The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 131

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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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Chapter 131

At Shin Heejoo’s mother’s words, my face unconsciously hardened.

Haneul Clinic again? What on earth is wrong with that place? Did they just expand branches without any management at all?

“Ms. Heejoo, I’ll give you acupuncture treatment now~.”

For digestive treatment, I sent Shin Heejoo to the treatment room first.

After finishing the consultation with her guardian, when it was Shin Heejoo’s turn for treatment, I asked again.

“By the way, where did you get those diet pills you mentioned taking before?”

It seemed like her relationship with her mother had improved a lot, so I didn’t want them to fight over what I might have discussed during the separate guardian consultation.

“Oh, Haneul Clinic Gangnam Main Branch! My friend got pills there, did personal training, and came back having lost a ton of weight.”

Shin Heejoo answered readily.

…Not even a branch, but the Gangnam main branch?

Director Choi Eunhee prescribed medication that caused such severe side effects?

“Was the Korean medicine doctor by any chance a middle-aged woman?”

“Oh, no. That person is the clinic director, right? My friend got treatment from her, but they said you need to make an appointment with the clinic director. I got treatment from a different doctor. A young, extremely thin female doctor.”

“I see…”

“Actually, the director didn’t seem that busy though. When I kept insisting on getting the pills, the doctor who consulted with me went out in the middle. I sneaked a look and saw her knocking on the clinic director’s office door. Then she came back with some kind of waiver, so it seemed like she consulted with her about something.”

“A waiver?”

“Oh, what it said was…”

While Shin Heejoo had kept her mouth shut or been defensive when asked about herself, she spilled details about other matters without even being asked.

Thanks to that, I was able to fully understand the situation at that time.

Not during consultations, but Hwang Sanghun also sometimes comes to ask me what would be best to do.

It seemed like when a kid who obviously shouldn’t take diet pills kept insisting, the vice director consulted with the director.

Click.

After a long time, I went to the Haneul Clinic website and clicked on the Gangnam main branch.

Clinic Director Choi Eunhee’s credentials were listed extensively, and three vice directors were briefly introduced.

All the vice directors had changed except for one.

There was also a very small note saying that appointments were required for consultations with the clinic director.

Was the plan to get people to come first and then have them see the vice directors?

‘Marketing only promotes the director, then redirects patients to vice directors…’

A system completely opposite to mine.

I deliberately named the rooms ‘Doctor 1 Office’ and ‘Doctor 2 Office’ instead of ‘Clinic Director’s Office’ and ‘Vice Director’s Office’ to keep who the director was unclear. And I gave the Doctor 1 office to Hwang Sanghun.

I tell people if they ask, but if it says ‘Vice Director’s Office,’ even people who weren’t thinking about it might assume the director would be better, right?

Well, the system is a choice.

But going out during a consultation to ask and the waiver saying they couldn’t take responsibility was a bit shocking.

This must mean Director Choi Eunhee instructed them to do this.

…If Choi Eunhee had taken responsibility for the prescription herself, would she have let the side effects get that severe?

Even though dieting itself was problematic, she could have controlled the side effects to some extent.

No, thinking about it, Chu Miyoung didn’t even know what she was prescribing.

The prescribing Korean medicine doctor might not have known the composition either, just giving out prescriptions with names like Stage 1, Stage 2.

– Well then, see you again.

I was about to pick up the phone in anger, but Choi Eunhee’s voice that suddenly came to mind made me hesitate instead.

It was what Choi Eunhee had said when we met in Daegu.

I had felt like we would clash again.

‘Let’s not create anything that could be used against me.’

She’s still a senior colleague.

This was different from when that doctor who misdiagnosed shingles blamed acupuncture.

I shouldn’t get angry right away, but should inquire politely.

I calmed down and looked for an email address.

It wasn’t on the website, but there was an email listed in a paper she published a few years ago.

Let me send a polite inquiry first, and if she doesn’t read it, I’ll call the clinic and ask staff to tell her to read it.

[Do you even manage your vice directors and branches? You’re hiding prescriptions like someone’s going to copy them? It’s not even difficult to adjust dosages a little, so if you’re going to do this, why hire Korean medicine doctors? If you’re going to take responsibility, the director should do it properly, or you should respect individual doctors’ judgment…]

Ah, I’m glad I didn’t call right away.

I wrote out the entire email, then refined it with nicer words before sending.

Of course, I also included my contact information, saying she could reply or call if she had anything to say.

* * *

The call came the very next day after I sent the email.

Honestly, I didn’t really expect a proper response.

I thought she’d just say thanks for the feedback as a formality.

– Hanyewon, you’re really overflowing with passion. Must be because you’re young.

But Choi Eunhee texted me to confirm when I was available for a call, then connected the call.

And what she said was that kind of sarcasm.

What’s she talking about? In terms of actual age, I’m not that young either, you know?

– I felt really good receiving your email. I thought, ah, I had times like that too.

She’s good with irony too.

“That’s right. You had times when you were much more passionate than me. Haneul Clinic was a specialized network for treating intractable skin diseases. You personally did a lot of volunteer work too. I thought you were a wonderful person with passion and responsibility in medical practice.”

The treatment I received wasn’t anything major.

