell me.”

“As I explained earlier, the patient has no memory of that part. So, please take that into consideration during the investigation process.”

“Yes, I will do my best to protect the victim.”

* * *

“Mother, I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

Tae-kyung greeted the guardian in the hospital parking lot.

“What are you talking about? You solved the problem that I had been carrying for months. There is no greater help than this.”

“But the patient got into the police car without any resistance. Is that okay?”

Tae-kyung recalled the patient’s appearance as she naturally got into the police car a little while ago. The patient got into the car without any fuss, making his worries about how to get her into the police car seem pointless.

“I made up a good excuse. I told her that the doctor recommended a hospital and that I requested a safe ride home service from the police officers because it was early morning.”

“You did well. And it will be difficult, but please hold on tight for the sake of the patient.”

“Of course. She’s my daughter. And she asked me to tell you that she appreciates your concern. Thank you so much, Doctor.”

The guardian bowed politely and sat next to the patient.

Tae-kyung stood there for a long time, feeling a sense of numbness, until the police car carrying the mother and daughter disappeared from sight.