Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 125

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 125.
Park In-suk, the mother of Deputy Director Gu Hui-jeong,
was breathing with the aid of oxygen being supplied by Korea University Hospital.
Clean oxygen flowed ceaselessly from the transparent tube inserted into her nostrils.
Because Park In-suk adamantly refused, she’d spent barely a day in Ward 77 before being transferred to a general ward today.
Park In-suk had declined special treatment, saying she couldn’t impose on her daughter’s workplace, and it seemed this wasn’t her first admission to a general ward.
“The ward seems cleaner than before. You matched the tone well. Hmm, this cabinet is a bit lacking. Did the unit cost not work out?”
She who had once run a furniture company surveyed the single private room as she spoke.
Mother was right.
The cabinet required a tremendous quantity to match the number of beds at Korea University Hospital,
and if they’d purchased from a small company that went under, repairs would be extremely difficult down the line. If supply ran out, it would be a disaster.
So even though the design was somewhat lacking, they’d purchased based on unit cost alignment.
‘She’s sharp. Mother’s still the same.’
Gu Hui-jeong thought as she listened to Park In-suk’s words. Seeing her like this, she seemed little different from when she was younger.
No—while the shell had weathered with age, the core seemed only to have grown deeper and more solid.
“Yes, we did a complete renovation. The response has been great. The publicity worked out well too.”
Hui-jeong boasted of the newly redesigned private room in response to Park In-suk’s comment. It had been Hui-jeong who’d planned this initially. At first, nobody knew about the renovation, but when the private room appeared in the background of Korea University Hospital’s promotional video, reservation rates skyrocketed.
What was that beautiful patient’s name? It was a video about performing a heart transplant on her, a woman with a terminal diagnosis.
“Is that so. You did well.”
“Never mind about that. Think about me instead. How’s your breathing? Has it improved?”
Gu Hui-jeong spoke with deliberate exasperation.
“Much better after the injection. They said I could even go home.”
Park In-suk, who’d received the Diuretic yesterday, had urinated two liters over twenty-four hours. She’d lost two kilograms of weight in a single day.
As the excess fluid that had pooled in her body drained, so too did the fluid that had filled her lungs and accumulated in her heart.
“Not yet, they say. Professor Kang said she needs to monitor my progress.”
“That professor has a good disposition.”
Park In-suk changed the subject in response to her daughter’s nagging.
Her original attending physician, Professor Han Seung-woo from the Department of Cardiology, had been forced out, which meant she’d needed to be assigned a new attending physician.
Thanks to Im Sung-hyuk specifically requesting a cardiology consultation from Kang Se-ra, she had become Park In-suk’s new attending.
And Kang Se-ra, befitting a young professor, was treating Park In-suk with dedication and enthusiasm.
‘Kang Se-ra? I know who she is. She worked under Professor Han Seung-woo, didn’t she? Isn’t she an assistant professor who’s only recently been appointed?’
When Im Sung-hyuk pointed her out, Hui-jeong found her unreliable.
‘Professor Kang Se-ra has been doing most of the practical work in the Department of Cardiology. So she’s probably the one at Korea University Hospital who knows your condition best.’
But because it was Im Sung-hyuk and not someone else, Hui-jeong heeded his words. He was absolutely not the type to joke with a patient. She was sure he wouldn’t have done so with anyone, not just her mother.
Knock, knock.
“Hello, ma’am. Did you sleep well last night? I heard you went to the bathroom quite a bit overnight? Oh, Deputy Director, you’re here too.”
Just then, Kang Se-ra entered the room with a knock. She was no aristocrat.
“Since you had to go to the bathroom so many times overnight, you really needed a caregiver with you.”
“I see. I intentionally timed the Diuretic for the morning so the effect would be stronger, but it seems it lasted longer than expected.”
When Hui-jeong offered a reproach, Park In-suk stopped her.
“It’s fine. I’m breathing much easier than yesterday. That’s enough.”
“Ah! I actually came back from reviewing the X-ray from this morning, and a lot of the fluid in your lungs has cleared up. You remember, don’t you? Years ago you came to the ICU with similar symptoms? You’re in as good a condition as when you were discharged back then.”
Kang Se-ra was thoroughly familiar with Park In-suk’s treatment from long ago.
Several years prior, Park In-suk had also come to the Emergency Room with shortness of breath, and the commonly used Diuretics hadn’t worked well for her. It had been severe enough to require a Ventilator.
“Thank you. You’ve worked hard.”
Even though it was her own body being treated, the former CEO Park In-suk encouraged Kang Se-ra as if she were a subordinate.
“What? No. You’re the one who’s suffered. And looking at the fluid in your lungs, your cardiac function seems to have declined. We should do an ultrasound as well. I noticed you haven’t had an echocardiogram in over a year?”
Kang Se-ra was somewhat taken aback, but she maintained her composure and announced the treatment plan going forward.
Having taken care of all of Han Seung-woo’s groundwork, she’d grown meticulous, and after becoming a professor, she was shining—and it showed in how she treated Park In-suk.
“That’s true. I forgot it was supposed to be done once a year.”
Patients with cardiac disease are covered by insurance for an annual echocardiogram. She’d been diligent about getting the test done every year, but it seemed she’d missed this one.
‘An oversight? Could it be because Professor Han Seung-woo suddenly resigned?’
Hui-jeong didn’t take Kang Se-ra’s words at face value and thought critically. After all, she couldn’t let treatment be disrupted for her mother or any other patient.
