Emergency Instinct - Chapter 51

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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As expected, the colon was filled with white instead of the black shadows.

Ji-an showed the screen to the patient and explained.

“Here, do you see this? This is all stool. Because so much feces has accumulated in your intestines, the bowel has stretched and caused pain.”

“Th-then, all this that’s packed in here is…”

“Yes. It’s stool.”

The middle-aged woman’s face turned bright red like a startled newlywed.

Ji-an nodded to the nurse and said.

“Please prepare a glycerin enema.”

“An… an enema…”

The startled patient muttered quietly and then hung her head low.

“Oh, how embarrassing. What should I do. Taking an ambulance for constipation. My son will be so shocked when he comes…”

Before long, the patient squeezed her eyes shut with a grim expression, her ears turning bright red.

“It’s okay. This is common in the emergency room.”

Ji-an calmly reassured the patient.

“R-really?”

“Yes. This would have been quite painful for you. Fortunately, it’s not a surgical situation, but if you had left it longer, it might have progressed to bowel obstruction.”

“So it could have been dangerous?”

“Yes. First, we’ll soften the hardened stool to help with elimination. If necessary, we can also do a digital rectal examination (DRE) to directly check the impacted stool.”

A little later, the patient had the enema and headed to the restroom.

When she returned after a while, her face showed relief.

Fortunately, it seemed she had relieved herself comfortably.

“…Ah, I really feel like I’m alive now.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Ji-an smiled brightly.

She was also relieved. They didn’t have to go to the stage of directly checking the impacted stool.

“Today I’ll prescribe IV fluids along with bowel motility stimulants and osmotic laxatives. From now on, you need to drink lots of water and increase your fiber intake.”

The patient nodded repeatedly with a red face.

“Yes. Yes. Thank you. I really didn’t know this pain was because of stool. I’m sorry.”

“In the emergency room, the most common causes can present as the most painful. From now on, never hold in your bowel movements, and make sure to go to the restroom first.”

When Ji-an smiled after her kind explanation, the patient smiled back embarrassedly.

“Yes. I’ll keep that in mind. Phew, I’m alive thanks to you, doctor. But doctor?”

Suddenly the patient, who had regained her energy, called out to Ji-an with sparkling eyes.

“Yes. What is it? Are you uncomfortable anywhere else?”

Ji-an, who had been feeling as happy as if she were flying lately, asked with an even brighter smile.

“No, it’s not that. Do you happen to have a boyfriend?”

“…Excuse me?”

“My son is a lawyer. Even though he’s my son, he’s really upright. He’ll be here soon.”

The patient, whose pain had disappeared, suddenly grabbed Ji-an’s hand, saying she wanted to introduce her son.

“Oh, patient. I, I have a boyfriend.”

Ji-an, momentarily flustered, hurriedly spoke and turned around as if fleeing.

The nurse who had been watching the situation from the side widened her eyes, then immediately followed and whispered to Ji-an.

“Dr. Hong. Do you have a boyfriend?”

“Oh, no. I just didn’t have anything else to say to refuse.”

Ji-an, unable to tell the truth, mumbled.

Her face felt hot for no reason.

She couldn’t possibly say she was dating Chairman Seo Tae-jun.

“A boyfriend?”

But suddenly, appearing from somewhere, senior Min-su approached with perked ears.

“Hong Ji-an! You got a guy? When? How?”

“I, I’ll just go to the restroom for a moment.”

Before being caught by persistent Min-su, Ji-an quickly escaped the emergency room.

As if she had committed a crime, her heart was pounding.

Why did those words have to come out…

Boyfriend.

She never thought the day would come when she’d call Tae-jun that.

He was such an extraordinary man that she couldn’t openly reveal him.

Still, she seemed to want to at least reveal his existence.

Human greed really has no end.

How long had it been since she confessed her love, and she already wanted to brag to people around her?

Chuckling, Ji-an headed to the vending machine in the lobby.

Cooling down her burning heat, she got a drink.

That’s when she heard sounds that stopped her in her tracks.

“Is Dongsan Hospital finished now?”

“Of course it should close! Those shitty bastards should be locked up right away. Where do they get off stabbing sick patients in the back?”

People’s topic was the news flowing from the large screen in the lobby.

It was none other than news that Dongsan Hospital had been raided and searched.

