You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 235

You Have Been Defended – Episode 235

It was just another monotonous day in 2011, back in my previous life.

“How can I help you?”

I’d been catching some sleep on the cot in the prosecutor’s office, having stayed up all night for a trial that morning.

As I groggily opened my eyes at Section Chief Oh’s question, a familiar voice answered.

“I’m here to see Prosecutor Cha Ju-han… Is he in?”

“What’s this regarding?”

“Ah, it’s a personal matter…”

“Do you have an appointment?”

As the conversation between Section Chief Oh and the visitor continued, the other person’s voice became clearer.

“Yang Dong-jin?”

Wiping my disheveled face, I went out to see Dong-jin setting down a box of Bacchus energy drinks, smiling sheepishly. [Bacchus is a popular South Korean energy drink.]

He’d been so busy that we had to schedule time far in advance to see each other, so this was unexpected.

“Section Chief, do you have a moment?”

With as many as ten or more suspects coming and going each day, I checked the time before scrutinizing Dong-jin, who looked noticeably haggard.

Dong-jin, standing awkwardly next to me, seemed remarkably apologetic.

“I think I have about 30 minutes.”

“Okay, I understand.”

I made Dong-jin some coffee and sat down facing him.

I suspected something was up.

As I noticed right away, he was noticeably thinner.

Both Dong-jin and I had been too busy to meet for a while.

We had only checked on each other’s well-being with a New Year’s phone call, so I was glad to see Dong-jin, but also worried.

However, Dong-jin didn’t start talking right away.

“What brings you here without notice?”

“I called a few times, but you didn’t answer. So, I came, but… did I come at a bad time?”

“That’s not what I meant, man. I was catching some sleep. I stayed up all night yesterday. That’s probably why I didn’t get the calls.”

I said, pointing to the pile of documents stacked high on my desk.

“How’s your wife doing?”

“Of course, she’s doing well. Except for the dark circles from not being able to sleep because of the baby. Haha… But, you look tired, and I came on a busy day. I should have called before coming.”

Dong-jin was more cautious of me than I had ever seen him before.

Seeing him repeat the words ‘I shouldn’t have come’ and ‘I shouldn’t have bothered you’ several times, I could tell that he had been contemplating coming to see me for a long time.

“What’s going on?”

“No, it’s not really anything…”

“Still, something’s up, isn’t it?”

“…Well, yes. It might be a long story.”

“Don’t worry and just tell me.”

Only after I urged him a few times, did Dong-jin open his mouth with difficulty.

“You know about that case, right? The one where the second son of Hanyoung Group died at our hospital.”

“Ah, I saw it in the news. I’ve been too busy to look into it in detail… Wasn’t it a case where the head doctor’s patient was operated on by another doctor while the head doctor was away, because they were greedy to get a VIP patient, and it went wrong?”

Dong-jin was silent for a moment at my answer.

Then, he slowly nodded and replied.

“That’s right. Well, if you knew, you would have contacted me. It happened in our department.”

At the time, I was out of my mind.

After my father’s funeral, I was busy digging into the Myunghwa Pharmaceutical case whenever I wasn’t working.

I went around collecting anecdotes related to Myunghwa Pharmaceutical, and naturally learned that Go Sang-joon had launched Antrozole Alpha just to inflate the size of his son’s affiliate because his 자존심 (jajonsim, self-esteem) was hurt.

That was when I decided to take down Wooshin Group at the beginning of the year.

From then on, I was madly focused on work.

I, who had no interest in promotion, became obsessed with achieving noticeable results and clung to unsolved cases.

It was because I thought I had to climb higher to catch Wooshin.

That’s why I didn’t have time to contact Dong-jin.

“Your department? Then, are you involved?”

“Actually…”

“…Actually?”

“I was the surgeon.”

“What?”

I was speechless.

Even when I found out that the incident had occurred at Myungdae Hospital, I never thought that Dong-jin would be involved.

It was so unlikely that Dong-jin would be greedy to get a VIP and perform surgery without the head doctor’s permission.

“What are you talking about? There’s no way you would have done that. What went wrong?”

I didn’t know the details of the case, but it had already been more than three months since it happened.

I knew that it had already been sent to the Central District Prosecutor’s Office.

This meant that there were suspicions against Dong-jin, the surgeon.

But why?

“…Yes, something went wrong. So, Ju-han, please help me. 응 (eung, please)?”

“Tell me more. What happened? Is it the same as what the media said?”

“No. It’s not that I went in without the head doctor’s permission, but the head doctor forced me to do the surgery as a substitute. He wasn’t confident because it was a difficult surgery. So, I reluctantly went into surgery instead of the head doctor.”

“And?”

“…The surgery didn’t go well. So, the patient died. Then, the head doctor suddenly changed his attitude and said that he didn’t do the surgery, that I did it, and made a fuss…”

Generally, substitute surgery is treated as if the doctor listed as the surgeon in the surgical agreement performed the surgery.

In other words, even if Dong-jin performed the surgery, it would be announced externally that the head doctor performed it.

Listening to Dong-jin, it seemed that in this case, the head doctor had been scheming to avoid responsibility when the surgery went wrong.

He put Dong-jin forward, saying, ‘You were the one who performed the surgery anyway.’

Moreover, just doing substitute surgery is a big problem, so it seemed that he was falsely claiming that Dong-jin had entered the surgery on his own, rather than being forced to do substitute surgery.

“Why are you telling me this now?”

“…”

“If I had known sooner, I would have said something before it was sent over. Why are you telling me this now!”