But the old Haneul Clinic used to treat intractable diseases like atopic dermatitis and psoriasis, as well as frostbite and burns that Western medicine had given up on, and even appeared on TV.

– Hehe, are you asking why I’ve become so corrupt?

Choi Eunhee chuckled softly.

“Expanding business to see more patients and earning more money is fine. But you can’t do that while harming patients’ health.”

There’s nothing wrong with expanding treatment areas to include diet or cosmetic skin care.

The same goes for expanding branches to earn more money.

I like money too. It’s natural to receive fair compensation, and I don’t think badly of marketing to meet more patients.

But this isn’t a case where I did my best but there was no effect or side effects occurred.

Prescribing medicine that you know 100% will cause side effects while only looking for ways to cover yourself is a different matter.

– Why do you think it harms their health?

“Then do diet pills help patients with anorexia?”

But Choi Eunhee was confident.

She was so confident that for a moment I wondered if she had given treatment medicine while calling it diet pills and I had gotten angry for nothing.

– If we hadn’t given her medicine, where do you think she would have gone?

But what Choi Eunhee said with a snicker was.

– She would have gone to another Korean medicine clinic, or gone to Western medicine and taken butterfly pills, right? Herbal diet medicine is still better than taking psychotropic drugs, isn’t it?

It was utterly absurd.

– Do you think I’ve only seen kids like that once or twice? They won’t listen anyway. Wherever they go, they’ll get appetite suppressants, and that’s how they’ll live. In that case, might as well make money. It’s not like I’m newly harming their health.

I hate that mindset.

The idea that since someone else will do it anyway, I might as well do it.

Whenever I saw patients who came after having unnecessary surgeries, or patients who could have been treated if they hadn’t had those procedures, rage would boil up in me.

To think I’d hear such words from someone I had deeply respected.

“Talking to her worked. Shin Heejoo is recovering. Clinic Director, you never even met the patient, so why did you arbitrarily judge and block the opportunity for treatment?”

I didn’t expect things to change immediately just because I said this, but.

– Oh my, really? That’s wonderful.

As expected, Choi Eunhee was extremely confident.

– Meeting the passionate young Doctor Han must have been that patient’s good fortune.

An assertion that I would eventually become similar to her.

“There’s no point in talking more. …Even without a written pledge, there’s no way to hold you legally responsible.”

I could hear Choi Eunhee chuckling.

“I won’t become like you. And I’ll make sure no one sets foot in places that treat patients that way.”

– Oh my. I knew you were extraordinary, but this is the first time I’ve heard such a challenge? I’ll look forward to it.

Choi Eunhee hung up with a leisurely laugh.

Talking with this person, no, even just thinking about her now made me feel disturbed.

How did she change like that? Or was she always that kind of person?

Even when she expanded her business treating incurable patients, it probably wasn’t pure sense of mission. She must have wanted to meet many patients and earn a lot of money.

‘The light and dark sides of capitalism…’

The patients who met Choi Eunhee back then must have received treatment thanks to that greed.

And now.

‘She probably thinks she hasn’t crossed the line.’

I wanted to stop it.

‘What can I do?’

If a fellow Korean medicine doctor told patients not to go somewhere and spread specific negative information, I’d probably just face backlash, right?

I had already experienced that in Daegu.

If there are problems that have been covered up, they will eventually explode from the patients’ side.

‘In the end, is expanding business the same way the only option?’

In the end, what I can do is.

For me and clinic directors with the same will to meet as many patients as possible.

And provide alternatives.

‘Next time when Heejoo has recovered sufficiently, I should ask if I can adapt her case and introduce it. The YouTube views for the Branch 4 staff are quite high. I hope even one patient stops reaching for appetite suppressants.’

* * *

The interior construction happened to start on the day the academy on the 3rd floor moved out.

We should be able to utilize the 3rd floor around the middle of next month.

I first sent a text to Lee Ahreum.

She had strongly appealed last time that she wanted to work at our clinic.

If she still felt the same way, I’d need to start with observation and prepare, and if not, I’d need to gradually post job listings to find another Korean medicine doctor.

“Ah, another hard day’s work!”

The workload was similar, but perhaps because I had thought a lot, I was particularly tired.

I left work a little earlier than usual.

‘Huh?’

But there was a pile of grass this high stacked in front of the front door.

“What is this?”

I had expanded the Oriental Medicine Clinic quite a bit, but I hadn’t changed my residence.

My home was still the same apartment building I had contracted when I first came down to Busan.

The security wasn’t very good.

The first-floor door was wide open all day long.

Still, who would pull a prank like this?

“I should clean this up first.”

I was thinking of opening my door and going in to get a bag.

But when I approached the pile of grass to enter the door code, I felt a strange energy.

“What is this?”

Is there something inside?

When I scattered the covering grass with my hand, some root revealed itself in all its majesty.

“…Did someone cover it up so no one would take it?”

It was white tuber fleeceflower.

And it wasn’t an ordinary root either.

Though faint, I could feel spiritual energy from it.

Does this grow in Busan? Who brought this, and from where?

It wasn’t something incredible like the ten-thousand-year fleeceflower, but it also wasn’t something someone would just throw here as a prank.

Who on earth…

Suddenly, the chipmunk came to mind.

“Come on. Even if it’s a spiritual creature, would a wild animal really find my home and leave this here?”

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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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