Han Seung-woo might have done a sloppy handoff before leaving, or Kang Se-ra might have dropped the ball.
But at Kang Se-ra’s next words, Hui-jeong couldn’t help but be startled.
“You had an appointment last month. Why didn’t you come? Haven’t you run out of medication?”
Hui-jeong traced back through her recent schedule.
‘Was there an appointment last month?’
She scrolled through her phone and found a text from Korea University Hospital.
[Korea University Hospital, Department of Cardiology]
Hello, this is an appointment notification for caregiver of patient Park In-suk. Please arrive at your scheduled time. Thank you.
Good grief. She’d been preoccupied with the chairman and Director Choi, and she’d neglected to look after her mother.
“I had some extra, so I took those, but recently I haven’t been able to. It’s been two weeks now.”
“Ah, that’s probably why your cardiac function declined. The medication that was helping came to an end.”
Park In-suk’s words made Kang Se-ra gasp in surprise.
“You understand you need to take your medication every day, don’t you, ma’am? I’ll give you a generous supply when you’re discharged, so please don’t forget to take it next time. If it’s difficult for you to come to the hospital, the caregiver alone can come. Deputy Director comes to work every day anyway, so at least pick up the medication. Understood?”
Kang Se-ra repeatedly emphasized this to Park In-suk. She then informed her that she’d have the ultrasound done before dinner and left the room.
Hui-jeong was irritated. Her anger at herself turned toward her mother.
“Mother, you knew you had an appointment, didn’t you? Why didn’t you say anything!”
She was certain her mother hadn’t forgotten the appointment date. She’d been quiet about it because Hui-jeong hadn’t brought it up first.
To Hui-jeong’s irritation, Park In-suk spoke as if it were nothing.
“I figured you were busy.”
Even with her cardiac function declining to the point where fluid accumulated in her lungs, she hadn’t asked her daughter to take her to the hospital.
“Even if I forgot, you should have told me!”
Hui-jeong grew more irritated with her mother for being like that, but her mother’s next words left her speechless.
“…You’ve been struggling lately. I know everything.”
* * *
Beom-jun checked Park In-suk’s treatment progress through the hospital system.
– Chief Complaint: Dyspnea
The progress notes written daily read like a diary of Park In-suk’s days.
– Subjective Information:
Improvement in dyspnea. Decrease in orthopnea.
Chest pain/Dizziness (-/-)
It seemed Park In-suk had said she was finding it easier to breathe today. No chest pain or dizziness either.
– Objective Information:
(V/S) 149/97-95-30-36.5
(SpO2) 97% -O2 2L
(I/O) -2310, UO 2.000ml/day
※ Bilateral pulmonary edema improved on Chest X-ray.
Her blood pressure wasn’t bad. She’d still need more oxygen for now. Her oxygen saturation was acceptable, and it was likely due to the two liters of urine she’d passed yesterday, which meant the fluid in her body had drained.
But as Beom-jun scrolled down, he sighed. What he saw was a section with the patient’s own words quoted.
– Haven’t taken my medication for two weeks,
‘So that was it.’
In fact, in Doctor X, there was no storyline about Deputy Director Gu Hui-jeong’s mother being hospitalized in the present time rather than the past. The change in her health condition must be one of the results of Beom-jun’s intervention in the original story.
Truth was, when a professor changes, patients often stop coming for appointments. Sometimes they follow the professor to another hospital, and even if they don’t, they might not feel comfortable with the newly assigned professor at the hospital.
Professor Kang Se-ra, having only recently been appointed, must have had patients leave frequently. She might have thought nothing of Park In-suk not coming to the hospital.
Beom-jun searched for the appointment date that had been scheduled for Park In-suk.
‘It’s been a while. Good thing she had extra medication on hand.’
The appointment she should have attended was a month ago.
As Beom-jun flipped through the calendar, remembering a month back, it roughly coincided with the time when he’d eliminated Gu Hui-jeong’s hostile feelings toward him. No matter how seasoned Hui-jeong was, she must have been confused. The hospital director she’d hated terribly looked different now, and the superior she’d trusted looked different again.
In Doctor X, the Deputy Director lived with just her mother. She, who had married her work, had only her mother as family.
Perhaps his mother had noticed the emotional changes her daughter was going through. No matter her age, having watched her daughter for so long probably made her understand even better.
Looking at Park In-suk’s progress notes, Beom-jun felt heavy-hearted. He moved his mouse and clicked on the test results as well.
In just a few days, the chest X-ray had improved markedly.
The lungs that had appeared clouded in a bat-wing pattern in the Emergency Room had cleared to nearly normal.
The Diuretic used after admission had worked well.
‘To think it got better this fast. She must have suffered.’
Difficulty breathing hits hard on daily life.
If your stomach is upset, you suffer every time you eat,
and if you injure your foot, every step becomes uncomfortable.
But if you can’t breathe, every moment of being alive becomes nothing but painful.
‘Hui-jeong said she takes after her mother. Park In-suk must be a woman with keen senses and intelligence. Would she really have forgotten about her appointment?’
Yet Park In-suk had known precisely how many days she hadn’t taken her medication.
Beom-jun didn’t think Park In-suk had unknowingly missed the appointment.
‘Sigh.’
He exhaled a long breath. Beom-jun, who had raised a daughter in his previous life, was not ignorant of a parent’s heart.
Perhaps Park In-suk had known from the start that her medication had run out.
She had simply stayed silent. Thinking it was for her daughter’s sake.

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