“How could I tell you! You’re having a hard time right now. How could I shamelessly ask you for a favor! And… how could I make things difficult for you too…”

Dong-jin covered his face with both hands and bowed his head.

I sighed.

I was bothered by the fact that he hadn’t come to me because he knew best that I was having a hard time after my father passed away and my mother was sick.

“What does the lawyer say?”

“He said there’s no way to prove the head doctor’s lies, and even if I was forced or not, if I really did substitute surgery, it’s a violation of the Medical Service Act, so let’s just go with reducing the sentence…”

“Even if both are violations of the Medical Service Act, the cases are different, but he said to just go with reducing the sentence?”

“So… that’s why I came to you. It seems like there’s really no way.”

“Is there no evidence that the head doctor forced you to do substitute surgery?”

Dong-jin nodded helplessly.

If he is indicted as is, the head doctor will slip away like a 미꾸라지 (mikkuraji, loach – a type of fish known for being slippery), and Dong-jin alone will become the doctor who performed the surgery without consent, taking advantage of the head doctor’s absence.

And since the deceased patient is the second son of Hanyoung Group, the pressure they will exert from all directions will not be small.

His career as a doctor would be over, and he would bear great legal responsibility.

Dong-jin should only be punished for what he did wrong, for doing substitute surgery, even though he was forced to do so.

“What’s the name of the prosecutor in charge?”

“…Shin Eun-hye.”

“Okay, I’ll look into it. Are you free tonight?”

“…Yes, I am.”

“Then I’ll contact you tonight. Let’s meet then, or talk on the phone.”

“Thank you, Ju-han. And I’m sorry…”

“Don’t say that. Go in for now. See you later.”

I thought I shouldn’t keep Dong-jin, who was in bad shape, for too long, so I sent him back first.

Then, I looked up a little about Prosecutor Shin Eun-hye, who was in charge of Dong-jin’s case.

The case was assigned to Criminal Division 2, and she was also a prosecutor in Criminal Division 2.

She was two classes above me in the Judicial Research and Training Institute.

It seemed that she was a classmate of Prosecutor Lee Ye-jin.

I confirmed that Lee Ye-jin was in the prosecutor’s office and went to see her right away.

“Shin Pro? I know her, she’s my classmate. But why?”

“There’s a case that Prosecutor Shin is in charge of that I want to check.”

“Cha Pro is doing something he doesn’t usually do? Hmm… Is it urgent?”

At my words, Lee Ye-jin’s expression hardened slightly.

“Yes.”

“Hmm, but I don’t really want to recommend it. Shin Pro’s personality, she doesn’t like that kind of thing.”

“…But I have no choice.”

“What case is it?”

“It’s the Myungdae Hospital Medical Service Act violation case.”

“The Hanyoung Group’s second son case?”

“Yes.”

“Why, is someone Cha Pro knows involved?”

“…Yes.”

“Ah, then let’s go together. I’ll put in a good word.”

Lee Ye-jin called Shin Eun-hye on the spot, and she replied that she would have some time before the end of lunch.

Before going to meet Shin Eun-hye, I told Lee Ye-jin about Dong-jin’s situation, who was curious about the situation.

She had been watching the case closely since it first happened.

She said that it was too different from the known facts and asked several times if Dong-jin was lying.

But I shook my head firmly.

I had known Dong-jin since we were illiterate children. [A Korean expression meaning since they were very young.]

Even though we had become distant because we were busy with our lives, we were like family.

Dong-jin and I were always together.

We studied together, played together, and did bad things together.

I didn’t have the ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood, but I could say it firmly.

There was no way Dong-jin would have done that.

“…Um, that case will probably be indicted?”

And, Shin Eun-hye, whom I met in that way, answered as soon as I brought up how the Myungdae Hospital Medical Service Act violation case was progressing.

“It’s too clear. There are three witnesses who saw the suspect knowing that the original surgeon was absent and insisting on performing the surgery himself. And there are circumstances that the suspect would have been desperate to get a VIP because he was about to be demoted to a branch… There is no evidence to support the suspect’s claims.”

“…I see.”

There was nothing more to say here.

Asking her to look into it in more detail, or saying that Dong-jin would not have done that, could eventually be felt like a favor.

“But why is Prosecutor Cha so urgently checking on this case?”

“It seems that Cha Pro was looking into a similar case. It’s something that needs to be checked quickly. Right?”

Lee Ye-jin interjected, and I nodded slowly.

I was also in a desperate mood, so I didn’t feel like adding anything.

“I’ll be going now. Thank you for your time, Prosecutor Shin.”

“Yes. Goodbye.”

And that day, I was able to meet Dong-jin and hear more details.

Dong-jin said that the head doctor seemed to have bought off the witnesses.

In addition, the son of the hospital director, who was competing with Dong-jin, was also hoping for Dong-jin’s downfall and adding to the story.

I told him to look for a way to prove that the head doctor had forced Dong-jin to do substitute surgery.

After a few days, Dong-jin was indicted.

Of course, nothing had progressed in the meantime.

That was even more so because I was not in a position to take action in earnest.

But the problem was not only that.

“Cha Pro, come see me for a moment.”

Hwang Young-chan, with a rather dark expression, came to the prosecutor’s office.

He seemed angry with me.

“What’s going on?”

Hwang Young-chan, who came inside, closed the door and carefully lowered the blinds, shouted at me in a slightly angry voice.

“Cha Pro, what the hell are you doing!”