On the large screen, she saw a familiar face being roughly dragged away by police while resisting.

Ji-an stood frozen, unable to move, staring intently at the screen.

The announcer’s voice flowing out grew increasingly intense.

-Chairman Park Soon-ja of Dongsan Hospital has been urgently arrested on charges of illegal drug distribution, tax evasion, and medical law violations. Investigative authorities are reported to have secured evidence that the arrested Park sold drugs to some patients at prices much higher than normal distribution costs. In particular, records of patients who complained of severe pain and adverse reactions after receiving these drugs are also being confirmed, raising the possibility that the actual scale of damage could be even larger. Police are reviewing the scope of charges based on materials secured through raids and searches, and plan to confirm the damage through key personnel soon.

The poison accumulated in the intestines would be much cleaner.

People’s criticism was not exaggerated at all.

There wasn’t just one or two suspected charges. How could such dirty business continue in a hospital that should treat sick patients?

As she stood frozen like that for a while, her phone rang in her gown pocket.

It was Tae-jun.

With trembling eyes, Ji-an put the phone to her ear.

-Ji-an…

“Is Dongsan Hospital on the news right now… did you do this?”

-It’s their own doing.

He didn’t deny it.

Ji-an’s heart sank as she quickly asked.

“You didn’t do anything illegal, did you?”

-I didn’t need to lift a finger. Dongsan Hospital was already on the verge of collapse from poor management. I just moved up the timing.

He was firm without the slightest wavering.

Thank goodness. Ji-an didn’t want him doing dangerous things because of her.

-If you feel even a bit of pity because of blood relations, erase it completely. It’s not your fault.

Pity…

Strangely, she didn’t feel such soft emotions.

Rather, she felt refreshed.

Every time she saw that nasty grandmother, she had resented the unfair world where bad people lived better.

But she didn’t know why her chest felt so stuffy.

Ji-an took a deep breath and asked.

“What happens now?”

-She committed crimes, so she’ll pay for them.

He spoke matter-of-factly.

-I told you I’d protect you.

He had told her to trust only him, and he had put heavy shackles on grandmother’s wrists. Perhaps his way of protecting her was quick attack rather than defense.

She had expected Tae-jun would do something.

She just didn’t know he would have grandmother arrested overnight like this.

-Park Soon-ja. It’s over now.

He spoke once more as if confirming it was over.

-She’ll never be able to come near us again.

At that moment, the Dongsan Hospital building appeared on the news screen. Following that, scenes of the search and seizure showed the hospital director’s office that Father had used long ago.

Only then did Ji-an realize the reason for this inexplicable uncomfortable feeling.

It wasn’t Grandmother, but Dongsan Hospital.

What would happen to the hospital now? Recovery would be difficult.

She wanted to ask him, but Ji-an couldn’t bring herself to speak.

More than anyone, she had wanted Grandmother to be punished. But when she thought that Dongsan Hospital was also finished, she couldn’t feel completely satisfied.

Dongsan Hospital was a place that contained Father’s entire life, and for Ji-an, it was also a place filled with memories of her dad.

In her childhood, she would often go to the hospital holding Mother’s hand to meet Father.

Though many things had changed over the years, traces of Father still remained throughout the hospital.

Like the picture frames in the hospital director’s office she had glimpsed on the news screen, or the blue pine tree standing guard in front of the hospital. The cozy wooden bench beneath it where she would sit whenever things got difficult…

Wasn’t this too sudden?

Thinking that even her memories with Father would disappear, her chest kept growing hot.

It was natural that Tae-jun didn’t know well what Dongsan Hospital meant to her…

Still, if it was such a big matter. He could have at least given her a hint beforehand so she could prepare herself mentally.

Even knowing it wasn’t his fault, Ji-an felt disappointed and regretful.

-Ji-an, you can’t waver. You know that, right?

Perhaps thinking her quietness was because of Grandmother, he reminded her once more.

Ji-an nodded bitterly.

“…Yes. I know.”

Just then, her pager rang, and Ji-an ended the call appropriately.

But her mind remained complicated as she walked toward the emergency room.

At the same time, Cha Bo-kyung stood in the lobby, glaring at Ji-an’s retreating figure as she headed to the emergency room.

She ground her teeth with blazing eyes.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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